LCS: Week Nine Day Two Recap
| Tags: League of Legends
| Author Brandon Sturak
Contents
FlyQuest v Golden Guardians
Golden Guardians (“GGS”) defeated FlyQuest (“FLY”) proving they're a real contender as they move into their first playoffs ever. They played well and fully capitalized on FLY's mistakes near the end of the game. Though Santorin killed Hauntzer for First Blood, GGS rebounded quickly. Contractz ganked the bottom lane and got a kill for Deftly. Soon after GGS won a pivotal fight three-for-one around the Dragon pit, then took the First Tower bonus in the bottom lane at 17 minutes. They had a small lead but appeared to be strong.
The mid game was much slower than the early game. One team fight went one-for-one but didn't result in much and seemed to discourage both teams. The were a couple of tower and Dragon takes for each team, but there was little action until 30 minutes. At this point, GGS caught and killed JayJ and saw their opportunity. They rushed the Baron, and though they secured the objective, FLY killed all five of them. The game was right back up in the air again.
The match stalled out a little longer until the teams met at 37 minutes. They fought each other near the Baron, and while no champions fell, GGS came out ahead in terms of overall health. They started up their second Baron and pushed FLY away without a fight. FLY decided to trade the Baron for the Elder, which they did. As they retreated, Pobelter was picked off. GGS had their chance. They smashed the middle lane towers and Inhibitor, continuing to push forward. FLY attempted to push them back, but GGS came out on top with an Ace. With no one left to stop them, GGS finished off FLY's Nexus at 39 minutes.
Counter Logic Gaming v Echo Fox
Echo Fox (“FOX”) secure their playoffs spot with a fantastic victory against Counter Logic Gaming (“CLG”). They had to win against some of the best teams of the league to get in and they surpassed all expectations to do so. FOX even started off on the back foot this game, as Solo died to an invade at level one. CLG's lanes were very strong early and put a ton of pressure on FOX. FOX did find a pick onto Wiggily and Rush ganked top to keep his team in the game. PowerOfEvil displayed his lane prowess on Zoe by solo killing Fenix while his team took the First Tower bonus top. But it wouldn't prove to be enough.
Rush continued to exploit Darshan, constantly ganking and killing him. The turning point came at 17 minutes, where FOX's team fighting composition came online. They won a team fight one-for-zero and slayed an Infernal Dragon. Six minutes later FOX truly established their lead. FOX crushed a mid lane team fight three-for-zero, took their second Infernal and came out ahead three-for-two in a long, messy skirmish.
FOX killed the split pushing Darshan two more times in the next five minutes. At 32 minutes FOX forced yet another team fight, and unsurprisingly won again, this time four-for-one, which allowed them to secure the Baron. FOX swiftly pushed their lead and rampaged down the mid lane. CLG tried to mount one last defense, but FOX was too strong. Apollo, with the help of his team, slaughtered CLG. He picked himself up a Pentakill in a Fountain dive before finishing the Nexus at 35 minutes.
Cloud9 v Clutch Gaming
Cloud9 (“C9′) substituted in their Academy team and dominated Clutch Gaming (“CG”) in their last match of the regular season. They have their second place locked in and decided to test their Academy players, who certainly showed up. Blaber started it all off by ganking bottom very early and getting Keith's Jinx First Blood. C9's Academy bottom lane then turned around a CG gank, killing all three members in the two-versus-three. C9 continued to play through the bottom lane, taking a Dragon, winning a skirmish and securing the First Tower bonus all by 12 minutes.
C9 soon slayed another Dragon and a Rift Herald. The Herald helped them to destroy two middle towers after C9 found a kill onto Huni. C9 continued pushing their lead by taking another bottom tower and picking off both Piglet and Huni. With each of these picks C9 took more and more off the map. At 22 minutes C9 started the Baron with Huni's Lucian dead. CG tried to stop them, but only ended up giving up three more kills and the Baron buff.
The Baron buff grew C9's gold lead by a lot. C9 used it to quickly take the middle and bottom Inhibitors, both of which dropped without CG even trying to preserve. After a back, C9 regrouped and went to the top lane to continue the siege. This last siege lasted a while as the Baron buff expired, but Goldenglue's Lissandra managed to destroy one Nexus Tower. Eventually C9 decided to engage a last team fight. They easily killed one CG member before taking the last Inhibitor. They killed three more of their opponents before demolishing their Nexus at an impressive 29 minutes.
