A week without our beloved Team World Elite but with the comeback of Namei, a triple LGD confrontation and OMG facing Snake. A week full of spectacular matches!
by Michael "Tribble" Godani
March 13th
The return of Namei, the pride of China. Fans of the LPL and followers of the entire League of Legends scene have been waiting for this moment for months and today was the day. Both games were very close but there was only one person that was decisive in leading his team to the double victory; Namei.
From the first couple of minutes of the first game it was clear that the presence of Namei gave so much confidence to both Zero and Insec, that it was almost an honor to the spooky things that surround Friday the 13th. Some might think that I am over exaggerating but I'm not. Note that Wei the last few games was mostly down by 10-20 cs after a couple of minutes and Namei actually switched that around. Despite the early bot ganks by Gamtee, SHRC didn't lose faith, in what some believe to be the best skillshot dodging player in the world.
Namei appeared on the rift with Jinx, a very immobile ADC, yet coming to the rift with her he already had a 5-0 record and at the end of this full set it went to a 7-0 record, undefeated. Namei’s presence was surely noticed in teamfights where he would atl east pick up a minimum of two kills in every 5v5 confrontation (there were a ton of 5v5 confrontations in this game.) Seeing him stepping back and forth while continuing to dodge skillshots and taking out enemies was a joy to watch and gave a great feeling of joy to finally see that Namei was back!
SHRC defeated Gamtee, 2-0, after the first game ran for over an hour and the second game was won by Insec stealing the baron at the 30 minute mark with his AD Fizz jungle.
Something to really note about this set was that in the second game, Gamtee’s Sinkdream picked Sona. Sona already is quite a weird pick in competitive play but what was even more of a shock was him building the tear and then a sheen instead of picking up a Locket or Mikael’s even against a triple AP comp (Fizz, even in AD, does AP damage.) His trinket was also not upgraded after the twenty minute mark. A very peculiar way of playing a support in a professional competition with a soloQ build.
The second match of the day was between Invictus Gaming and Vici Gaming. Both teams faced each other in the Damacia Cup earlier this week where IG took a 3-0 victory over VG. VG did fine their star support player, Mata, for approx $8000, for trolling, unprofessional behavior. All we could expect from VG is to actually play the way we are used from them to play and so they did. The match-up between these two teams was incredibly close and therefore also ended in a split.
Mata actually showed up and didn't troll. His beautiful hooks with one of his favorite champions, Thresh, sealed the first game to give them a 1-0 lead. Both games, as said before, were extremely close and were not decided until the very decisive teamfight in both games. A point for both teams is the right outcome, yet it doesn't help either one of them that much.
The third match of the day was the big one. Edward Gaming was facing LGD Gaming. Some believe that these are the the best teams in the LPL and therefore this should be a joy to watch. Clearlove was back in the line-up for EDG and with picking the Nunu as his jungler in Game 1 he was ready to give TBQ a very hard time in keeping his jungle to himself.
Clearlove and Pawn were the stars of this game, the Jungle/Mid duo were roaming together and ganking wherever they could. Especially the red jungle of LGD was turned into a graveyard for TBQ, who got picked off multiple times by Pawn’s Leblanc, who played as if he was possessed by Faker himself because my god was he good!
What is worth mentioning is that LGD had a huge gold lead, also being up in turrets at some point (8-4) and picking up a lead in the dragons early on. The gold lead that was close to 10k didn’t matter much for EDG who seemed to be cocky enough to just wait for those couple of picks and lategame teamfights to turn the game.
Pawn picked up a few multikills and turned teamfights around with his incredible distortion plays. Just before the end of Game 1, Imp sealed his teams' fate by face checking a brush with Pawn in it. He got blown up and so EDG ended Game 1.
Game 2 was a different level of League. Where Game 1 was, despite the gold lead, quite close, Game 2, or shall we call it "The Clearlove Show
" was nowhere near close. For those who are familiar with the Foxdrop video about his best Lee Sin game, this is similar, but then in the second best league of League of Legends.
"The Clearlove Show" started from the first minute with a beautiful tower dive in the toplane and the one-man show didn't stop there. On his first back after his smite jungle item he came back with a warrior enchant, sightstone and a pink ward. That’s a lot of gold to have to spend after only 9 minutes into the game. The game was a one-sided show starring Clearlove, who ended the game with his fellow companions around the 29 minute mark without losing a single turret.
Both games are really worth watching if you haven’t done so already, I highly recommend that you do so.
