Upsets and stand-ins: NA LCS week 5, day 1 recap

Coming off a loss to Cloud9, FlyQuest looked to bounce back against Team Dignitas while William “Meteos” Hartman subbed in for Phoenix1 in their series against Team EnVyUs.

Here is how week 5, day 1 of the NA LCS went down:

(3-6) Team Dignitas 2-0 FlyQuest (6-3)

The game got exciting in champion select when DIG picked up Ziggs at AD carry, while FLY took Vladimir top and Jarvan IV mid. A failed gank by Galen “Moon” Holgate give DIG two kills and an advantage in the bot lane. Due to great macro play and CS leads, however, FLY kept dead even with DIG in gold. As skirmishes began, FLY couldn’t use their aggressive teamfight-oriented composition because DIG had nearly perfect positioning. FLY were caught out a few too many times, and DIG punished them enough to take an advantage. Not long after, DIG forced FLY into their base before taking FLY’s nexus right in front of them.

FLY felt they could have played their previous team composition better, so they picked up Jarvan IV again. A gank at level two by Lee “Chaser” Sang-hyun caught An “Balls” Van Le off-guard, giving first blood to DIG. Deciding to play patiently this game, FLY waited in the top brush for two minutes for someone on DIG to overextend, resulting in five kills in FLY’s favor. Now with the advantage, FLY went aggressive to catch out DIG members. Despite being ahead, FLY lost a huge Baron fight, giving DIG the lead and control of the map. The well-coordinated DIG won another teamfight and took the series with a resounding 2-0.

(1-8) Team EnVyUs 0-2 Phoenix1 (5-4)

Due to personal issues, Rami “Inori” Charagh could not play this weekend, so P1 picked up former Cloud9 jungler Meteos. Knowing P1 had no vision in their own jungle, Nam “LirA” Tae-yoo blindsided P1’s bot lane for first blood. P1 replied with kills of their own and slowly edged ahead of EnVyUs. Despite having the advantage early, EnVyUs didn’t make many plays around the map so P1 caught back up to even out the game. P1 had great objective control, but they couldn’t win teamfights so EnVyUs started to beat them out. With Baron and Elder Dragon, EnVyUs looked poised to take the game. Both teams were full build and seemed scared to engage, so EnVyUs forced P1 to choose to either deal with them at objectives, or deal with super minions taking their base. After a gruesome 56 minutes of stalling, P1 found an opening. Meteos stole the Baron and P1 nearly aced EnVyUs to make one big push and win the game.

A risky early invade put P1 behind, as EnVyUs caught two members for first blood and the early advantage. The strong early pick potential of Rengar and Maokai let EnVyUs earn multiple kills. P1 replied with amazing disengage to bait EnVyUs into taking a bad fight to even out the game. Using solid macro play and good catch potential, P1 secured Baron as it spawned and forced EnVyUs to play safe. Working their way around the map, P1 chipped away at EnVyUs’ base until there was nothing left, giving them the victory in the series.

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