Big Names Start the Action: NA CS Week 1 Recap

The North American Challenger Series kicked off its’ spring split with three series featuring all the teams in the league. If you want to know who’s who and who’s new in the CS check out our NA CS preview here. One team sits atop the standings after the first week of action.

(0-1-0) Tempo Storm 1-1 eUnited (0-1-0) In the first game between these two teams, Tempo Storm picked a strong pick composition that featured Ashe, Vi, Syndra, and Malzahar. Despite a sloppy tower dive early in the match, Tempo Storm hit their power spikes and used their pick comp to great effect. Tempo Storm quickly took down objective after objective and closed out the game with close to a 10k gold lead. In the second game, eUnited gave it right back to Tempo Storm just as bad. The team got an early lead off the back of jungler Erberk “Gilius” Demir. His European teammate, Hampus “Fox” Myhre, picked up the team from there and transitioned to a strong led for eUnited. The team closed out the game in dominant fashion, leading 15-2 in kills with an 11k gold lead. Since series in the CS are only two games, the series ended tied 1-1.

(0-0-1) Team Gates 0-2 Delta Fox (1-0-0) The first game was even for much of its time, but took a turn near the 35-minute mark. Team Gates made a call to go for the Elder Drake, but Jonathan “Grigne” Armao stole it and Delta Fox would eventually win a long and drawn out fight. On the back of that Elder Drake, Delta Fox eventually took Baron, with Grigne pulling out another important smite and the fight went heavily in Fox’s favor as they finished the game. In the second game, though the kills were even at three a piece twenty minutes into the game, Delta Fox to a significant lead with three turrets to none and three dragons to none. Their objective work gave Delta Fox a around a 5k gold lead. A botched team fight gave Team Gates a Baron and a way back into the game. Delta Fox found their lead again through an unconventional Baron play, utilizing the Elise rappel and the Corki package. Though the game dragged on for a bit longer, Delta Fox were able to snowball their way to a victory and a clean 2-0 series over Team Gates.

(0-1-0) Gold Coin United 1-1 Big Gods Jackals (0-1-0) Gold Coin United opened up an early game lead by focusing on their bot lane, which was missing starting support Hong “MadLife” Min-gi due to visa issues. Big Gods Jackals fought their way back into the game and took their advantage at an Elder Drake fight late into the game. The fight turned heavily in Big Gods Jackals favor, as Gold Coin United’s top laner Colin “Solo” Earnest was missing from the fight and Big Gods Jackals earned the win in game one. During the second match, the game was mostly even early on. A hectic team fight around Baron during the mid-game went in favor of Gold Coin United, and they were able to open up a strong lead. Though they got a strong lead, Gold Coin United struggled to close out the game and the match stalled out. Gold Coin United eventually found a quick pick onto Jovani “fabbbyyy” Guillen, which allowed them to close out the game and secure a tie in the series.

Current Standings

1. Delta Fox (1-0-0)
2. Big Gods Jackals (0-1-0)
3. eUnited (0-1-0)
4. Gold Coin United (0-1-0)
5. Tempo Storm (0-1-0)
6. Team Gates (0-0-1)

With the first week of play out of the way, what do you think of the NA CS teams so far? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @GAMURScom.