When the first two minutes of a League of Legends match start with a failed invade followed by a Flash-Q Red Buff steal attempt from a support Varus, you know the game is going to be good.
The final day of the League All-Star 2020 event began with a showmatch between popular North American and European streamers, creating dream teams that could only be possible on this stage.
Team North America, consisting of Trick2G, Yassuo, Voyboy, Tyler1, and Starsmitten, pulled out all the stops against Team Europe’s Elwind, Noway, Overpow, Corobizar, and SivHD through sticking to comfort picks and snowballing Europe’s heavy engage composition.
The picks and bans for the showmatch were rather typical for an event known for its amusing showcase of individual skill, with Team Europe focusing on engage and crowd control-heavy champions such as Malphite and Sett whereas Team NA went for a more traditional solo-queue composition. Trick2G’s top lane Udyr was the most surprising (yet not unexpected) pick for the team, though it was expected that he would build the new item Prowler’s Claw on the champion to allow for him to be impactful across the map.
Yassuo’s performance on Zac bested NoWay’s jungling on Gragas, leading to numerous objective steals that pushed Team NA further ahead before the Baron Nashor even spawned. NA’s lead was uncontested as they secured a Rift Herald and three elemental drakes prior to 20 minutes, with complete map control that left EU in the dark—literally, they couldn’t ward.
Yassuo’s Zac shined even further in combination with Voyboy’s Sylas, who had a wide variety of effective ultimates to steal that worked great with Zac’s crowd control. This rendered Overpow’s Malphite, which was expected to be impactful in unexpected engages, to be inferior to Sylas that took the powerful ultimate and made it his own.
NoWay, the current mid laner for No Need Orga yet playing off-role this game on jungle, started the game targeting Trick2G and his infamous Udyr in the top lane. He put his other lanes in danger, however, as Tyler1’s Draven and Voyboy’s Sylas cleaned up their respective lane opponents.
Although the strange combination of Corobizar’s Swain and SivHD’s support Varus seemed oppressive in champion select, Tyler1’s patented Draven proved to be too much for the duo. When accompanied by Starsmitten’s Lulu, a champion currently dominating solo queue due to recent buffs, it took three members from the European squad to shut down the axe-swinging madman early. Even so, an aggressive sustainable lane like this against an untraditional one prevented EU’s bot lane duo from coming back into the fray. Swain did pick up a few noticeable kills with his ultimate, but Varus was unable to get many ultimates off before getting burst down in a matter of seconds.
Following what seemed to be a successful last-ditch effort teamfight by Elwind’s Sett, the simultaneous dishing of damage and healing from Voyboy’s Sylas allowed him to outplay three members of Team Europe as the sole survivor of Team NA, picking up the ace and teleporting to the enemy Nexus to win the game.
Voyboy, a former member of Team Dignitas, ended the game with 22 kills, more kills than the entirety of Team Europe. The entirety of Team NA noted Voyboy as the carry of the game, but it wouldn’t be a game with NA streamers without fun banter in the post-game interview.
In an event that posed the question “Who runs the Rift?”, it seems that finally, in the longstanding rivalry between NA and EU, NA reigned supreme.
