In the first series, Taipei Assassins shocked many by blowing Gambit out of the water. The surprises didn't stop there, however, as Cloud 9 proceeded to defeat both World Elite and TPA to advance to the playoffs. The Taipei Assassins started the game with one of their patented red buff invades. Genja and Edward got caught, but there were no deaths, and both bottom lanes burned flash. Anticipating the lane swap, Gambit took their duo lane top. Jay's Thresh, however, is well known in GPL for a reason, and bebe and Jay were able to get a sizeable lead over Genja and Edward. Then, in the bottom lane, Achie took Lee Sin into a Trundle lane, which removed Trundle's late game tank-stat-stealing utility. This put a lot of pressure on Alex Ich's Karthus to farm, but he over-extended and got punished by Morning's Ziggs. With all lanes winning, TPA were able to pick up objectives freely and rotate well to take an unexpectedly short game. World Elite began by invading Meteos' buffs and taking the advantage. Bottom lane quickly went into Cloud 9's favor, however, when it became clear that WE had limited experience with Morgana support, and Conan could not force pressure onto it. This freed up Hai and Meteos to put pressure on top lane and get Balls a lead over CaoMei. Though sukiM outfarmed Hai mid, he was not able to convert his lead in a meaningful way during team phase when he frequently used his ultimate on Balls' Shyvana. It came down to picks. Cloud 9 had the advantage with Morgana support and WE's lack of magic damage. C9 also exerted more map pressure with roams than WE could answer. C9 almost seamlessly closed the game from there. In this game, Cloud 9 again found an advantage when one of TPA's flashes burned bottom. This allowed Cloud 9's Sneaky and Lemon to play much more aggressively and keep bebe down in farm. In the mid, Hai answered Morning's Ziggs by roaming as he did against sukiM. As assassins, he and Meteos again snowballed all lanes. They secured early dragons and turrets and were able to edge out TPA. Despite this, Morning's wave clear with Ziggs made it difficult for Cloud 9 to close. Without giving up their advantage, however, C9 found a Baron and ended the game with a 20k gold lead. [DblEmGroup]3427[/DblEmGroup]
