Roccat Waltz Into IEM Cologne Semifinals With Decisive Victory Over DoWS

                    Matt “It’s Pure Luck” Lee

It was far from the hardest test they will face this year, or even this tournament, but the new look Roccat lineup was dominant today versus the Dolphins of Wall Street in the first round of the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne. Coming into IEM Cologne as the likely favorite to win a spot in Katowice in March, Roccat was crisp and efficient in the two game sweep. The second round will see them draw stiffer competition as they square off against NA LCS representative Counter Logic Gaming but based on today’s performance it’s hard to not like their chances to move through to the finals.

           
Game one started off fairly slowly but for a bit of early action down in the bottom lane that saw former Millenium AD carry Creaton (Ezreal) nearly pick up an early kill on Woolite (Corki) only to be thwarted by a nice Aqua Prison by Vander (Nami) in the middle of an Arcane Shift. The game would see its first attempted gank just after the five minute mark. Lasagna (Pantheon) went to the top lane in an attempt to pick off Overpow (Irelia) who would quickly flash to safety but almost immediately reengaged as Jankos (Elise) was arriving on from river.  The level two Equilibrium Strike from Overpow would prove crucial this fight as not only was the stun long enough to use the ability twice, it helped lock down Lasagna as it was chained with Cocoon from Jankos. The Roccat jungler picked up first blood as we have seen so many times before and with a little help from Ryu (Jayce) roaming up top Overpow picked up the second kill on Meziljie (Gnar) while just barely surviving himself.

            

Roccat would find a pick on Lasagna a few minutes later courtesy of a deep ward placed at the red buff of DoWS. The game started to snowball out of control at this point. Roccat would pick up a dragon just after the ten minute mark while Overpower would simultaneously pick up a solo kill in the top lane as he tower dove Meziljie. Ryu, Jankos and Vander would find a kill on Bebe (Xerath) on the edge of the jungle near the mid lane as he was caught trying to steal dragon with a Xerath ultimate only to be Aqua Prisoned himself. The only lane that hadn’t gone horribly wrong for the Dolphins this late into the game was bottom where Creaton and Masterwork (Karma) were trading with Woolite and Vander fairly effectively. It simply wasn’t going to be enough for the Dolphins to get anything done. The vision control and map pressure were too stacked in Roccat’s favor and so was the gold advantage. At just over the fifteen minute mark Overpow was already 6/0/2 on a very snowbally champion and closing out the game was merely a formality for Roccat and it would mercifully end for the Dolphins in twenty-two minutes.

            

Game two started off quite slowly much as game one did and it was at the five minute mark again that the game would see someone take a trip back to base via a grey screen. It was played brilliantly by Vander (Thresh) landing a hook on Masterwork (Nami) who erred by venturing into his bushes instead of staying in his minion wave. Jankos (Lee Sin) took the lantern from river into the fight and would make a nice play on a ward hop to slow Masterwork down and allowed Roccat to pick up first blood. However, DoWS would answer back a few minutes later as Jankos was caught being a bit  greedy as he seemed to favor stealing the enemy blue buff away. He would pay for it as Bebe (Syndra) picked up the kill and secured his own blue. But Jankos would get revenge shortly after that as he and Ryu (Fizz) would team up to take down the Dolphin’s mid laner and the blue buff would be turned back over to Jankos.

            

The lead for Roccat stood at one thousand gold at ten minutes with neither team yet to take a dragon. The two teams would exchange kills on a Roccat invade that stole away the DoWS red buff. Masterwork was caught by Jankos and Ryu but was able to flash away. Lasagna (Kha’Zix) and Bebe were then able to close in on Jankos and Ryu with Bebe once again taking Jankos out with another Unleashed Power. A teleport bottom from Overpow (Gnar) sent the Dolphins scrambling away with Masterwork being killed for the second time in the game. But while this was happening, Bebe found another victim as a straggling Vander was picked off in the river close to mid lane resulting in a two for one in favor of the Dolphins of Wall Street. Meziljie (Jax) took down the top tower just after all of this ended and it brought the gold between the two teams to dead even just shy of twelve minutes into the game.