Results Day 1:
Star Horn Royal Club vs Gamtee 2-0
Invictus Gaming vs Vici Gaming 1-1
Edward Gaming vs LGD Gaming 2-0
King vs Energy Pacemaker 2-0
March 14
The first match of the day was between LGD Gaming(4) vs Snake(3). LGD’s We1less pulled out the Cho’gath mid against the Lissandra from Baka and even managed to kill him 1v1 inlane. Despite this early victory, Snake already picked up the first dragon after 3.30 minutes because of the laneswap that occurred. Picking up another two dragons, Snake had three drakes at the 16 minute mark and seemed to be in good shape to be picking up that sub 30 minute fifth drake. Unfortunately for them, the game was quite close, not so much in kills, 5-9, but in gold. It only differed around 500-800 gold, while the turrets were at the same count.
LGD did use their midgame powerspike to their fullest potential and created picks here and there on the map which lead them to several teamfights for dragon that gave them two dragons to equalize with Snake. LGD managed to snowball their well-planned picks into a victory and were ready for the second game.
The first thing that got everybody’s attention was that Snake allowed Acorn, who didn't get swapped for Flame, to play his Rumble. Snake had a reason for this because they made sure that Acorn became useless in this game, starving him out after a laneswap - and after the standard lanes returned he got pressured by the rest of the Snake team to make sure that his powerspike got delayed, 31 cs at the 10 minute mark.
Snake made their poke comp Xerath/Nidalee/Corki work by picking the LGD members off one by one and in teamfights poking them down, followed by a chase for blood. Snake dominated this match and made LGD looked like a team that didn't belong on this level of gameplay. Worth mentioning is that despite the triple AP comp from Snake, the members of LGD didn't even bother to pick up a Locket of the Iron Solari. We1less was the only shining light for LGD but was not able to turn the tides of this game. A consistent team, Snake picked up the win in Game 2 and LGD was once again disappointing with their inconsistent way of playing.
The third game of the day was between Edward Gaming and Invictus Gaming. What seemed to become a very solid and quiet game (1-1 after 15 minutes) turned quickly after Koro1 picked off Kakao just the when the third drake spawned and IG was in their powerspike (Corki/Ezreal Tri-force and Nidalee jungle item). From that moment EDG took control and even went for a sub 22 minute baron. Promptly afterwards they took Game 1.
Game 2, it was Rookie’s Yasuo vs Pawn’s Jayce. Rapidly it was known that Rookie was going to win the lane match-up and he did so, taking Pawn extremely low so that Kakao could finish him off for first blood which set the tone for the match. A match that resulted in 41 kills after a 34 minute game in favor of EDG. Yes, this match was bloodthirsty from both sides, but after every skirmish on the map, EDG came out on top. It was either a turret, dragon or more time for Deft to free farm in a lane to continue to build up his inventory. The only win that Invictus Gaming had after a 2-0 defeat was that they didn't get slaughtered the way that LGD got slaughtered in Game 2 the day before, but they just lost to a better opponent. They can look back on the series with their heads held high.
The last game of the day was between OMG and Master3.
Cool got allowed on his Ahri twice and ended the series with a convincing 18-1-28. Cool is by far considered the best Ahri player in the world and despite the nerfs that the champion has seen, Cool showed that she was still far from “unplayable.” M3 made a huge mistake, letting OMG pick the same midgame composition twice in a row, yes, the same team, except for Game 2 where Cloud's Thresh got banned and he picked up the Janna instead. Cloud was by far the MVP for Game 1 with some beautiful roams and death sentences - he made game deciding picks from the first to the last kill.
Where the first game started off a bit slow, the second game started off quite faster with Dade going ham on his Leblanc, which he played surprisingly well. Where OMG turned up the heat in Game 1 before M3 could really react. In Game 2 the same situation occurred except that Dade was the only one who was up to the challenge.
This was also directly the problem for M3, as only Dade was fed and didn't enjoy the peel that Uzi and Cool received from their frontline. After a somewhat disappointing start from Cool in Game 2, he shifted into the next gear and returned to the Cool on Ahri that we know. OMG showed that they are just as superior as EDG in China, both teams got no equals aside from each other.
Results Day 2:
LGD Gaming vs Snake 1-1
Energy Pacemaker vs Gamtee 1-1
Edward Gaming vs Invictus Gaming 2-0
OMG vs Master3 2-0
March 15th
Namei’s Star Horn Royal Club take on King in the first game of our final day.