Team SoloMid v Team Liquid
Team SoloMid (“TSM”) asserted themselves as a serious title contender by defeating Team Liquid (“TL”) for the second time. It was an incredibly clean win for TSM, but as TL moves into playoffs, people are doubting how good they still are. TSM carved out a lead early for themselves and snowballed it efficiently. Broken Blade and Akaadian dove top at nine minutes and got First Blood for Broken Blade. This gave them a huge source of pressure moving forward. A few minutes later, Bjergsen swung the tide of a bottom lane two-versus-two and netted his team two kills.
TSM advanced their lead at every opportunity. They forced TL into an unfavorable tower trade, where TSM took two towers for one. They gained control of the neutral objectives and began starving TL of vision. TL showed a glimmer of hope at 20 minutes by winning a top lane team fight two-for-zero. It didn't last long however. Three minutes later a team fight erupted in the middle lane, where four TL members died without getting any kills. This resulted in TSM obtaining the Baron buff as well.
They promptly separated and pushed all three lanes, bringing down all the Tier Two Towers. It took them a couple more minutes but they did manage to open up the top lane Inhibitor and begin the Super Minion onslaught. TSM slayed a second Baron uncontested at 30 minutes and resumed their siege. They easily smashed the middle Inhibitor and forced TL to fight them once more. TSM obliterated four TL members while only losing one of their own. Then they sealed their victory with a final Nexus kill at 32 minutes.
OpTic Gaming v 100 Thieves
OpTic Gaming (“OPT”), despite losing their playoffs spot before, finished their season on a high with their win over 100 Thieves (“100T”). 100T utilized mostly their Academy roster with Bang but it resulted in even worse results than their main roster as OPT dominated them. A very early skirmish resulted in Crown picking up First Blood onto Fragas which started his massive snowball. Meteos ganked Soligo a few minutes after and put him even farther behind Crown. OPT kept up the pressure on the enemy jungle and mid, catching both of them out and killing them even more.
OPT slayed the Rift Herald and used it in the top lane to grab the First Tower bonus. Fragas tried to salvage the game through the bottom lane, so he ganked them and got a kill on the board for them. But due to the ganks from Meteos in the top lane as well as a good roam from Big mid, this advantage was negligible.
At 20 minutes 100T was desperate and attempted to rush the Baron. They did secure it but OPT killed four of their members in response. The teams regrouped, and met for another team fight at 22 minutes. Here OPT Ace'd 100T and furthered their lead farther again. A few minutes later OPT forced a play behind 100T's top lane tower. A team fight resulted and once again OPT emerged victorious, this time four-for-one. FakeGod had no chance to stop the rampaging OPT, so they blasted his structures, and finally his Nexus, at 26 minutes.
Tiebreaker: FlyQuest v Golden Guardians
FLY had to substitute Maxi for Santorin due to illness, but it didn't stop them from getting a win over GGS. FLY kept calm and weathered GGS's early game to win late, but the match was very even. In the bottom two-versus-two, Deftly got First Blood onto WildTurtle, giving them a huge early lead. Pobelter outplayed a mid lane dive and got a kill onto Contractz. An 11 minute team fight showed just how evenly matched the teams were, as both teams lost three players. GGS secured the First Tower bonus with the Herald and had an overall map advantage.
The game swung back and forth from here. FLY won a team fight and took two towers, then a couple minute later GGS won one and took two towers of their own. The real advantage seemed to surface at 25 minutes. Here, GGS won a team fight four-for-zero and afterwards obtained a Baron buff and Infernal Dragon. They sieged the base and destroyed the bottom Inhibitor, but FLY pushed them back with a huge team fight win.
At 32 minutes FLY clawed back the lead with a four-for-one top lane team fight victory. This allowed them to easily secure a Baron buff for themselves. They utilized it to the fullest, immediately grouping bottom and forcing a fight under GGS's towers. FLY killed three opponents with ease. GGS lost their structures quickly and couldn't stop FLY from demolishing their Nexus at 35 minutes.
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