Showing posts with label IEM San Jose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IEM San Jose. Show all posts
Monday, December 8, 2014
Cloud 9 Take Home Intel Extreme Masters Title With Dominating Performance
Congratulations to Cloud 9 as they clinch a spot in the Intel Extreme Masters World Finals in Katowice to take place in March with a 3-0 series defeat of the Unicorns of Love in the finals of IEM San Jose!
Next up for the Intel Extreme Masters series is IEM Cologne which will take place from December 18th-21st. The ESL will also be hosting the EU Expansion Tournament bracket stage at this event.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Unicorns of Love Rout Team SoloMid to Reach IEM San Jose Finals
By Matt “It’sPure Luck” Lee
When the lineup for the Intel
Extreme Masters San Jose was originally announced some people seemed to feel
that the fans voted in Unicorns of Love simply for their name. Or maybe it was
because of the Poppy pick in a do or die games versus Millenium in the EU LCS
Spring Promotion Tournament. It simply didn’t seem to fit that a team who
recently rose up from the Challenger Series should be voted in to a tournament
as prestigious as IEM over a long time standout such as SK Gaming.
Yet in the end it was UoL who proved
all doubters wrong as they managed to 2-0 tournament favorite Team SoloMid. The
victory earns them a berth in the Intel Extreme Masters Grand Finals to take
place later today where they await the winner of Cloud 9 versus Alliance. Using
a combination of off-meta picks to catch Team SoloMid by surprise and seemingly
impeccable team fighting, Unicorns of Love looked much sharper in this set than
they did in their previous series against Lyon Gaming.
It didn’t take long for the mind
games by UoL to begin. They caught TSM unaware in the pick and ban phase of
game one by baiting Bjergsen into a Xerath pick when Twisted Fate had been
taken the previous turn by UoL. The only problem was that it wasn’t Twisted
Fate mid; it was going to Kikis in the jungle.
Power of Evil responded by last picking LeBlanc and it was a selection
that worked out brilliantly for UoL. Only three minutes into the game, Bjergsen
was caught pushed out a bit too far and we saw the first successful Twisted
Fate jungle gank off a flash plus gold card combo. The game would calm down for
a few minutes until the first Destiny attempt from Kikis came with an attempt
to catch Dyrus out in the top lane. It was unsuccessful but it put more
pressure on Dyrus who already had a tough matchup as Rumble against Gnar.
Kikis would try his luck top lane
again a few minutes later but Dyrus escaped with a sliver of health. However,
while this was going on, we saw something that seems to be incredibly rare as
Power of Evil was able to pick up a solo kill on Bjergsen. UoL was able to pick
up their first dragon a bit after this and they had control of it almost the
entire game. TSM was able to pick up a kill on Vizicsacsi in the top lane off
of a gank by Santorin, but Power of Evil responded by grabbing a solo kill on
Bjergsen again in middle. Kikis was also
able to answer back for UoL in the top lane with a pick on Dyrus with a use of
Destiny.
From there the game seemed to
snowball out of control for Team SoloMid. UoL would make a few mistakes; including
an over aggressive play by Power of Evil trying to zone Baron. But the gold
difference was simply too much to overcome and the Unicorns would close the
game out in 38 minutes.
Game two would start off slightly
better for TSM, but Bjergsen continued to have trouble with Power of Evil in
the mid lane. The UoL mid laner was able to pick up yet another solo kill just
after the sixth minute mark as Syndra on Bjersen’s Azir. Power of Evil wasn’t
shy about using his ultimate whenever he wanted to. Even if he was not picking
up kills, he was forcing Bjergsen to return to base constantly.
UoL simply seemed to be one step
ahead of TSM the entire way. The gold deficit didn’t grow as fast as it did in
game one, but SoloMid just could not cut the gap as much as they needed to. It
was Santorin’s steals of dragon that helped ensure they were in this game at
all as it progressed. TSM did a better job this game of trading objectives with
UoL, but team fighting from the Unicorns was a notch higher than that of the North
American Summer champions. The gold lead slowly grew to just shy of 10k after
the thirty minute mark and it seemed as if TSM could see the writing on the
wall. In a desperation play they opted to try and base race UoL but it didn’t
work out in their favor and the Unicorns would take the game in thirty-three
minutes and the series two games to none.
