Ok hear me out. I think the Deadlock comp they were trying to run was all a decoy. Let me explain.
Towards the end of Split 2, and in the beginning of Champs they were running strictly Deadlock comps which made their fans and the overall community question what they were doing. Not only that, but they completely changed their style. Throughout the year, SEN have been one of the best teams in terms of retaking. When they switched to the double senti comp, they were forced to play on site and fight for it.
Now what does this all mean? I think they were cooking up a lot more than people think with their regular comp in the background. A now deleted tweet from Boaster shows FNC scrimming against SEN where Zellsis is playing Killjoy. Up until their match against FPX, Zellsis hadn't played KJ since Stage 1 of Americas. I think the deadlock comp was a front until SEN could come up with more procedures and retake styles since that was one of their weakest areas in Stage 1.
To bolster my point, SEN is a good team. They were a great team. But no team just randomly goes back to playing a comp that they haven't "touched" in months and looks that dominant against opponents who performed great. FPX looked amazing against TH and Gen G have looked amazing all year. I think the gameplan for teams against SEN was to play against their deadlock comp. That's why they were caught off guard with SEN's "new" comp.
Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.