Game One:
Samsung Galaxy 1-0 Vega Squadron
The first match of IEM Gyeonggi pitted world championship runners-up, Samsung Galaxy, against the LCL’s Vega Squadron. Most expected this first game to be an easy sweep for Samsung, but Vega Squadron wanted to continue the LCL’s international success, first started by Albus NoX Luna.
Vega dominated most of this game, with Samsung continuing to exhibit the same early game problems they had at the KeSPA Cup. Vega managed to grab both infernal drakes, as well as a 33 minute Baron.
While it looked almost hopeless for Samsung, a miracle team fight win at the Elder Drake pit granted the Korean team both major buffs. With such an advantage, Samsung easily took down the Nexus, despite the lead Vega held for most of the game.
Game Two:
Immortals 1-0 J Team
This was an important match for Immortals. This was the debut match for their new roster, and many eyes were peeled to see how they would perform. Not only did they do well, but Immortals completely demolished J Team, who finished the most recent LMS regular split in first place.
Immortals showed great jungle and mid coordination through their repeated cross map plays in the bottom lane. Eugene “Pobelter” Park had an impressive performance on Orianna, playing a crucial role in IMT’s team fight wins.
Immortals cleanly closed out the game in a quick 28 minutes, finishing the game with a 13,000 gold lead.
Game Three (Winners Match):
Samsung Galaxy 2-0 Immortals
Despite being a 2-0 victory for Samsung, Immortals put up a fight in this series. In both games, Samsung and Immortals were fairly close in score, but Samsung continuously managed to find slight leads in team fights and skirmishes.
Samsung hit their stride in both games through a major team fight win. Samsung used this win to capture the major map objectives (Baron or Elder Drake). After this point, Samsung demonstrated their ability to close out games with a lead. Immortals made valiant attempts to hold off Samsung’s pushes, but ultimately, they couldn’t withstand it.
Game Four (Losers Match):
J Team 2-0 Vega Squadron
Vega actually had a great early game in game one. Aleksandr “NoNholy” Ovchinikov solo-killed Chen “Mornin” Kuan-Ting in the top lane, and Vega looked like they could actually win the series. The turning point for J Team in game one came from a perfectly executed team fight, where J Team stunned almost all of Vega with Ekko’s parallel convergence, allowing Twitch to decimate Vega. After this, J Team was in full control of this game, although the Taiwanese team struggled to close out the game.
J Team had a much more convincing victory in the second game of this series. From start to finish, J Team was in complete control of game two. J Team ended the second and final game of this series in a fast 28 minutes, with a kill score of 16-1.
Game Five (Decider Match):
Immortals 2-1 J Team
This final series of the day went back and forth for the two teams. Game one in the series went in favor of Immortals. The North American team simply out team-fought J Team in game one. Not deterred by their game one loss, J Team fired back with their own dominating performance, but in this game, J team continued to demonstrate their lack of ability to close out games.
Immortals closed out this series, ultimately sending J Team back home in game three. Immortals’ team cohesion surpassed J Team’s. This cohesion allowed Immortals to out-rotate J Team in the final game of this series.
What was your favourite moment of day one? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting us @GAMURScom.
Article by Malcolm Abbas. Follow him on Twitter @SmashhLoL.
Photo courtesy of LoL Esports and Immortals
