Magnetic (Now Imagine) Claims Last Spot in 2015 NACS

Introduction

(Image from http://na.lolesports.com/vods/)

On Tuesday, June 16^th, challenger teams CLG Black and Magnetic (now called Imagine) battled in a Bo3 series for the final spot in the 2015 Summer NA Challenger Series. Having lost both of their finals matches against C9 Tempest and Misfits respectively, both teams aimed to redeem themselves in the third place match on Tuesday. The teams’ rosters are:

CLG Black

• Mid – Scarra
• Jungle – Thinkcard
• Support – i KeNNy u
• Top – Lourlo
• ADC – Frost

Magnetic/Imagine

• Mid – Wolfe
• Jungle – Dardoch
• Support – Indivisible
• Top – Big Ol Ron
• ADC – themassacre8

Here’s a breakdown of Tuesday’s matches:

Game 1

CLG Black (CLB): Rumble, Sejuani, Vladimir, Sivir, Alistar

Magnetic: Gnar, Rek’Sai, Ekko, Corki, Bard

The game starts with CLB initiating an early lane swap, sending the duo lane top while having Rumble and Sejuani double jungle on the top side of the map. Meanwhile, Magnetic’s Corki sets up a freeze in the bottom lane while Bard follows Rek’Sai through the bottom jungle. After clearing a few camps and getting buffs, Magnetic’s Rek’Sai rotates bottom to take the turret with Corki and Bard while CLB’s Rumble and Sejuani rotate top to answer with a turret of their own.

At this point, the teams don’t change it up too much, with Magnetic continuing to send themassacre8 and Indivisible bottom and CLB continuing to send their duo lane top. However, while CLB has some trouble pushing out Magnetic’s Gnar in the top lane, Magnetic’s Corki and Bard push to CLB’s second tier bottom turret, bringing down CLB’s Sejuani to help Rumble defend. Seeing an opportunity, Magnetic’s Wolfe brings his Ekko bottom to secure first blood for Indivisible’s Bard. With no bottom lane pressure from CLB, Magnetic pull back to take the first Dragon of the game. The game then slows down for the next few minutes, with Magnetic pulling ahead with a few picks on CLB, ultimately awarding them the second Dragon of the game as well. The game quickly becomes about jungle vision, with Wolfe on Ekko splitting the side lanes as the rest of Magnetic group up to pressure the map. Magnetic sticks to this strategy, sometimes gaining turrets by managing pressure and sometimes catching CLB out on a rotation through the jungle. Either way, CLB begins to play Magnetic’s game, with Magnetic dictating where CLB has to go.

When the third Dragon of the game spawns, CLB beats Magnetic there, but they are caught off guard by a flank from Ekko on the bottom of the pit and a teleport from Gnar on the top. Magnetic comes out of the fight with four kills and no deaths and begin to pull ahead in gold, securing a turret as well as another Dragon for themselves. With a gold advantage, Magnetic push all three lanes, setting up vision around Baron. During the vision dance, Magnetic catches out Sejuani, giving them the opportunity to kill baron without the threat of a smite steal. However, CLB still try to contest Baron, and they end up giving up three kills for nothing, allowing Magnetic to take Baron and a turret afterwards.

At this point, 27 minutes in, CLB is down 12k gold and 15 kills. Fourth Dragon goes uncontested to Magnetic, and a fight breaks out in the mid lane with CLB caught out of position. Magnetic score an Ace and take mid inhibitor afterwards. With mid and bot lane spawning super minions, Magnetic turns its focus to the recently spawned Baron. A fight over vision in the top jungle breaks out and Magnetic come out on top with an Ace and no deaths, turning to push the nexus for the Game One victory.

Game 2

CLG Black (CLB): Gnar, Lee Sin, Ziggs, Kalista, Bard

Magnetic: Maokai, Nidalee, Varus, Kog’Maw, Alistar

CLB starts this game off very aggressively, with small skirmishes in nearly every lane and a jungle invade on the bottom side by CLB’s duo lane. However, Magnetic quickly rotate and catch CLB on the invade, giving Wolfe’s Varus first blood by taking down CLB’s Kalista before any minions even spawned.

Despite the early carnage, the beginning of the game remains calm, with normal lanes assigned for both teams. CLB’s Lee Sin prioritizes top lane, and Thinkcard continually makes return trips top to thwart Big Ol Ron’s Maokai. On the second successful gank, CLB is able to secure top turret, but Magnetic responds with a kill mid, a rotation bottom to pick up bottom turret, and Dragon immediately after. In return, CLB picks up mid tower, and the map resets for a few minutes.

The teams continue to skirmish, picking up kills here and there but not managing to gain much of an objective or gold advantage. However, at 19:30, CLB picks up their first Dragon due to a numbers advantage on the bottom side of the map, and then they turn to take bottom turret while Magnetic try to take mid, but are held off by Ziggs’ waveclear. With no clear gold advantage, the pattern of small skirmishes without major objectives being taken continues.

At about 25 minutes, a fight breaks out near the Baron pit that allows Magnetic to take top turret while CLB rush the mid second tier. After CLB backs off, Magnetic is able to take their second Dragon without contest. The teams farm a bit more and Magnetic’s ability to poke with Kog’Maw, Nidalee, and Varus becomes incredibly clear to CLB, so CLB quickly rotate bot to take tier two bot tower, giving up only one member in their retreat.

The next fight happens by baron, where Magnetic catch out Gnar and end up killing Lee Sin when he tries to help. This gives Magnetic enough time to take a quick Baron and their third Dragon immediately after recalling. Magnetic then uses their buffs to push the mid tier two turret. Magnetic peels back and recalls to use their newly achieved 6k gold advantage to invest in items, and the team groups bot lane to push. A fight breaks out by the bot lane turret, and Magnetic score three kills, allowing them to tear through turrets, pushing all the way through to the nexus with their two AD ranged champions and become the last team to qualify for the 2015 Summer NA Challenger Series.

Next Up

The first games of the NACS begin on June 23^rd starting at 9pm EDT:

• 9:00pm – Team Coast vs. Winterfox
• 10:00pm (approx.) – Magnetic (Imagine) vs. Final Five
• 11:00pm (approx.) – Misfits vs. Cloud9 Tempest

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