            

Bebe played well up until this point but would make a mistake of face checking a bush in his own jungle that resulted in a kill for Jankos and a dragon being picked up for Roccat.  They would continue to hang close with Roccat for the next few minutes but little mistakes would begin to add up. Meziljie went for an engage in bottom on Vander in what appeared to be a 3v2 in favor of DoWS but they never saw Ryu enter the brush and it was quickly turned back around on the Dolphins. Woolite picked up the kill on Meziljie and would get another on Masterwork on the ensuing chase by Roccat. The fight would be extended long enough for Lasagna and Bebe to attempt to get involved but their efforts were in vain as they both were killed and it was a 4-0 for team Roccat. The lead was suddenly commanding for Roccat as it surged to four-thousand gold at sixteen minutes; as noted above, it had been dead even just four minutes prior. 

            

With sightstones completed for two members, Roccat began to find picks as they wanted. They would catch Creaton out near his own red bluff and took their second dragon of the game. Overpow would defeat Meziljie in a duel and the deficit grew to almost seven-thousand for DoWS twenty minutes into the game. It took a bit longer this time but now it seemed to be a repeat of game one. The Dolphins seemed dazed as Roccat would take objectives and turrets as they pleased as the game progressed. A great hook from Vander onto Bebe would initiate the team fight that all but signaled the game was over as Roccat would ace DoWS without losing any of their own members. Roccat would pick up the Baron before winning one final team fight in the opponent’s base and pushing through for the win in twenty-six minutes. 

EU Expansion Tournament: H2k going up against Giants for LCS spot

By Anel “Musinlol” Musinovic

With the first two days over, we head into the third day of Round 3 to see Giants and H2k face off against each other.

H2k vs Giants

Odamne, loulex, febiven, Hjarnan & Voidle vs Werlyb, Fr3deric, xPepii, Adryh & Rydle

Both H2k and Giants are this one series away from entering the EU LCS, and H2k are once again coming in as favorites for a LCS spot. Last time against Copenhagen Wolves they did fail miserably but I think they have learned their lesson. They should be showing up strong and not choking.

Giants have shown themselves to be a strong team and yesterday they 3-0’d a underwhelming Reason Gaming. Many will expect H2k to 3-0 but Giants can, in my opinion, take a game and that is why I have given it 3-1 for H2k. Giants' Fre3deric did an amazing job of snowballing lanes yesterday, but against H2k it is going to be a very hard task. H2k has superior solo lanes but the botlane of Giants can match the H2k one, therefore Adryh & Febiven are my featured players to watch.

Giants should not be focus their bans on Febiven, n!fac tried that but that failed since Febiven was dominating no matter what champion he was on. They should maybe be focusing on trying to ban out loulex and especially his Lee Sin.

Player to watch from H2k Gaming: Febiven

Febiven is the star of both the team and the whole challenger scene, so he's the obvious pick for the player to watch. He is an extremely strong midlaner and is considered one of the best in Europe. He has multiple accounts in high challenger and will be coming out strong against xPepi. xPepi has shown himself to be a good midlaner so far but he will maybe have too much on his hands this time.

Player to watch from Giants: Adryh

Adryh has had exceptional games on Jinx so far, which he seems to prefer. No other adcs seem to play Jinx at the time but Adryh definitely makes it work. It might be a champion to ban for H2k. If the Jinx is banned he often falls back on Ezreal or Lucian. In the first round of the expansion tournament, he went 9-0-8 on Jinx & 7-4-10 on Lucian when the Jinx was picked away from him. He also had great games against Millenium. Against Reason he was 7-1 twice on Jinx, and 5-4-10 on Ezreal in the last game of the series. If he can pull out these performances against H2k they might have a chance but it seems very unlikely.

Predicted score: H2k 3 - 1 Giants

The game will be played December 19th at 7:00am EST, 13:00 CET

An Old Challenge for the New Gambit

by Kranthi "SnowKid" Kumar

Season-4 has been a nightmare for Gambit Gaming. Due to VISA issues and a lot internal issues, Gambit suffered a lot. Gambit Gaming finished 7th Place in 2014 EU - LCS Summer split and got relegated.

Gambit Gaming faced SK-Gaming Prime in 2015 EU LCS Spring Promotion and managed to win the series 3:1, earning back their LCS spot.

