PE vs. EP
In the first game of the day, the bottom lane match-ups would be unconventional as post-patch Draven and Corki saw the light of day, LaoPi's support Elise brought us a unique taste that we haven't seen in quite some time, despite her proven efficiency on the role in the past. No casualties were found in the beginning jungle fight.
A quick roaming strategy worked out extremely well for Positive Energy. JoJo's Gragas coming to assist the duo lane of Corki Namei and pad his already first place KDA was overly welcome to grab lane dominance. After taking a tower, it was very easy for Positive Energy to quickly snowball the game in their favor.
Even an ulted solo lane Nasus couldn't stop the punishment granted through map control.?With a shutdown Draven, his late-game carrying potential hardly existed and the rest of the did not have carry potential given their gold values. The game was not even close just 16 minutes in, with a 3-0 tower lead and a 7-1 kill lead. Energy Pacemaker's jungle quickly became owned by Positive Energy.
As with most games where map dominance is heavily in the favor of one team, the vision was lacking for Energy Pacemaker, rendering even an ulted solo-lane Nasus unable to farm safely. Towers were no obstacle for Positive Energy and Positive Energy were at their doorstep at just 18 minutes in, making quick work of the opposition.
VOD (click for full-screen)
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iG vs. RC
An unfortunate set of events tided Invictus Gaming over in the early game as Uzi was able to acquire a first blood off of Illusion. PDD had acquired the red buff in his 1v2 lane as Shen which allowed him to be just that much more efficient. Meanwhile, iG managed to swing back 1-1 with a redeeming dive on the top lane against Godlike's Nasus.
Matters swung back and forth with both teams seizing every advantage they could. Royal Club managed to swing matters slightly into their favor by grabbing a dragon and committing to dives utilized the powerful assassination combo of Zed and Jarvan. Even with the kill score down and also being down a dragon, Invictus Gaming didn't have much gold setting them apart.
Lucky's Catacalysms are once again a terror for the opposition.?Royal Club still held the massive advantage as far as roaming power goes, which established an even greater kill lead. PDD did a great job at still being ahead of Godlike in farm despite the fact that lots of pressure was taken off of top lane for Royal Club due to the success of other lanes. Straight up 5v5's did not go well for Royal Club.
As the game progressed, the gold was in all the right places for Royal Club. Uzi's Caitlyn and Wh1t3zZ' Zed were incredibly fed and assassinating Twitch or keeping him from at least not doing damage was extremely easy for the squadron. With the help of Tabe's lantern, Xiaoxiao was caught out, allowing for a game-ending baron push.
VOD (click for full-screen)
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WE vs. LMQ
World Elite's Misaya has habitually become a target for bans, even on otherwise unviable champions, and this game is no exception. Starting out the game was Misaya's recent Sion pick getting banned out and it's not the first time. The killscore was even early on, but it wouldn't take long before World Elite developed an advantage.
World Elite established their lead with the first dragon, but the odd thing about this game was LMQ's incredibly large tower lead. World Elite looked like they were dominating, but the tower score was 0-4 18 minutes in. Normally, this marks the end of a game for a team at this level of play, but World Elite handled it quite differently.
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Caomei was proving his increased skill by his incredible perforamnce in this game. Not only that, but Weixiao was still proving he had the capability to have godlike mechanics on Vayne, despite some of his recent slumps and other marskmen catching up. The game was a completely stomp due to those two on World Elite.
Misaya also participated in many teamfights and after having a rather mediocre score in the early game, came back and showed that you can't just ban out his flavor-of-the-month picks; he'll come back with a bite on other champions as well. World Elite crushed through LMQ's inhibitors and proceeded to end the game with a solid performance from all members.
VOD (click for full-screen)
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YG vs. OMG
The final game of the day would be Young Glory putting up a surprisingly long fight against OMG. Outside of the Rengar pick which we've seen come back yesterday in the LPL, most of the picks were fairly standard with a fully standard-meta lane 1-1-2 lane setup. OMG's top lane jungle and duo were doing better however, starting off the game 2-0 for OMG.
On top of the top lane and jungler being up in kills, Young Glory was losing bottom lane as well; an issue to be expected when running Vayne in a duo lane against Caitlyn. Syz was not having the same luck as Lovelin in regards to running a DPS jungle rengar, and even found himself feeding 2-0 without applying much pressure for the team or receiving farm.
Though close on gold, OMG were the first to take the step to engage.?When things began looking rather hopeless for the team, it shaped up a bit as Dragon picked up two kills and surpassed Caitlyn in farm. Meanwhile, Otto's global presence on Shen proved enough to bring them back into the game around 10 minutes, only short by about 500 gold.
When full-fledged teamfights finally began, both teams were relatively equal in strength as well as objective control. OMG's build of tankiness as well as San's incredible score on Caitlyn allowed them to chunk down Young Glory and finally put an end to the close game that was played between the two teams
VOD (click for full-screen)
STANDINGS