Unicorns of Love Take Down Lyon Gaming
By Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos
With their first appearance in an
international event coming just before their LCS debut, some people were
initially sceptical on how the Unicorns of Love would face up to the
competition of IEM San Jose. But the team came out to play and play hard.
Pick/Ban phase:
Unicorns of Love stayed adamant on removing
Jayce and Zed from the series along with Warwick in game 1 and Pantheon in game
2. Meanwhile Lyon saw to remove Thresh in both games but targeted Pantheon and Vizicsacsi’s
odd ball pick Poppy in game 1, then opted to his Gnar instead and remove
Warwick.
Lucian and Corki premiered as the only
ADC’s picked across the two games played but every other role saw a range of
variety, the biggest surprise factor being Kikis’s decision to bring out a
Jungle Kayle which in the end worked out rather nicely for him as his team.
Generally Unicorns Of Love opted for a “stun and destroy” theme across their
team comps focussing on having Braum in both games as well as picking up Syndra
and Gnar in game 1 and Irelia in game 2. Meanwhile Lyon Gaming clearly had the
idea of picking comps designed to make plays across the map employing a roaming
Alistar support in game 1 with Lee Sin and Leblanc. This was attempted again
with Orianna, Sion and Evelyn in game 2. The fault in Lyon Gaming’s team comp
set ups and playstyle choice however was that they required Lyon to not fall
behind and still maintain the ability to actually set up all the plays that the
champions enabled, unfortunately for them they simply weren’t ever
allowed.
Game 1:
Game one started off slowly but it was
evident that the Unicorns were clawing ahead slowly, by the 6 minute mark both
solo lanes were ahead by over 10 cs and Dodo on Alistar had begun to start
roaming in order to try and get a 3 man catch with their jungler Thyak.
Unfortunately for Lyon this led to unsuccessful gank attempts on Power of Evil
and eventually led to Dodo being pink ward baited and killed seven and a half
minutes in.
The situation then only began to get worse
for Lyon as the solo lane cs lead had doubled to 20 in favour of UOL by 10
minutes and Dodo became more desperate to land another attempt on ganking Power
of Evil. By the time they finally succeeded, it only left Maplestreet to get
return killed in the bottom lane and put further behind. Thyak managed to land
a dream steal on dragon at 13 minutes meanwhile Vizicsacsi
increased his cs lead to 50 while taking a tower moments later.
The pressure on Lyon Gaming was evident as
Dodo remained fixated on using his Alistar to roam and make plays but they
simply never fell into place, instead Maplestreet on Lucian remained a sitting
duck to ganks and eventually got pushed out of relevance entirely.
Things looked like they might change as UOL
made a sloppy play in topside in an attempt to take an inhibitor tower and
gifted away 4 unnecessary kills but the chokehold they had amassed up until
this point was simply too much to handle for Lyon Gaming. With 3 dragons, 1
baron and a 14k gold lead, Unicorns of Love took game 1.
Game 2:
Game two in my opinion played out like a mirror image of game one. By the 5 minute mark Vizicsacsi
was 10 cs up ahead of Porky again. The clear difference in his impact to
Porky’s was so big he was able to teleport bottom lane for the first blood on
Dodo, not get the assist for it and still go back to being dominant on his lane.
Meanwhile Power of Evil was picking up easy kills on Seeiya.
Lyon however made good use of their Evelyn
pick by flanking bottom lane and synergizing the surprise with another surprise
appearance of Sion as well. Lyon had also learnt from the mistake of leaving
Maple alone and he was provided with more support from Dodo and his team this
time around. However by the same point of near 14 minutes Vizicsacsi
had once again amassed a 50 cs lead and was fast becoming a monster. This was
backed up the sudden 4 slaughter that occurred around 19 minutes lead by Vizicsacsi’s
first picked Irelia.