Recently, Gambit Gaming  has revealed their starting line up for upcoming tournaments:

* Cabochard - Top
* Diamondprox - Jungle
* niQ - Mid
* P1noy - AD carry
* Edward - Support

-> Cabochard : Lucas "Cabochard" Simon-Meslet originates from France. He replaced Darien as a top laner. He previously played for NiP Gaming as a top laner. He is known for his confident laning phase.

-> Diamondprox : Danil "Diamondprox" Reshetnikov originates from Russia, He is one of the most experienced players in the organization. He often refers to ex-Gambit players Darien and Genja as his best friends. He is known as an 'innovator' due to his innovative jungle picks. He revolutionized Counter Jungling and played a crucial part in Gambit's journey.

-> niQ : Sebastian"niQ" Robak originates from Poland. He was named as temporary mid laner when Alex Ich departed. He quickly became a permanent member as the season progressed. He previously played for Denial eSports as mid laner.

->P1noy : Kristoffer "P1noy" Pedersen  originates from Denmark. He played a crucial role in helping Gambit Gaming to make their way back to LCS. He changed his nickname 'Krislund' to 'P1noy' after he got picked up by Gambit. He often states that 'Corki' is his favourite Champ. He replaced Genja as the ADC for Gambit Gaming.

-> Edward : 'Edward' Abgaryan originates from Armenia. He was previously known as GosuPepper. He was named ' Thresh prince' due to his excellent Thresh skills. Sona is the best support according to him. He left Gambit due to misunderstandings with Genja and team atmosphere. He joined Curse briefly before returning to Gambit in November 2013. His aggressive play style often picks him up kills on his lane which earned him the title of  'Support Carry.'

Gambit Gaming has been voted for IEM Cologne 2014 Dec 19 - Dec 21. As Gambit's new line-up make their way to Cologne, it will be a great challenge ahead of them. Gambit will be facing Team Dignitas or Aces Full on Dec 20th. Gambit has historically done great in previous IEM's, let's see if the new Gambit can make a mark. Good Luck Gambit !!

EU Expansion Tournament Day One Recap

By Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos 

EU kicked off their double elimination expansion bracket with Giants Gaming, who eliminated the hyped up Millenium, vs Reason Gaming who are made up of previous LCS players.

Giants executed their pick/ban strategy flawlessly removing Zed and Irelia in all 3 of the games rotating the third ban each time. For games one and two they stuck to the solid 4 champ combo of Pantheon, Jax, Jinx and Thresh while using Leblanc in game one and Azir in game two. The true key to this composition was the sheer dominance that their Pantheon pick displayed in controlling the early game and moving the game to his pace.

First bloods went to Giants in both games and Reason’s Lulu jungle pick in game one was completely steamrolled in its attempts to be relevant, often being blown up before even able to execute an ultimate on a teammate. It was particularly interesting to watch how much Kubon struggled against Werelyb at top and how much extra effort Giants invested into ganking and keeping him down. Most people expected that the giveaway of Gnar to Reason would spell trouble for Giants but they proved this doubt wrong many times throughout the course of games one and two.

Game three of the series showed a bit more life from Reason Gaming who secure first blood on Fr3deric, Kubon on Jax even manages to take a 1v1 kill on Werelyb. However the game once again snowballed out of Reason’s control as Kubon again struggled to maintain any kind of relevance.

The MVP of the series in my opinion is Giants Gaming’s Fr3deric who really set his team’s strangleholds into motion and demonstrated a map wide presence that simply couldn’t be handled by their opposition.

If the series against Millennium wasn’t enough to turn some heads towards Giants as favourites to qualify, I’m sure there will be some heads turning now.

H2K vs FAC

The second series of H2K vs N Faculty displayed the same result of a clean 3-0 crushing any hope of a reverse sweep like seen we’ve commonly in the NA expansion bracket. Unlike Reason Gaming, N Faculty had next to no sign of any kind of life during the series, LCS veteran Xaxus was unable to do anything about his team’s systematic take-down.

H2K went into the series with no particular pick/ban strategy other than removing Syndra and Leblanc from every game. N Faculty banned Xerath, Jayce and Lee in games one and two and Jayce, Ahri, Zed in game three.

