HandOfBlood has been trying his hand at e-sports with his own team in League of Legends for some time now. One of his biggest stars is probably Tristan PowerOfEvil
Schrage. The German mid-laner has gained a lot of experience on the biggest stages, and eight years ago he even made the legend Faker sweat.
Who is PowerOfEvil? Tristan Schrage has been active in LoL e-sports since 2013 and has played in several smaller tournaments. With several teams, he achieved solid placements in various LCS playoffs during his career.
In 2017, he even made it to Worlds 2017 with the team Misfits Gaming, the then World Championship. There he faced the great legend Faker and showed that Europeans should not be underestimated. In a recent video, he reviewed the match alongside HandOfBlood.
They can bleed
What match are we talking about? In a recent YouTube video, PowerOfEvil and HandOfBlood react to the encounter between the Koreans from SK Telecom T1 and the European Misfits Gaming at Worlds 2017. The two teams faced each other in the quarter-finals. Back then, SKT1 was a big favorite, but Misfits would not be easily defeated.
In the reaction, HandOfBlood explains how strong the SKT1 team was. They not only had the legendary Faker, but with Peanut also one of the best junglers of all time. The first match did not go well for Misfits.
PowerOfEvil states they had no chance. SKT1 had strong early-game champions who could push aggressively. After 20 minutes, SKT1 had an enormous gold lead of 10,000 gold. But after this heavy defeat, the second match began.
They changed their strategy. Instead of relying on the then strong enchanter-supports, IgNar, the team’s support at the time, wanted to revert to engage-supports like Blitzcrank. To ensure that the strong support item Ardent Censer was still in the team, PowerOfEvil played Karma in the mid lane.
This change was also visible in the bot lane; Hans Sama, the ADC at the time, was already 2-0 after just 12 minutes. This was also due to IgNar landing some very strong hooks with Blitzcrank. After 26 minutes, Misfits Gaming won the game with over 10,000 gold advantage, and PowerOfEvil said: That was the moment we said to ourselves: They can bleed.
They made Faker and his team sweat
What happened next? After the second match, they were motivated. They allowed IgNar to play an engage-support (Leone) again, and this time the jungler Maxlore built Ardent Censer. In the third match, Hans Sama once again delivered a strong performance in the bot lane.
This time it took longer, but after about 40 minutes, Misfits Gaming secured their second victory. One more win, and they would have eliminated SKT1.
Even though the pressure must have been incredibly high, SKT1 struck back in the fourth match. Bang took Hans Sama’s Tristana away, and Orianna was banned.
In the reaction, PowerOfEvil explains that the match was a heartbreaker
. It was again close, but with fewer kills than before. Misfits Gaming executed beautiful team fights, especially with three tanks (Sejuani, Cho’Gath, and Alistar). At around 27 minutes, they attacked the opposing team under the tower.
However, the Trundle ultimate from the opposing top laner Huni destroyed everything. He healed up, SKT1 secured four kills without losing a single player. After that, the match became incredibly close, and Faker and his team managed to win a successful team fight and thus also the match after about 36 minutes.
Thinking differently can help against top teams
How did the encounter end? The last match was also thrilling, as one team would be eliminated after this. Misfits Gaming again opted for a team with three tanks, while SKT1 played Tristana and Jayce in the top lane again.
Faker’s team primarily played on the sidelanes and managed to secure a slight gold advantage by minute 30. In contrast, PowerOfEvil’s team had three dragons. SKT1 showed great team engages, and Blank managed to steal the elder drake from Misfits Gaming. Huni captured PowerOfEvil and Hans Sama, and the South Koreans ended the match.
Although the match had a sad ending for Misfits Gaming, PowerOfEvil states that they were proud of their performance back then. They made Faker’s team sweat and delivered a strong quarter-final. PowerOfEvil names the fourth match as the biggest frustrating moment.
This game shows that you can win against the best of the best if you try to use different approaches. Often the processes of the current meta are so optimized by the top teams that you need to utilize unconventional strategies. This was also evident in 2024: Belgian Berserker shocks the Korean champion at the WM in LoL, giving pride back to the Americans