Going into 20 minutes Lyon Gaming had
however managed to take 2 dragons but on the flipside they only had 3 kills
which were all on Thyak’s lessening impact Evelynn.
In almost an exact repeat of their first
game mistake, Unicorns of Love go in big for an inner turret and Vizicsacsi
manages to hard dive the team for a kill. But things appear to go south for the
Unicorns in the 3rd dragon dance as they once again over aggress and
fall prey to a 4 man shockwave, into Sion Q, into Corki rockets that removes 4
Unicorns from the map instantly. However like in game 1, 4 kills for Lyon
appear to mean absolutely nothing as they simply cannot find the resources to
hold off the Unicorn’s relentless aggression.
Outlook:
Overall the Unicorns looked impressed
throughout this series; they appeared to ramp up as time went on and they got
more into the flow of the games but the biggest worry throughout this was their
clear over aggression in the mid game period which could be attributed to
over-confidence. If Lyon were more able to grab hold of momentum swings they
could have heavily punished the Unicorns in both games but once put behind they
struggled to have any kind of late game presence. The overall series MVP in my
eyes was Vizicsacsi,
his top lane dominance was outstanding and entertaining to watch.
GG 2-0 to the Unicorns of Love
by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos
Monday, November 17, 2014
Curse, CLG & Gambit joins Fnatic for IEM Cologne
By Anel “Musinlol“ Musinovic
The European team that is going to join Fnatic will be Gambit Gaming, who has a long history with Intel Extreme Masters.
Every other team in this poll doesn't have a full roster, which could have led to more votes if they had. (In Copenhagen Wolves case, they have no players at all, hence the 3% vote.)
Gambit will be going head-to-head with the recently qualified 'new' Moscow 5, who are going to represent the CIS region; the previous organisation for some long-standing Gambit members such as Diamond and Edward. It will be interesting to see Gambit playing with their newly signed top laner, Cabochard, and ADC, P1noy (previously known as Krislund), as they try to qualify for IEM Katowice through IEM Cologne.
Going across the Atlantic and looking at the NA poll, it will be Curse and CLG joining Fnatic and Gambit.
No surprises here. CLG and Curse are both loved by the community and Curse probably clinched the higher percentage of votes since signing Korean superstar, Piglet, who previously played for the Season 3 World Championship Winner, SKT T1 K.
IEM Cologne will be taking place in Cologne, Germany from December 18th to the 22nd. Team SoloMid, Cloud 9, Alliance and Unicorns of Love were not participating in this poll as these teams are already fighting it out at Intel Extreme Masters San Jose on December 6th and 7th.
Poll graphics via intelextrememasters.com
The European team that is going to join Fnatic will be Gambit Gaming, who has a long history with Intel Extreme Masters.
Every other team in this poll doesn't have a full roster, which could have led to more votes if they had. (In Copenhagen Wolves case, they have no players at all, hence the 3% vote.)
Gambit will be going head-to-head with the recently qualified 'new' Moscow 5, who are going to represent the CIS region; the previous organisation for some long-standing Gambit members such as Diamond and Edward. It will be interesting to see Gambit playing with their newly signed top laner, Cabochard, and ADC, P1noy (previously known as Krislund), as they try to qualify for IEM Katowice through IEM Cologne.
Going across the Atlantic and looking at the NA poll, it will be Curse and CLG joining Fnatic and Gambit.
No surprises here. CLG and Curse are both loved by the community and Curse probably clinched the higher percentage of votes since signing Korean superstar, Piglet, who previously played for the Season 3 World Championship Winner, SKT T1 K.
IEM Cologne will be taking place in Cologne, Germany from December 18th to the 22nd. Team SoloMid, Cloud 9, Alliance and Unicorns of Love were not participating in this poll as these teams are already fighting it out at Intel Extreme Masters San Jose on December 6th and 7th.
Poll graphics via intelextrememasters.com