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[Review] Analysis of SKY vs KoR in IBL in Infinity Kingdom

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Article Publish : 07/13/2025 14:47

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💠Introduction

What’s up, folks? Welcome back to my Illusion Battlefield League(IBL) series, where I take a closer look at different matches. The IBL tournament differs from regular IB in that everyone will construct marches and skill builds using a fixed set of skills. At different stages of the tournament, more immortals and skills will become available. Everyone has access to the same immortals and the same skills. Castle skins and Lord Talents do not affect the more fast-paced battles of IBL. Relocations and marching speed are also faster. The event is one of the most entertaining events in Infinity Kingdom, and players enjoy spectating, almost like a sporting event. In this article, I’m going to take a closer look at the Week Six Point Phase match between Server 348’s Castle in the Sky(SKY) and Server 373’s Knights of Ruslan(KoR). SKY’s positions in this match will be denoted in green while KoR’s will be in red.

💠Table of Contents

Overview
Starting Positions and Talents
KoR
SKY
Tower 1
Tower 4
Central Tower
Altars
Home Towers
Play-by-Play
Summary

💠Overview

This is the first IBL season for both alliances as both of the servers they hail from are extremely young. SKY typically fields around 20 players every week and so far, they have played every week to a 3-2 record. They lost their first two matches before putting together a three-game win streak. KoR fields slightly higher numbers and has only played two matches going into this game with a 2-0 record.

💠Starting Positions and Talents

KoR

Started with 14 players and ended with 23
11 Attack talents
2 Defense talents
1 Support talents

SKY

Started with 9 players and ended with 20
9 Attack talents
0 Defense talents
0 Support talents

💠Tower 1

SKY sent two players to Tower 1 and KoR sent five. SKY needed to send at least four players if they wanted to contest it. Given that most teams give up the Central Tower in the opening minutes, SKY should have conceded Tower 1 and established positions at the Central Tower while waiting for latecomers to join. KoR’s positions were extremely organized. They had four players around the tower with no gaps or overlaps. One relocated to the east side of the tower into SKY’s territory. Theoretically, SKY should be able to destroy the relocation.

💠Tower 4

SKY sent three players to Tower 4 and KoR sent six. Unfortunately for SKY, they only had one edge spawn they could leverage to block relocations. They attempted to block one relocation, but they could have waited a second and seen where KoR relocated to so they could block two or more. KoR positioned too far to the right of the tower when they could have established firm control of the west and south sides. SKY should be able to block one and destroy another to bring the numbers closer to even.

💠Central Tower

Both teams decided to concede the Central Tower in the opening minutes. In a match where there are so few players, the decision is fine since early control and points are so much more important.

💠Altars

SKY didn’t send anyone to either altar while KoR relocated one to each.

💠Home Towers

SKY stationed three guards at their home tower and KoR had one at theirs. I dislike SKY’s decision. When they are already down five players from the get-go, they can’t afford to place three players at a tower that won’t see any potential action or thieves until seven minutes.

💠Play-by-Play

At Tower 1, SKY landed 12 seconds earlier than one of the KoR members and could have destroyed the relocation, but he only sent two marches instead of three. In IBL, it takes three marches to destroy a no-garrison relocation. It takes two in regular IB. The SKY player didn’t garrison himself and was quickly zeroed. KoR immediately sieged the tower and captured it a couple of minutes later. KoR could have destroyed a couple of incoming SKY relocations, but they didn’t react. Regardless, KoR was winning more solo attacks than they were losing. They zeroed the remaining three enemies in the next six minutes. They could have completed the feat quicker had they mixed in some rallies with their solo attacks.

At Tower 4, KoR ended up blocking a relocation instead of the other way around. SKY’s latecomer also blocked one of their own. With more players and little regard for SKY, KoR immediately attacked the tower and captured it just as quickly as they did Tower 1. More SKY players trickled in and KoR failed to destroy any of their relocations. SKY zeroed one and then another in quick succession. They started surrounding the tower and KoR and pushed KoR back. Ten minutes in, if I was part of KoR, I would have rotated to the center where it was empty, and given up Tower 4 where they were clearly losing. Instead, KoR held their ground and staved off SKY until the tower finally fell at the 20-minute mark.

In the center, ten minutes into the match, KoR finally started moving from Tower 1. Players zeroed from Tower 4 also started moving to surround the tower. SKY made their move toward the center a few minutes later, but KoR was already halfway into capturing the tower. Two more SKY players showed up. KoR could have destroyed their relocations and then rallied the remaining enemy, but they failed to react again. Nonetheless, KoR captured the Central Tower at the 15-minute mark, giving them their fourth tower of the match and an early 12,000-point lead.

At the 22-minute mark, one SKY player teleported to KoR’s home tower that was left unguarded. He singlehandedly stole it three minutes later. KoR tried to relocate to defend it, but he blocked one and destroyed another. Two more showed up and he couldn’t recall his troops in time. Then another three appeared. KoR reclaimed the tower another three minutes later and zeroed him shortly after.

At the same time, SKY planned an attack on Tower 1. They relocated numerous players to the right and bottom sides of the tower. Because KoR was so heavily committed to the Central Tower, there were only three players guarding Tower 1. SKY kept sending reinforcements to the tower while KoR couldn’t do so quickly enough. SKY stole the tower at the 34-minute mark, giving them their third tower of the match. However, SKY was also down 29,000 points. With only three outer towers, SKY would only generate a net gain of 6,000 points every ten minutes. With only 26 minutes left in the match, they would also need the Central Tower.

SKY was able to steal Tower 2 once again, but couldn’t hold it for more than a couple of minutes. Eventually, they also lost Tower 1. They were too far behind and had too little time to make the miracle comeback.

💠Summary

KoR’s Ghost was the match MVP as they won with 100,000 points to SKY’s 67,900. One of SKY’s biggest problems is their attendance. Despite finishing with 20 players, over half of them showed up late. Had they joined the battle on time, they could have had a far better chance. Their constant attacks on KoR’s weakly defended towers show some of them know what opportunities to look for and take. KoR started out extremely strong, but they should have rotated off Tower 1 and 4 to the Central Tower sooner. They won Tower 1 and lost Tower 4 so quickly that they had time to spare before the Central Tower opened. KoR’s opening relocations were significantly better and more organized than SKY’s as well. Both teams could use lessons in blocking and destroying relocations. One of the most glaring issues I see with inexperienced teams is their lack of rallying and garrisoning. KoR moved to 3-0 while SKY dropped to 3-3.