The games themselves weren’t kill filled thrill rides and didn’t show off anything too flashy or special, the whole series gave off the impression that N Faculty were playing not to lose rather than to win. Barring game three with dragons, H2K displayed a heavy objective control and slowly drained out N Faculty in all areas before taking the series. There was one point where H2K took two completely uncontested towers in middle in game two, N Faculty were simply nowhere to be seen. Soz Purefect had next to no impact and paled in comparison to Febiven who took the carry seat across the series for H2K.

At times it seemed like H2K were taking the games too slow as they never really made any dynamic decisions or rushed plays. The chessboard takedown of N Faculty showed that H2K never really felt any pressure.

As mentioned above, the MVP of the series would have to go to Febiven who lived up to his hype and completely obliterated his opponent.

Giants vs H2K in the winners match looks to be an exciting series but N Faculty and Reason have a lot to work on in their series if they want to stand a chance against the loser of the winner bracket for the second LCS spot. 

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

Amazing, Niels & Mithy announced for Origen (xPeke’s newly formed team). Contenders for Top Lane Position Here!

By Anel “Musinlol” Musinovic

xPeke’s dream of creating his own team and brand is finally coming to life, and with the new announcement of Amazing, Niels & Mithy, the team is looking promising.

Origen announced the new players via Twitter but has not announced their toplaner yet, therefore the rumor mill is still producing names such as Alex Ich, SoaZ, Kev1n & Zorozero.

Looking at Alex Ich as the first contender and the most talked by the community for Origen’s toplane. 

Alex Ich has been a great midlaner over the years and was a dominant force in the EU LCS for Gambit. After leaving Gambit he joined NiP as their toplaner since NiP already had Nukeduck midlane at the time, but despite a star-studded team they failed to qualify for LCS. Him as a toplaner for NiP didn't seem like the biggest success, which was why he later played midlane. Since then, he has tried to form a team with players such as Kev1n, Impaler, Creaton & KaSing, which again left him to play midlane, but sadly the team disbanded after some shaky ranked-5’s performances which were streamed.

Alex recently signed with the Russian team, RoX.KIS which leads me to believe that he will have a hard time leaving them. Overall, I don’t think he is the best toplaner available, and fits way better in the midlane. xPeke also might see a problem in Alex Ich needing a place to stay with his wife & child. He is really liked by the community and still a decent player but I don't see it happening.

Possibility of happening: 3/10

Looking at the second contender, Kev1n.

With the recent failure of re-qualifying for LCS, Millenium decided to disband. Without a team, the possibility of Kev1n is likely. Kev1n has been in the scene for a long time with teams such as SK Gaming & Millenium and he doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Trying to form a team with Alex Ich & trying to re-qualify with Millenium means that he certainly still has the drive for it.

Kev1n has always been at the top with high KDA even when his teams weren't placing high. I think that he is the most likely contender of the four and if he doesn't get picked I would be surprised. With that said, they have been playing ranked 5’s under the name “ORIGEN” on the client, the toplane account is completely new and I don’t see a reason for hiding it if it was Kev1n since he is without a team right now.

Possibility of happening: 8/10

sOAZ, the third contender.

Soaz, as we all know from Against All Authority & Fnatic, is a toplaner with a great champion pool and he knows xPeke very well. They have been together in Fnatic for a long time and that could be a crucial factor. Rumours have been flying around that xPeke doesn't like sOAZ and therefore doesn't want him in Origen.

sOAZ still seems to be on Fnatic and there is question to be made of whether he wants to take the chance of going through challenger or sticking with his secure Fnatic spot. This could explain the mystery top lane account Origen have been playing ranked 5’s with, since sOAZ is most likely still contracted to Fnatic. Also, the unknown player is presenting quite innovative picks in the toplane - such as Morgana and Ezreal. On the other hand, he has changed his name to sOAZIZSALTY in soloq, which could mean he is salty for being left on Fnatic while three of its five players have left.

Possibility of happening: 7/10

Looking at the last contender, Zorozero.

Zorozero is well known for playing for Lemondogs and NiP, and he was also praised as being the best toplaner in EU. No doubt that he was a great player, but he left for school and he surely couldn't have finished school yet unless he did some of it already. Personally I wish it would turn out to be Zorozero just for the sake of getting him back into the scene. Sadly, I think it is unlikely because of school. If he is finished, he could very well be looking for a team and they are hiding the name of the player under the name “touchmytagada.”

Possibility of happening: 5/10