Misfits Inch Closer to the NACS

Introduction

(Image taken from https://www.facebook.com/misfitsgg?fref=ts&ref=br_tf)

UPDATE: Misfits have since changed their name to Renegades.

For those of you who don’t know, Misfits is a NA Challenger team consisting of:

• Mid – Alex Ich

• Jungle – Crumbz

• Support – Remilia

• Top – RF Legendary

• ADC – Jebus (Currently being filled by subs due to Visa issues)

The Misfits haven’t yet made it to the NA Challenger Series, but they are giving it their best shot. This week, they made it one step closer to the NACS by defeating Team Liquid Academy 2-1 in a Bo3 matchup during the NACS Summer Split Qualifier Tournament. Details on the tournament can be found at http://lol.esportspedia.com/wiki/2015_NA_Challenger_Series/Summer_Qualifier. While most of the games are not streamed, you can find VODs uploaded after the games at http://na.lolesports.com/vods/league/na-cs

Here’s a breakdown of the this week’s matches:

Game 1

Misfits: Kalista, Rumble, Nautilus, Orianna, Sejuani

Team Liquid Academy: Thresh, Rek’Sai, Sion, Urgot, Viktor

Straight from the beginning, Crumbz played a dominant game on Sejuani jungle. Starting with a level one Gromp steal off of an early invade, Crumbz was where he needed to be when he needed to be there. He picked up first blood, killing Viktor in an early skirmish near Dragon, and then kept the pressure on, ganking Viktor in the mid lane to secure his second kill. TLA was not going down without a fight however, as they picked up the first turret and the first two Dragons of the game.

The real advantage for the Misfits came when RF Legendary gave up a death to a four-man TLA dive in the top lane at about 20 minutes, and the Misfits began to pressure the map elsewhere, out-rotating TLA over the next three minutes to respond with four towers. After this gold surge, the Misfits were able to come out on top in the next few skirmishes, taking towers, Dragons, and even Baron after successful fights. After dominantly pushing down all three inhibitors, the Misfits secured one last Baron to fuel the final push.

Game 2

Misfits: Hecarim, Rek’Sai, Azir, Jinx, Thresh

Team Liquid Academy: Gnar, Gragas, Leblanc, Ashe, Morgana

Game Two started off great for the Misfits again, with nearly all lanes outfarming TLA and first blood going over to Crumbz on Rek’Sai. However, the game soon stagnated, with TLA earning a couple of picks and the Misfits being unable to answer with any major objectives. As time passed, the TLA lineup was beginning to scale well, with a tanky front line in Gragas and Gnar as well as the damage from Ashe and Leblanc to back it up.

At about 26:30, the Misfits were up four towers to two, but TLA turned a jungle fight around the Misfits’ blue buff into a five for nothing Ace, swinging the game into their favor. At this point, Ashe was 6-1-2 and Leblanc was 3-1-4, and TLA went for a quick Baron. While it looked bleak for the Misfits, Crumbz was able to use Rek’Sai to ult behind Baron and tunnel into the pit just in time for a steal, but not without costing him his life. With Baron, the Misfits were able to take two more turrets before the game then slowed down again. While the gold remained about even at this point, TLA’s tanky front line and burst potential began to outscale the autoattack-based Misfits team.

The Misfits knew they could not win a teamfight 5v5, so they snuck a baron and sent RF Legendary to split push top while the rest of the team went mid. However, TLA caught out RF before any towers were able to be pressured and proceeded to force the remaining four baron buffs to expire. With Baron off of the table, TLA was able to five-man push a few towers and force a 5v5 teamfight in the mid lane, securing an Ace with a tremendous explosive cask into a four-man Gnar ultimate to allow TLA to push to finish off Game Two.

Game 3

Misfits: Gnar, Sejuani, Orianna, Sivir, Morgana

Team Liquid Academy: Nunu, Rumble, Kog’Maw, Jinx, Nautilus

In Game Three, Crumbz was on Sejuani, and just like in Game One, he secured first blood for the Misfits, killing Jinx at about 11 minutes into the game. However, this kill was met with two back for TLA’s Rumble, as Sejuani and Morgana went down on the Misfits side. The TLA lead was short-lived, however, as Crumbz quickly returned top to gift a kill on Rumble to RF Legendary’s Gnar. Top turret soon fell to the Misfits and Nien picked up a kill on Jinx in the bottom lane which also came with bottom turret. The Misfits quickly pushed out their lanes and caught out Nautilus in the jungle, giving them the space to push down mid turret to take all of TLA’s outer turrets.

Aware of the damage that the TLA Luden’s Kog’Maw was now dishing out, the Misfits avoided starting any sieges. At about 19:30, a perfectly timed Crumbz Sejuani ult  around Dragon hit both Kog’Maw and Jinx and gave the Misfits a four for nothing trade to pull even farther ahead in gold and secure their first Dragon. From here, the Misfits used the Sejuani ball delivery system to take out Jinx, Kog’Maw, and Nunu in the jungle and secure Baron at just under 24 minutes. The Misfits were then able to take the second tier tower on bot to extend their gold lead to about 10k, but the Kog’Maw harass stopped them from taking anything else.

At about this time, Remilia bought her signature item, Banner of Command. Empowering a cannon minion bottom drew Jinx to clear it out, giving the Misfits time to secure their second Baron of the game. The Misfits set up siege on TLA’s mid inhibitor turret, with a cannon minion empowered by both Baron buff and Banner of Command. TLA struggled to kill this minion, as it was immune to magic damage, and it ended up taking a good portion of the mid turret’s health before Jinx chained together a few Zaps! to take it down. By then, the tower was low enough for the Misfits to simply follow the next wave up and take it down with the inhibitor itself.

After recalling, Remilia sent an empowered minion down bot lane while the team pushed top to take the top inhibitor turret, but a poorly initiated fight left RF Legendary dead and the rest of the Misfits low as they retreated without a second inhibitor. However, TLA’s top inhibitor was still exposed, and the Misfits returned to power through a team fight in the TLA base and take the game and the series after killing all but Nunu.

Next Up

Next week, the Misfits play Magnetic for a chance to come out on top of bracket one and qualify for the NACS Summer Split! Follow @UgawaLoL for more articles and updates!