Undefeated no more: NA LCS Week 5, Day 2 Recap

A rematch of the 2016 summer finals, Team SoloMid came into their match today against Cloud9 hoping to get revenge for their first loss of the split back in the opening week. To find out the result of this match and more, check out today’s recap.

Counter Logic Gaming 2-1 Immortals

An early team-fight in the bot lane gave Counter Logic Gaming a sizeable lead to start off game one. Having a better macro game than Immortals, CLG used their lead not to get kills, but instead take all of the outer turrets on the map. IMT tried to start a fight to take the lead but were stopped by CLG every time. The early Baron was the icing on the cake for CLG, as they used the buff to end the game in one push, similar to game one in their series against TSM a couple of weeks back.

Game two went back and forth until the end. IMT came into the mid game ahead, holding onto two infernal drakes. CLG found their way back into the game through a Baron steal by Jake “Xmithie” Puchero. Unable to finish the game with the Baron, CLG proceeded to slowly die. Since CLG drafted a composition that didn’t scale well with Zed, by the time late game hit, IMT almost auto-won all team-fights. CLG tried to counteract their composition’s weakness through flanks and picks, but were unsuccessful, allowing IMT to even up the series. 

CLG had full control over the dragon pit in game three. Taking all three ocean drakes, CLG was unstoppable during team-fights. There was little IMT could do against the constant health regeneration CLG had through their drakes and Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black’s Soraka. Once CLG found the Baron, the game was over. CLG rolled through IMT’s base to take the game and series.

Team SoloMid 2-1 Cloud9

Aside from a couple of kills for each side, neither team came out of the lane phase with a real lead. A team-fight win 23 minutes in is what pushed Team SoloMid ahead. Taking the Baron with their man advantage, TSM took over the map, destroying Cloud9’s inhibitor turrets. Trying to stop TSM from taking the second Baron, C9 started a fight in the Baron pit. Off the back of Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell’s amazing positioning, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg was able to get a pentakill. With no members of C9 standing, TSM closed out game one with ease.

Drafting a tankless team, TSM looked to find a lead early and snowball, which they succeeded to do. Gaining a massive lead in the early game, TSM transitioned it to seven towers and three drakes; but one overextension in C9’s base turned the whole game around. C9 used their team-fight win to take the Baron, and suddenly not having a tank became a huge detriment to TSM. Not being able to delete the health of C9’s members anymore, TSM started to lose fights. And after scaling patiently, C9 was able to take down TSM to end the game and even up the series.

Finding two picks on Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia and C9 started game three with a lead. But like in game one, TSM found their lead once again through a team-fight in the mid lane. Taking the Baron, TSM proceeded to ravage the map. C9 had a resurgence this game with a Baron steal by Contractz, but it wasn’t enough. Once they realized the Baron buff had worn off, TSM stormed through C9’s base, taking game three, thus breaking C9’s win streak.

Team Dignitas 2-1 Team Liquid

Team Liquid started game one with a quick kill in the bot lane. Exerting pressure, TL transitioned their lead into objectives. Team Dignitas started to catch up to TL in the mid game, but slowly started to lose more team-fights as the game went into the late game. Once TL got their Caitlyn and Maokai to six items, the game was over. DIG was not able to stand against the two late game monsters and eventually fell, earning TL a game one victory.

Jang “Keane” Lae-young started game two with a great gank turnaround, killing two members of TL. Amassing an early lead, Keane proceeded to dominate the game. Roaming all around the map, Keane helped the rest of his team get ahead. TL, barely able to defend themselves, just couldn’t come back, allowing DIG to finish game two quite decisively.

Ending the laning phase with no real lead, DIG found their stride in game three after they almost aced TL in their jungle. Blowing the game open, the now Baron-empowered DIG had full control of the game. Creating fights with Jhin’s Curtain Call, DIG continued to grow their lead on the map, taking more and more objectives. DIG continued this until they eventually got to the enemy nexus where they could end game three in 31 minutes.

Team EnVyUs 2-0 Echo Fox

The first 20 minutes of game one was filled with both sides trading kills. Echo Fox found a kill but a member of Team EnVyUs was always able to get a return kill. Finding a straggling member of EF, nV tried to create a pick, which escalated into a team-fight and resulted in three kills and a Baron for nV. Now with the lead, nV pushed down the mid lane to end game one.

Losing early skirmishes, EF fell behind in the early game. Unable to even up the game, EF kept falling further behind. Continuously able to find picks, nV used their man advantage to slowly take apart EF’s turrets and eventually base. With only two kills to nV’s 13, EF could only watch as nV took the game and series 2-0.

What was your favorite moment of the night? Let us know by tweeting us @GAMURScom.

Article by Malcolm Abbas. Follow him on Twitter @SmashhLoL.