EU LCS Week 8 Preview : Battle of The Animals!

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

We’re back for Week 8 of the EU LCS, some teams in high spirits and some looking to shake off a rusty weekend. Here’s what to watch out for:

Day 1- Copenhagen Wolves (7-7) vs Unicorns of Love (7-7)

While both these teams look to be locked into the playoffs, there’s still room for error as the derailed hype train duo of Roccat and Elements are only two wins behind. The week break should have provided more than enough time for the Unicorns to work on their habit of going 1-1. The Wolves should also be feeling more refreshed after having a tough last two weeks. The main focus of this match is likely to be the mid game scuffles and the team fights will surely prove entertaining. With games against Fnatic, Gambit and H2k finishing off UOL’s split, a win here would be a blessing in what is one the hardest remaining runs.

Day 2- Giants Gaming (4-10) vs Roccat (5-9)

Rather unfortunately for Giants, Roccat, MYM, and Elements, there is a huge gap between them and the other six teams in the EU LCS right now. For these four teams, every win is an enormous step away from auto relegation and for at least one of them, the seventh place slot and a secure LCS spot will be more than appreciated after a terrible split. Owning the series over Giants, Roccat should come into this game looking to not only one up one of their bottom table competitors but close the gap on the loser of Wolves and Unicorns. With an MYM game and a Wolves game in for Roccat’s last week, a dream situation would be a Unicorn victory in this week’s battle of the animals and an upset next week against the Wolves which could very well book them a playoff spot.

Day 2- Gambit Gaming (8-6) vs Elements (5-9)

Both teams could be coming into this game feeling rather deflated; Gambit having their win streak broken and then putting up a lackluster performance at IEM, and Elements, who have struggled to find any kind of harmony within each other all split. Considering that Elements are 0-1 against all of their remaining four opponents, the outlook looks very bleak for what was EU’s perfect game super team just half a year ago. Despite the IEM disappointment, Gambit look the superior team and it’s probable that Elements could pull off a demise reminiscent of NA’s Vulcun/XDG after Season 3 Worlds. I can’t imagine Froggen and Rekkles in the challenger scene, can you?

Remaining schedule difficulty (Hard to Easy)

UOL- CW, FNC, GMB, H2K

MYM- GMB, H2K, SK, ROC

EL- H2K, GMB, GIA, FNC

CW- UOL, SK, ROC, GIA

GIA- SK, ROC, EL, CW

GMB- MYM, EL, UOL, SK

ROC- FNC, GIA, CW, MYM

SK- GIA, CW, MYM, GMB

FNC- ROC, UOL, H2K, EL

H2K- EL, MYM, FNC, UOL

---

by Reece "Please Don't use that Picture of me in the Wolf Hat" Dos-Santos

Week 8 LPL Review

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

TSM Wins IEM!!

theScore eSports Now Available on iOS

Messing with your iPhone when you're bored is the norm nowadays, which is why there's so much value in having some great apps. Up until now, for eSports fans, we could only try and bring up lolesport's site and then abandon it because it NEVER loads. Been there, done that, way too many times...which is why I'm so excited about theScore's new eSports app. 

Since its debute on Andriod last month, theScore has made global headlines (Forbes, Gigaom, Mashable, The Next Web) by giving fans of competitive gaming an app for breaking news, live scores, stats, push alerts and links to video highlights and streams from across the world of eSports, and now it's finally arrived for the iOS!

John Levy, Founder and CEO of theScore, said that after the amazing response to the Android app he was excited about the iOS launch. “We were blown away by the reception to the launch of theScore eSports by professional gaming fans from all over the world and its great we can now bring that experience to those on iOS devices too,” he said. “The feedback from eSports fans over the first month has been fantastic, and the team is already hard at work on the next set of updates, which will deliver even deeper multi-game coverage.”

theScore eSports is the first dedicated eSports mobile app by a major sports media company, and offers breaking news and live scoring coverage of League of Legends (Korean, North American, European and Chinese leagues) as well as real-time news coverage of Dota 2, Counter-Strike: GO, Call of Duty, StarCraft II and Hearthstone. Deeper stats and coverage of more games will be coming soon.

theScore eSports is available to install for free now in the App Store and Google Play. theScore’s eSports coverage can also be found at http://www.thescoreesports.com, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

I downloaded it yesterday and I'm happy to say it ROCKS! :) 

Week 8 LPL preview

 The 8th week of the LPL is not only about the fans and watchers of this fantastic competition, it’s all about “The return of Devil on Friday the 13th”. Yes, you read that correctly, Devil aka Zhu “Namei” Jia-Wen is returning to the starting line-up of Star Horn Royal Club. Let’s take a look at the upcoming match-ups for SHRC and other interesting games.

*Note – Team WE won’t be playing this week as they play at IEM Katowice

by Michael "Tribble" Godani

Current standings:

Friday 13th March

The first match of the day is reserved for Namei, as his SHRC takes on the full chinese line-up of Gamtee, the 10th seated team in the league but with only four losses to their name.

As Namei is known to be one of the best ADC’s, if not the best, in the world while having the ability to output serious damage while dodging skillshots, I personally expect a clean win. Cola hasn’t been performing as bad as InSec or Corn and Zero has always been a very good and stable support.

Gamtee might be looking to cause another upset, but with the current standing and only four weeks left in the spring split, it’s do or die for the super formation from SHRC. A loss here is unnaceptable.

The next game that might be very interesting to watch is Invictus Gaming vs Vici Gaming.

