Jesse “Simple Plan” Canning came into the Liquid Galaxy Finals with a “what ever happens, happens” mindset. In game five of the finals, he happened to hit a Teemo 3*, and then he hit a Jhin 3*.
After game three of the five-game finals, Simple Plan was sitting in fourth place. In order to sneak into the top two spots needed for a ticket to the OCENA Final, he needed to perform flawlessly in the final two games. Game four he dominated from start to finish. In game five he decided to play something a little off meta. In a lobby where every single round meant the difference in qualifying or not, The former poker pro decided to go all-in with Astro Snipers. When the cards were dealt, he hit the Teemo 3* on the turn and the Jhin 3* on the river. With all the chips in the middle, Simple Plan emerged as the Liquid Galaxy Finals champion.
Simple Plan joins Robin “Robinsongz” Sung as the first two players to qualify for the OCENA Final. After grueling eight weeks of uncertainty. Simple Plan can finally relax knowing that his Teamfight Tactics season is far from over.
“Im happy that I could qualify for the NA Finals on what has been my personal worst patch ever.” Simple Plan said. “I felt like the time I invested in the game was worth it”.
Simple Plan has been a Challenger level player since TFT came out. TFT: Galaxies looked like it was going well for Simple Plan at the start of the set. He won the very first Liquid Galaxy Qualifier way back in week one. Simple Plan was also selected to play in the Cloud 9 Nebula Invitational. He was even ranked as high as 16 on the NA leader boards. As patch 10.13 rolled around, it looked like Simple Plan had three realistic options to qualify for the OCENA Final. Patch 10.14 rolled out and Simple Plan’s path was not simple anymore.
The current patch has not been kind to Simple Plan. He went from being Challenger back down to only Master. He also lost in group stage in the Cloud 9 Invitational. And to top it off, he went from being on the inside of the top 16 players in NA who automatically qualify for the OCENA Final to being on the outside looking in. Simple Plan needed to pause and reflect on what was going wrong.
“After I lost all that LP I just took a step back, tried to watch some streams and relearn the game.” Simple Plan said. “I was making a lot of mistakes”.
Simple Plan identified those mistakes. Simple Plan said the mistakes he made were related to rolling and leveling strategies. He used to refuse to roll unless he was level eight. He also didn’t like to level aggressively either. That was until the Liquid Galaxy Finals. Simple Plan was a poker pro before playing TFT and said that in the finals, especially in games four and five, he needed to gamble.
“I was looking to play more greedy in games four and five and go for a first or eighth.” Simple Plan said. “I ended up kind of high rolling a bit which opened up a path to play for first, the importance of closing out games is under-appreciated in my opinion”.
After a dominating game four, Simple Plan was sitting in second place. This meant that he did not need to win game five. All he had to do was just outplace two of the four players who remained in contention. Those players were Marcus “M35S” Salinas, David “BooWee” Buie, and Robinsongz. In the most important game of Simple Plan’s career, he decided to play a comp that he hated.
“I ended up realizing that around half the lobby was going Cass carry and I could play Astro Snipers uncontested.” Simple Plan said. “I’m surprised I even considered it because I routinely talk about how much I hate Teemo as a unit.”
Simple Plan’s hatred for Teemo stems from his belief that Teemo is an inconsistent unit despite being a tier four carry. But after watching other high ranked players play the comp, he realized that if he could hit a Teemo 3*, he could win any lobby. In game five he did just that. At the same time he hit Teemo 3* though, everyone else hit their power spikes too. Players started to die left and right, including Simple Plan’s competition.
“I had the HP lead so I was just hoping Robin and BooWee would die because I just needed to place higher than them.” Simple Plan said. “When M35S died early I knew I had a strong chance of moving on but seeing Robin eliminate BooWee and securing both our spots at the NA Finals was a great moment.”
Robinsongz finished second in the final lobby, securing is invite to the OCENA Final. Robinsongz did not hesitate to celebrate his accomplishment.
“I was ecstatic.” Robinsongz said. “I almost popped champagne in my room on stream.”
Robinsongz, unlike Simple Plan, already had a spot at the OCENA Final practically locked up. Robinsongz has been near the top of the NA Ranked ladder for months and is currently sitting in 6th place. Despite that, Robinsongz came into the event wanting to prove something. He wanted to prove that he could perform well not only on the ranked ladder, but in a tournament setting as well. Although he admits he had luck on his side in the Finals.
“I got extremely lucky, my matchmaking RNG was actually too crazy.” Robinsongz said.
Robinsongz was on the verge of death in game five many different times. But thankfully for Robinsongz, he dodged every strong opponent the round before they hit their power spike. Although he got lucky in game five, Robinsongz said the format of the finals, which was a five game series, was perfect in weeding out the outlier performances.
“I think five games is enough to lower variance and increase skill expression.” Robinsongz said. “If it was only three games, M35S and BooWee would of moved on, and who knows, maybe they got really lucky in the first few games. Five games is actually perfect.”
Dan “Frodan” Chou, who casted the Liquid Galaxy Finals to an audience of 20,000+ viewers, said Robinsongz comeback in game five was one of the coolest things to happen in competitive TFT to date. He also mentioned that the Final event itself was a blast to watch.
“The finals were awesome, tight finish, epic moments, and great demonstrations of technical play.” Frodan said. “It had it all.”
Frodan, a popular personality in the world of strategy-based esports, has been casting TFT tournaments for a while. He said that if TFT can deliver more events like this than TFT could be around for a very long time.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if TFT ends up outlasting lots of the other free-for-all battle royale games in the future.” Frodan said. “TFT is one of the greatest strategy games ever made and it’s super accessible as a casual player and hyper-competitive player”.
Frodan mentioned that TFT still has a ways to go before those things can happen but the future is bright. For Simple Plan and Robinsongz, their futures are bright too. When it comes to preparing for the OCENA Final, both are taking different approaches.
“Im probably going to spend a lot of time watching streams and studying and not as much time playing.” Simple Plan said. “I dont have to worry about my rank at all anymore so I can use it to experiment as well.”
Robinsongz said he’s going to push the pedal to the metal.
“Practice practice practice.” Robinsongz said. “I definitely need more practice if I’m going to have a shot at winning the next tournament”.
The OCENA Final will feature the top 16 players on the North American ranked leader board, the top four players from the Oceanic ranked leader board, Simple Plan and Robinsongz who qualified through the Liquid Galaxy Qualifier, and finally the top two players from Cloud 9’s Nebula Invitational.
The semi-finals of the Cloud 9 Nebula Invitational is next stop in the road to the TFT: Galaxies Championship. For more details on that head over to Cloud9.gg.
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