It is that time of year again, for the season ending event after the World Championships, All-Stars 2016. Teams were created by fan votes to compete in a glorious competition with the classic match to always kick us off: the NA LCS vs. the EU LCS All-Stars. Here’s how things went down:
NA LCS All-Stars
Impact: Poppy
Reignover: Rengar
Bjergsen: Orianna
Doubelift: Twitch
Aphromoo: Janna
BANS: Karma/Lissandra/Lee Sin
EU LCS All-Stars
SoaZ: Nautilus
Jankos: Rek’Sai
Xpeke: Ahri
Rekkles: Ashe
Mithy: Zyra
BANS: Katarina/Ryze/LeBlanc
After an impressive opening display, with musical numbers showing highlights from across the globe for the entire year, the stage was set for the first showdown. It was time to jump onto the Rift with the EU LCS on home turf in Barcelona.
This was our first chance to see the pros using the new season patch and it did not disappoint, as Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin was nearly caught out in the opening minutes, and both sides burned a lot of flashes with no kills coming out of it.
Reignover nearly got caught out once again, this time in the top lane by Paul “sOAZ” Boyer, but a Poppy ultimate saved his life.
Finally, at seven minutes, Team Ice struck first with Martin “Rekkles” Larsson taking first blood against Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black, nearly losing their lives to a Reignover gank, but both teams used their heal summoner abilities to stay alive.
Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong made it a one-for-one in the top lane a few moments later as Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg roamed up top to assist on a Poppy kill.
Trying to gain some momentum, NA roamed bottom for a three man gank that gifted NA two kills and the first tower kill of the game to tie up the gold lead and then take a slight lead in the first 10 minutes of the game. But, EU was able to take the tier one mid tower to claw back a bit of gold.
Europe did manage to get the second tower as things began to calm down, but sOAZ fell to a two-on-one once again, gifting Bjergsen a kill to keep NA in a slight lead.
Suddenly, a fight happened in the top lane, ending with a third tower being taken for EU and no kills. Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng tried to respond by taking a tower in the bot lane, but he was unsuccessful as EU regained the lead.
NA did secure the second dragon with EU getting, surprisingly, the Rift Herald of all things in response, something that wasn’t a priority for some players at Worlds.
Doublelift continued his split push quest to secure a second tower for NA as EU was unable to acquire anything in the process, putting NA back into the gold lead slightly at the 20-minute mark.
NA continued to grow their lead over the course of the game, securing two kills on Alfonso “mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez and securing their third dragon, while EU seemed to have no way back into the game.
A team fight started by EU seemed to be working in their favor as they caught out the NA LCS, but North America showed up, securing three kills and the Baron, losing only one kill in the process.
NA continued to force forward, using the Baron to secure towers and the bottom inhibitor. EU was unable to do much against NA, until finally, a breakthrough; EU secured three kills on NA and started to push up the mid lane to secure map control.
But NA answered back, taking three kills and went straight towards the Nexus, taking the two Nexus turrets. Finally, NA secured the base, thanks to a second Baron, and took the win for Team Fire after a successful stomp of the EU LCS.
Adam Newell is a journalist for @GAMURScom and can be contacted in ways displayed below. If you have any tips or want anything covered, be sure to let us know:
Email: adam.newell10@outlook.com
Twitter: @MonkeyKingHero
