DreXxiN
2015-05-09 04:12:16
The western participants were unfortunately unable to match to the raw talent and strategy brought by the elite Asian teams. This time, that includes LMS participant, AHQ. However, the European representative in Fnatic were able to secure a spot into the playoffs as 4th seed.
Warrior enchant Reignover? Well, he tried.
It may have taken two years, but the team associated wth ClearLove have finally convinced him that presence is a good thing to have. ClearLove started things off strong as a ganking machine, granting an easy first blood for EDG. In an attempt to mirror the bottom lane events, Fnatic prepared a gank top against Koro1, but as the Chinese top laner is very comfortable on the durable tree, he was able to trade a 1 for 1 kill while diverting Fnatic's jungler away from other more fruitful activities.
Not everyone on Fnatic received the memo that ClearLove was a bloodthirsty, gank-machine, KDA God, however. Huni was one to get greedy seeking 1v1's until ClearLove stalked and finished off his pray. ClearLove wasn't the only stellar jungle performance in this game, though. Where a lot of Fnatic failed to show up, Reignover was hard carrying the early game, but lacked the required late game durability due to his choice in going Warrior enchantment versus Cinderhulk. China: 1 West: 0
When have we ever had to worry about SEA/LMS? C'mon now.
Well, no one really has since Season 2...until now. Unfortunately, expectations for Team Solomid were exceedingly high at this tournament after winning the last global even at IEM Katowice. Team Solomid's decisions were questionable at best right off the bat yet again, unfortunately. Dyrus was once again left to his fate of being the focus of absolutely everyone and giving away first blood. Lustboy had no incentive to really stay and babysit Wildturtle but decided to do it anyway. Had he roamed or even assisted Dyrus, the snowball could have been easily prevented.
Vision and general game-sense would also be a fault of TSM's this game. AHQ, easily scoutable for their early dragon tendencies, were able to start the dragon snowball freely, only sacrificing some solo EXP and farm on Ziv but allowing him to secure the first dragon for free. Dyrus got sick of not being able to play League of Legends and decided to take a vacation in his jungle only to die again. Resource allocation was terrible for TSM, and Dyrus had no way to get back into the game. Had he chosen smite on his Hecarim, he could at least go for jungle camps and scale. Alas, Team Solomid surrendered all dragons and Bjergsen's low mobility champion pick of Cho'Gath didn't help the struggling top lane and jungler either. AHQ took this win.
"Okay, we really need to turn the heat up for -this- one, guys!"
After seeing questionable compositions from EDG on Day 1, they decided to turn it up to 11 and literally comfort pick champions for everyone except for PawN, who reportedly trollfaced as he locked in Twisted Fate. There's honestly not much to say about this game other than the obvious fact that it was a mismatch (an apocalyptic mismatch, if we use Jatt lingo.) Deft became insanely fed, PawN helped snowball bot with his incredible blue card ganks, and Koro was even able to build a ton of DPS on his famous Gnar. Easy game, next.
A bug's life
This is easily one of the most controversial games in an international even that dates recently. Apparently Wolf wasn't able to E over to the baron pit which might have lost SKT a stolen baron, and Reignover got stuck at baron...there was no pause, of course. Anyway, SKT basically had a jugger-Lucian game going on. Bang is rather proficient on this hero, but doesn't benefit as much as other ADs in regards to Faker's Lulu benefits and Bengi's Nunu benefits. Still, we saw Bengi as a bit more vulnerable without his beloved Rek'Sai.
Fnatic tried some clever things, like brute-forcing deep vision to force a lane swap but SKT was able to scout it. Fnatic didn't let up and made some intellectual map movements. Huni was able to roam down and assist Febiven in counter-acting Faker's overaggresion, grabbing a first blood on the legendary mid laner. While kill disparity was greatly in favor of Fnatic, SKT were able to hold out and go even in fights despite a deficit. Fast forward and Bang gets a pentakill, all is right in the world, Korea wins again. Yay!
A nearly game winning flash + ulti from Febiven...Simply...beautiful.
"You're not allowed to play League of Legends anymore, Dyrus...again. Just sit on tower as Sion and suffer."
I know this might come as a surprise, but Dyrus was camped. This time, probably discouraged from the slaughter of his last game, he'd be repeatedly abused by this. Unfortunately, despite all the resources diverted towards Dyrus, TSM wasn't able to capitalize elsewhere. This was especially shameful as EDG were on rather unfamiliar picks versus TSM's comfortable champions that they grew accustomed to in the North American LCS playoffs.
ClearLove once again was caught taking his nerd steroids, playing a huge role in the snowbally nature of this game and padding his already absurd score line from the tournament. ClearLove sends Reignover his regards on how to carry on Rek'Sai.
"Well, at least these guys will get us into playoffs..."
BJK's glory was short lived while contesting jungle camps against the blue-side Fnatic bottom lane. Unfortunately, that was about all they had going for them. While Fnatic were a bit overzealous at times in this game, they could afford to be purely due to the skill and experience gap between the two teams. Huni sealed the deal with his trademarked excellent teleports.
In more important news, the best phrase in all of eSports casting was spoken: "Snipe killed Dumbledoge."
"Faker's still hungover from his birthday and it's late. Bring in Easyhoon."
AHQ vs. SKT was probably the most surprising match of the night, with AHQ looking to be the most formidable of foe for SKT so far this tournament if we exclude their shallow late game. Easyhoon got a taste of his own LCK playoff medicine with Westdoor hiding off to the side to flash in and nom Easyhoon for a memorable solo kill. As expected with any team that hits a plateau due to the competition in their region, AHQ were a bit sloppy with their lead. Free kills given up for nearly nothing put a stop to their momentum.
AHQ weren't entirely terrible with their leads, however. In fact, they were capable of taking objectives after kills and setting up deep vision and counter-vision. While both teams generally have great dragon control, SKT secured basically all of them in this game. A well calculated baron rush from SKT and a careless deep vision attempt by AHQ's support helped turn the once favorable game for the LMS squad on its head. SKT may have looked shaky twice in the early game today, but prevailed and looked nearly invincible when teams attempted to close it out. SKT leads the groups as a result.
For more content, feel free to follow the author at @ESHDrexxin. All images courtesy of Lolesports and Twitch.