What should’ve been a 4-0 week for SHRC got turned into a 3-1 week. King disrupted their party in honor of the comeback of Namei with a victory in Game 1 over SHRC, keeping them behind themselves as they remained in the eighth spot in the LPL.
So what did King do to make sure that they could defeat this revived SHRC? They picked them off. From the first until the last minute, King was all over SHRC. Their vision control was better, their Rengar/Lulu engages were crazy and would catch SHRC off by surprise. MLXG even used the Rengar ult to scout out SHRC so that they could set up a play right after. It was beautiful to see how King managed to destroy a team without really teamfighting and just by picking them off left and right.
Quite a disappointing appearance from SHRC but a great one from King.
Game 2 on the other hand was slightly different.
A forced “Namei comp” was the key to success in the second game of this match-up. Namei, on one of his best champions, Kog'maw, combined with the peel from Nunu, Morgana and Rumble was what really made it work. Corn actually played well on no other then Ahri, a champion which seems to become a second Thresh, since all chinese midlaners play that champion pretty good. SHRC recognized their powerspikes and forced plays around those powerspikes which secured them the second game and therefor a split.
The last game that we are going to review is that one between Snake and OMG. The first time these two teams met they split the points, let’s see how they did this time.
OMG didn’t came out on top in the draft phase, again Baka got put on his Xerath, the only champion he plays, Beast got put onto Nidalee and Krystal onto Corki. A full poke comp to which already took down several teams.
The game started in favor of OMG by having Uzi picking up two kills before the fifth minute and he quickly snowballed by picking up more kills onto Kryst4l and setting him miles behind. This all seemed good for OMG, but this time, the team composition was not at all about Kryst4l, it was about Baka's Xerath and Beast's Nidalee, both of whom came out on top in this game with fantastic performances.
OMG didn't have a real tank, except for Lee Sin, and didn't know what to do against this Snake who were picking them off left and right, nullifying the fed Uzi, who up until late game still had the most gold onto him. After around 27 minutes, Snake already took away four dragons without having to put up a single fight. The game ended not much later as Baka ended the game with a impressive 10-0-5.
A great display of teamwork and pick/poke potential from the newcomers and a well deserved victory in game one.
Before Game 2 got going, Uzi was caught by the camera crying on his chair behind his computer. The team coach and host of the show tried their best to cheer the two-timed worlds finalist up. Even the crowd got involved into it. Uzi, who actually had quite a good first game, was so mad about losing the first game and not being able to secure three points that this was his way of expressing it.
The draft phase for the second game didn’t really seem to have many changes for Snake since they picked up the Xerath again, but this time, OMG came out with a Gnar, J4 and Uzi on his famous Lucian. Uzi was mad, emotional and above all eager to take this game and carry it by himself. Is 19-1-7 enough? Yes it was, yes it was. OMG took first blood by the hands of Uzi again and he got rolling together with his botlane partner Cloud.
Let’s take a quick look at this botlane before we do continue, the first time that we saw this duo in competitive play it didn't work out too well but most of the critics agreed that playstyle wise Cloud and Uzi would be the best duo. As I personally prefer San as ADC, I have got to say that Cloud and Uzi definitely convinced me and many others.
Cloud was again on his Thresh, he might be the best Chinese Thresh player we’ve seen and he showed this by two early mid roams together with Loveling to disrupt Baka his laning phase. OMG was creating pressure on especially the botlane, trying to get Uzi even more ahead then he already was. Kryst4l may be first in the MVP standings, but getting solo killed two games in a row by Uzi shows that those standings mean little. OMG had great dragon control yet their vision with the double sightstone didn’t work too well early. A problem that OMG runs in to quite a lot, the lack of vision. Nonetheless OMG forced three barons, of which one was a steal by Loveling, six drakes to secure the game.
Once again , the Chinese top teams split points.
Results Day 3:
Star Horn Royal Club vs King 1-1
Invictus Gaming vs Gamtee 1-1
OMG vs Snake 1-1
LGD Gaming vs Master3 1-1
Standings After Week 8:
Schedule for Week 9:
Day 1:
Invictus Gaming vs Snake
Vici Gaming vs Gamtee
Team WE vs OMG
Edward Gaming vs Star Horn Royal Club
Day 2:
Vici Gaming vs Snake
OMG vs King
Edward Gaming vs Master3
Team WE vs LGD Gaming
Day 3:
Snake vs Energy Pacemaker
Edward Gaming vs Gamtee
Star Horn Royal Club vs Team WE
OMG vs Invictus Gaming