Both teams faced each other in the Damacia cup this week and Invictus Gaming won with 3-0(3 surrenders by Vici Gaming). It was the series where Mata wasn’t feeling like playing and decided to instalock the Soraka support in game two and even went for the Jayce support in the final game that was surrendered after 20 minutes.

Mata was subsequently fined approx $8000, for his unprofessional behavior and poor sportsmanship

Still, they are here to face each other again but now in a Bo2 in the LPL and a win could mean for both teams to getting closer to that fourth spot. This should be a very interesting game for the standings itself because of how close both teams are to each other right now.

The third game of the day is between Edward Gaming and LGD Gaming,

EDG hasn’t won a series after the new year break and are really looking for a massive win over LGD who have held the fourth spot in the LPL for quite a while now.

The biggest concern about this match-up is if LGD will show up or not. Inconsistency being an issue the team has faced, all split. They can play fantastic one game and disasterous in another, wrong drafts, wrong rotations, you name it. This time though, it’s time to show up big time as EDG seems somewhat mortal after drawing against OMG, King and Snake.

Will Deft go into his Corki Godmode and destroy this game or can former team mate IMP take all the pride for the upcoming games? Perhaps it’s about Flame or Acorn or maybe Koro1?

Too many star players to mention, one of the best watches this weekend for  sure!

Friday’s games:

Star Horn Royal Club vs Gamtee

Invictus Gaming vs Vici Gaming

Edward Gaming vs LGD Gaming

King vs Energy Pacemaker

Saturday, 14th March

The first game of the day is a massive one, LGD Gaming will take on Snake for their second game of the week. A very tough week if I might say so for the players from LGD who are taking on EDG and now Snake and later on M3 who hasn’t lost a set since the break.

Both teams are in good shape, Snake split their series with EDG, which means they won 3 out of the 4 matches against the superstar powerhouse.

Can Kryst4l deliver again as he did in the final match against EDG last week? Will Acorn show up with some incredible teleport plays perhaps?

To end the day, OMG will take on Master3, undefeated since the break, just like OMG who are the only team in the LPL to not droip a set.

It will be a great match-up between super midlaners Cool and Dade. Cool has been looking a bit inconsistent during his laning phase and Dade still isn’t the old Dade that we know from the Samsung era. This would be a great moment to show up.

Another match-up that would be a joy for all of us to watch is seeing world champion Looper take on the best top laner in China, Gogoing. Who will take the victory in the top lane and who will get the most attention from the enemy team we could almost say. Both players have been playing Gnar to almost perfection in their last couple of matches so that will most probably be one of the contested picks.

A great game between a super team and a team with a couple of super stars.

Saturday’s games:

LGD Gaming vs Snake

Energy Pacemaker vs Gamtee

Edward Gaming vs Invictus Gaming

Master3 vs OMG

Sunday, 15th March

The first game of the day will again be assigned to Namei’s SHRC who will be facing King on the final day of the week.

Both teams at this point are relatively close to each other and both need a win to stay in the run for that playoff spot. My personal prediction is just the same as the first game this week, a clean sweep by SHRC, simply because I have a lot of faith in Namei and Zero.  King has been performing inconsistent throughout the split and this could be just another game that they would lose without putting up a real fight, just like they did against Snake last week.

Namei’s strength is not to be underestimated or overestimated, but the facts are that this man is the best player when it comes to dodging skillshots, some might even consider Deft to be his equal.

All we can do is wait and hope for Namei to show up big time, a compensation for letting us wait 7 weeks and disappointing us all at worlds.

OMG will be facing Snake in the third match of the day. A battle for second spot, a battle that both teams must win, not only for the rankings, but for personal reasons.

OMG already split twice against Gamtee and another double split in points with Snake would definately not be acceptable for their organisation but also their fans. They have to win, they must win.

We all know that when OMG does show up, games normally against opponents like Snake end up in a sub 30 minute stomp, with incredible outplays and rotations, there are few teams that can deliver the way that OMG does. OMG doesn’t only deliver but they do it with style.

Don’t get me wrong, Snake didn’t take the 3rd seat in the standings because other teams played bad, no, they forced wins, they claimed them and they are still the only team that have taken a full set away from EDG.

The biggest here though is , with which bottom lane will OMG show up and how will they perform!

Sunday’s games:

Star Horn Royal Club vs King

Invictus Gaming vs Gamtee

OMG vs Snake

LGD Gaming vs Master3

Top 3 players to watch:

1.     SHRC’s Namei – The lost son of the LPL is back this week, funny fact is that before he was known as Namei, his name was Devil and he actually returns on Friday the 13th. Scary? Let’s hope so, let’s hope that Namei brings some demonic rage with him onto the rift and obliterates his enemies with some incredibly sick plays!

2.     LGD Gaming’s IMP -  LGD will be facing EDG, Snake and M3 this week and for a World Champion ADC this would be the right time to carry his team towards that wanted 9 points. Yes, 9 points, that would be the perfect week for LGD. IMP has not been playing the way he did at Samsung White, will he be able to step up this week and show us all what kind of a incredible ADC he really is?

3.     SHRC’s InSec -  InSec has not been performing the way we expect him to perform in most of the matches, no, not at all. The lack of a great carry in his team has perhaps set his mental state a bit behind, therefore the addition of Namei could be that little bit of motivation and energy that he needs to start performing “Insec plays” again.

The games are live viewable on the following streams at 6AM CEST:

http://www.twitch.tv/riotgames2

http://star.longzhu.tv/lpl