As Cloud9 held first place heading into the day, they were ready to be put to the test against the familiar roster of FlyQuest. A civil war was brewing, and only one team could be crowned the winner.
Here is how week four, day three of the NA LCS went down:
(3-5) Counter Logic Gaming 2-1 Phoenix1 (4-4)
A few small skirmishes with neither team coming out on top broke out until a five-on-five fight happened in the bot lane, which resulted in both teams getting two kills. During another skirmish, CLG found superior positioning and forced P1 to respawn back at base, giving CLG the lead. Superior engages and two Infernal Drakes gave CLG map control, as the team slowly chipped down P1. One bad Baron call allowed P1 to steal the Baron and CLG’s lead. A tactic that looked questionable at best exploded in CLG’s favor, giving them the ace, the nexus, and the win.
With a slow early game, neither team took a clear lead over the other. As mid game came into play, P1 took a small lead that they began to grow. As P1’s lead slowly increased, CLG’s Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes stole a Baron with a Varus Q to give CLG some hope. P1 responded quickly and wiped CLG. Shortly after, the game broke out into teamfight after teamfight, with each team winning a fair amount, but P1 still looked primed and ready to win the game. They forced CLG into one last fight, during which they cleaned up the game to bring the series to game three.
CLG drafted Rengar, and they made great use of him early game. With Rengar’s ultimate, CLG scouted out and hunted multiple members of P1 before the mid game started. This gave CLG a gold lead and pressure on the map. Despite giving up a few kills, CLG found advantageous trades to keep growing their lead. P1 found a split CLG and tried to take a fight. Although P1 aced CLG, they couldn’t get much else out it since Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya got a double kill before he went down. As teamfights got more and more important, Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun had gigantic Corki packages to deny P1’s aggressive engages and keep CLG alive. Massive damage dealers like Gangplank and Rengar allowed CLG to punish every misstep P1 made. P1 got greedy for a minion wave mid and CLG was more than ready to punish them. A quick ace spelled death for P1 as CLG took the nexus and won the series.
(4-4) Echo Fox 2-0 Team SoloMid (6-2)
An early power struggle left each team trying to find an advantage in the early game. EF found a break with repeated kills onto the bot lane, but TSM stayed on par through great macro play. EF had the momentum in their favor, however, and they managed to snowball past TSM. With no grounds to fight, TSM was forced to sit by as EF ran through them. With about a kill per minute, EF was looking dominant. A bad call from TSM left their base wide open for EF to take, meaning EF won game one.
After losing their first game of the series yet again, TSM turned up the heat in game two and took a strong early lead. Despite the strong start, EF looked close behind and ready to take the lead at any moment. Similar to game one, both teams fought for map control and power, but every skirmish ended in a draw. A sneaky Baron by EF gave them the power they needed to start winning fights and pressure TSM’s base. Another Baron play put EF in a power position over TSM. It was fight or die for TSM, and they died, giving EF the series 2-0.
(6-2) FlyQuest 1-2 Cloud9 (8-0)
As the Civil War began, FLY wanted to make their mark by securing a quick first blood onto Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong. Looking in shape, FLY kept their lead heading into the mid game. With clever positioning and ward placements, FLY cut off C9 at every turn and grew their advantage. Everytime C9 found some footing, FLY shut them down due to Galen “Moon” Holgate being fed as Evelynn. A questionable Baron call by FLY gave C9 the perfect opportunity to gain enough power to ace FLY and flip the game on its head. Not long after, C9 secured the win after a dodgy fight.
Taking advantage of an overextended Hai “Hai” Lam, C9 jungler Juan “Contractz” Garcia secured an easy first blood while forcing multiple summoner spells. Seeking revenge, Moon and Hai caught Contractz out and returned the favor. With the number advantage, FLY took the game back in their hands heading into the mid game. Using Maokai to his full effect, An “Balls” Van Le continuously caught the C9 squad out to grow FLY’s lead. As the late game began, C9 were helpless in the wake of Maokai, which allowed FLY to walk into C9’s base, win the game, and bring the series to a deciding game three.
After a confusing and long pause at the 10-minute mark, the game picked up as kills were traded back and forth by both teams. Before the pause, C9 had a small lead, but FLY found a way to even out the game. At this point, both teams slowed down to a crawl, pushing lanes back and forth while waiting for the other team to make a mistake. FLY took a bad engage and C9 took full advantage of it, nearly acing FLY and securing a Baron. C9 began to methodically shutout FLY while taking objectives where they could. FLY, despite being behind C9, started to win big teamfights that allowed them to get a Baron. With everyone nearing full build, both teams got tense as they didn’t want to overcommit to a fight. With a secured Baron, C9 aced FLY and took the nexus to keep their first place spot.
(2-6) Team Dignitas 2-0 Team EnVyUs (1-7)
DIG was starting their substitute support, William “Stunt” Chen, and it was obvious that DIG wasn’t used to the change. EnVyUs took advantage of this unfamiliarity by brute forcing kills around the map and heavily punishing DIG’s mistakes. Everything was going EnVyUs’ way until DIG found an advantageous fight and spiraled ahead of EnVyUs. There wasn’t much EnVyUs could do in the face of DIG’s massive presence, thus their nexus fell and DIG won the first game.
EnVyUs scored a pretty early first blood, but they didn’t transition that power into anything until the 20-minute mark. Up until that point, both teams farmed until the players all had three items a piece, then fights began to break out constantly. DIG, despite being behind in gold, killed most of the EnVyUs squad to take the gold lead and secure Baron. Once they had the lead, DIG had complete control of EnVyUs, relentlessly and methodically taking objectives. In the final push, DIG caught out EnVyUs members to win the game and take the series.
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Published: Feb 12, 2017 08:54 pm