LCS: Team Liquid vs FlyQuest Semifinal Recap

Game One

Team Liquid (“TL”) defeated FlyQuest (“FLY”) to open up the series. Similar to Cloud9 yesterday, TL piloted the Sona-Taric bottom lane duo to a game one victory. Impact was given First Blood at level one when FLY's bottom lane tried to invade for vision. There was little early action after this besides a trade of Infernal for Rift Herald. At 15 minutes Santorin chased down Jensen, getting a kill for Pobelter. Two minutes later TL made a great play, sending five members bottom to get a kill, the First Tower bonus and Cloud Dragon.

From here there was a bit of a stall until a team fight erupted in the middle lane. V1per Teleported behind TL and got a magnificent flank. V1per came out with a Quadra Kill and FLY killed all five TL members. They secured the Baron buff easily afterwards. FLY couldn't do too much with the buff but did take three towers. TL struck back though, winning a 28 minute team fight in the river, leading to FLY's bottom lane Inhibitor and a Nexus Tower being destroyed.

At 30 minutes FLY started up the Baron. Santorin secured the buff with a well timed Smite as his team turned for a team fight. FLY won it four-for-three and appeared to have the lead once again. The Baron ended up stalling out, and so did the game as the teams waited for yet another Baron. It spawned at 38 minutes and TL rushed it. They killed it and won the ensuing team fight three-for-one. With the death timers so long TL had enough time to rush down mid and smash FLY's base. They took the first Nexus of the series at 39 minutes.

Game Two

TL played a more conventional composition and obliterated FLY with it. Impact isn't pegged by many as a carry player, but he piloted his Jayce expertly and was a major factor for their quick win. He had immense pressure against V1per and was the biggest point of strength. Jensen secured First Blood onto V1per with Impact's help in a mid lane skirmish. In the next few minutes, TL slayed an Infernal Dragon to reinforce their snowball and a Rift Herald. The Herald was dropped top to give Impact even more turret plates and the First Tower bonus. At this point V1per was over 2000 gold behind his opponent.

FLY attempted to equalize this a bit by ganking Impact and giving the kill to the Akali, but it wasn't anywhere near enough. They couldn't stop TL as they dominated every objective, watching their middle tower and second Infernal Dragon fall to them. The FLY members tried to approach their own jungle, but TL controlled that too. They forced FLY into a team fight, where they easily won two-for-one.

TL grouped up in the middle lane and put even more pressure on FLY. At 23 minutes a team fight was started by TL, where TL killed three FLY champions. As a result, TL took a second middle tower and the Baron Nashor. They regrouped and pushed the top and middle lanes while FLY looked for a miracle opportunity. It never came. TL swiftly demolished the two Inhibitors and slaughtered multiple FLY members. They pushed on and took their second Nexus just before 24 minutes, bringing the series to an early match point.

Game Three

TL finished their clean sweep of FLY with another dominant victory in game three. Disaster struck for FLY very early on and snowballed on them quickly. The first instance of it was when Jensen solo killed Pobelter for First Blood at four minutes. Following this, there weren't any kills to push their lead further, but TL used their lanes' enormous pressures to take objectives. TL took the Rift Herald, which was used to take the First Tower bonus bot, an Infernal Dragon and two additional towers.

FLY looked paralyzed and had no response to TL's aggression. Jensen pushed the tempo with his Zoe pick, even solo killing WildTurtle under his tower. At 20 minutes FLY were desperate and tried to initiate a team fight. TL was prepared and turned it around on them, winning the engagement with an Ace.  They decided to siege the mid lane at 26 minutes and were able to take the Inhibitor after Jensen one shot Pobelter.

After taking another Infernal TL set up at the Baron with Impact in the bottom lane. Two FLY members tried to kill him by himself, but he ended up surviving and killing WildTurtle too. This gave TL a free Baron. They grouped mid and pushed into FLY's base. FLY had no chance to stop the rampaging TL and lost three members before losing their Nexus at 31 minutes.

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