NA LCS Week 2 Day 3 Recap: And Then There Was One

With week two rounded out, Cloud9 still holds and undefeated record. However, they didn’t hold it easily, as Counter Logic Gaming gave them a back-and-forth run for their money. 

Here is how week two, day three of the NA LCS went down:

(1-3) Team Liquid 0-2 Phoenix1 (3-1)

Game One: P1 managed to score a first blood against Samson “Lourlo” Jackson, which allowed Rami “Inori” Charagh to put pressure around the map. With every carry on P1 fed at this point, TL stood no chance in team fights. TL was forced to play safe, but P1 seemed to be one step ahead at every turn. With no vision or map control, TL had no choice but to let P1 run through their turrets. A strong hold from TL only delayed the inevitable. P1, with an explosive team fight, aced TL and took the nexus, winning game one after a dominant performance.

Game Two: A few quick scraps around the map left TL with the short end of the stick. Even though their lead was small, P1 was able to expand it in order to gain dominance once again. P1 had complete control over TL’s jungle. At this point, TL was forced to wait for P1 to make a mistake. Maokai, however, was just too tanky for the TL squad, as he absorbed everything they threw at him and led P1 to victory.

(2-2) Echo Fox 2-1 FlyQuest (3-1)

Game One: After a quick invade, EF found an easy first blood onto FLY, which gave Akaadian an easy lead. With the first blood gold acquired, EF made plays around the map and brought themselves to a 2k gold lead at the 10-minute mark. Despite FLY’s attempts to fight back, they were at too much of a gold deficit to win a team fight. A last ditch effort from FLY to steal baron left them six feet under, which allowed EF to secure the first inhibitor of the game. Not long after that, EF destroyed FLY’s nexus to take game one.

Game Two: Right off the bat, FLY secured a first blood on Austin “Gate” Yu as he overstepped in presence in the bottom lane. With this small lead, Johnny “Altec” Ru was able to apply enough pressure to take first tower in favor of FLY. With that tower gone, FLY were able to use their bot lane power around the map to gain pressure on the map. Now, with Altec and Galen “Moon” Holgate fed and EF with nowhere to go, FLY made quick work of EF fight after fight to ultimately take down the nexus and win game two.

Game Three: The final game kicked off immediately as Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham scored first blood once again. FLY tried to respond with a kill of their own but EF was way ahead of them and scored two more kills in the process. As FLY tried to make a push for first tower in the top lane, EF answered with three kills and secured their early dominance. Despite their lead, EF couldn’t stay dominant for long as FLY made plays around the map and brought the game back to an even playing field. With the game dead even, FLY was able to start winning fights by small amounts. EF, however, found a winning fight and killed most of FLY, which allowed them to push into the base and take the nexus, handing FLY their first lost of the split.

(2-2) Immortals 2-1 Team EnVyUs (0-4)

Game One: A quick invade gave EnVyUs an easy lead with two kills before minions spawned. As the game progressed, EnVyUs found kills around the map, but IMT found four solo kills on their carries. EnVyUs, however, took a strong lead heading into the mid-game. Unfortunately for them, they made a risky call to try and steal a baron from IMT, which resulted in EnVyUs getting aced. Despite losing the baron, EnVyUs still had complete control of IMT. Within the next 10 minutes, EnVyUs destroyed IMT’s base to take game one of the series.

Game Two: With game two underway, both IMT and EnVyUs traded kills across the map as both junglers made an early level three gank. Despite EnVyUs having the kill lead, they weren’t far ahead of IMT. EnVyUs decided to take baron, and although they got it, three of them died. That small trade left IMT enough room to contest EnVyUs for map pressure. Dardoch was a little fed at this point, and found opportunities to pick of members of EnVyUs for a quadra kill in a teamfight before ultimately winning the game for IMT.

Game Three: After failing a gank attempt in the top lane and giving up two kills, IMT made huge plays in the bot lane and secured four kills. With this wealth spread across the team, IMT found multiple kills around the map. Dardoch had five kills to his name and started to give kills over to IMT’s carries. Despite EnVyUs being able to kill IMT’s carries multiple times, they couldn’t kill Dardoch and Lee “Flame” Ho-jong, even in a two-on-four scenario. With this raw power, IMT were able to consistently kill most of the EnVyUs roster, but they never had enough people alive in order to make something happen. One last fight let IMT make clean work of EnVyUs to win the series.

(4-0) Cloud9 2-1 Counter Logic Gaming (1-3)

Game One: Similar to game two of IMT vs EnVyUs, the junglers traded kills on opposite sides of the map with their early ganks. In similar fashion to the previous week, Juan “Contractz” Garcia made plays all around the map, picking up solo kills for himself and getting way ahead of Jake “Xmithie” Puchero. Unfortunately, Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong couldn’t find a good engage and kept dying before a fight really began. Thankfully for C9, Contractz was strong enough to force kills and ultimately win the first game for his team.

Game Two: Taking advantage of Impact, Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya and Xmithie secured two kills and gave CLG an easy first tower and map control. At this point, C9 had to fight for map and objective control. Despite putting two kills into Darshan in the early game, C9 did well to shut him down and give the lead to Impact. CLG, however, already had transferred that early lead into Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun, and they remained ahead of C9. Thankfully for CLG, C9 had no resources invested into their carries, so they had no raw damage to kill CLG’s frontline. After a few pushes into the base of C9, CLG finally found enough kills to take the nexus and bring the series to game three.

Game Three: As the final game went underway, Contractz was looking to scout out dragon, but he was spotted by a ward that gave CLG enough information to take him out for first blood. Contractz tried to gank his way back into the game, but CLG did well to stop him almost every time. A strong CC-based team composition allowed CLG to play aggressively and punish C9 for taking bad engages. C9, however, found the perfect engage that allowed them to secure the gold lead and overall map pressure. Late game had taken effect and CLG started making favorable trades and brought the gold difference back. With Impact split-pushing bot lane, CLG chose to take baron, which resulted in C9 getting four kills and an inhibitor. Slowly but surely, Impact split pushed all of CLG’s towers down, which ultimately forced CLG to take a risky fight that they lost. With this, C9 took the game and remained undefeated at the end of week two.

What are your thoughts on the second week of the NA LCS? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting us @GAMURScom.