The first week of the LCS is well underway after a long offseason. Day One delivered fantastic games, so with four more games lined up for Day Two, it was bound to be another fantastic day of League of Legends!
Team Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses
The first match of the day kicked off with a fairly dominant win for Dignitas (“DIG”) against Evil Geniuses (“EG”). The early game was relatively quiet, as the only things to die before 10 minutes were a dragon and Herald. Finally, at 10 minutes, Jiizuke got a good trade off on Froggen which set up Svenskeren to dive him and secure First Blood. It looked like EG might gain momentum off of this, but that wasn’t meant to be. As soon as DIG grouped up, their team fighting proved superior. They won a fight one-for-zero at 13 minutes, then another one two-for-zero a minute later near the dragon pit.
After these two plays, DIG held solid control over the game. They procured the second Rift Herald, used it mid, and knocked down the tier one tower there. Three minutes later, at 20 minutes, they ended up finding another winning fight. Here, they claimed two more lives from EG and killed a second dragon. The next few minutes were defined by picks, as DIG dove and killed Kumo in the side lane and caught out Svenskeren twice. These were disastrous for EG, and after Svenskeren’s second death, resulted in DIG getting Baron.
DIG made short work of EG’s base with the Baron. Against little resistance, they knocked down the middle Inhibitor before moving bottom. Kumo tried to make a Teleport flank engage, but EG couldn’t follow up well and lost three members for the attempted defense. With nothing to stop them, DIG ran forward and took their second win of the split.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 28:02
- Kills: 12-2
- Turrets: 9-1
- Gold: 51.7k-41.8k
- Dragons: 3-1
- Barons: 1-0
Team SoloMid vs Immortals
The second match was an agonizing game to watch that went over an hour. Though it was tough for both teams, Immortals (“IMT”) defeated Team SoloMid (“TSM”) by minute 61. On top of being a long game, it was a low-kill one, with only 18 total kills by the end. Interestingly, TSM did have an early game lead. They picked up First Blood for Kobbe at 12 minutes and took the First Tower bonus at the same time. In addition, TSM accumulated gold with objectives takes, including two Heralds, dragons and towers. Moving into the mid game, TSM appeared to be strong.
But IMT simply outmaneuvered them at this stage. Lacking any way to push their lead further, TSM struggled to force fights or dives. Meanwhile, IMT had the better macro and actually took the first Baron of the game. IMT couldn’t get much out of it though and the game stalled. Multiple attempts at the Baron were made, but both teams refused to commit. During this time though, IMT did rack up four dragons and secured the Cloud Soul for themselves.
At 44 minutes, Bjergsen finally broke the monotony by splitting bottom and taking an Inhibitor. But IMT answered back with a middle Inhib take and a two-for-one team fight win, which led to them destorying both Nexus Towers too. But it took IMT two rotations of Elder and Baron buff to make the final blow. Empowered by both, at 61 minutes IMT managed to use the triple Inhib pressure they made to kill one from TSM and easily demolish their Nexus.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 61:16
- Kills: 9-9
- Turrets: 8-11
- Gold: 90.3k-96.6k
- Dragons: 2-6
- Barons: 0-3
Golden Guardians vs Cloud9
Riding high off of their victory over TL yesterday, Cloud9 (“C9”) joined the undefeated club with a second win over Golden Guardians (“GG”).To their credit, GG did have a decent early game by playing through their top lane, where Closer ganked and killed Licorice twice. Around this time, he also slew the Rift Herald and used that to help set his team up to take the First Tower bonus top. But C9 soon came to aid their suffering top laner. After a dive, C9 collapsed with four and picked up two kills. From here it was smooth sailing for the boys in blue.
This was in part because they were able to abuse Keith. Indeed, C9 killed Keith four times between 15 and 21 minutes. This led to C9 gaining immense map control and a Rift Herald that knocked down all three top lane towers. With all this going in their favor, it was no surprise to see that when C9 baited GG towards the Baron, they immediately turned and slaughtered GG five-for-one. Afterward, they secured the Baron.
Now even more powerful, C9 pushed bottom. They took one tower but GG used a double Teleport flank to force them away and make a one-for-one champion trade. This effectively stalled their siege. As a result, C9 didn’t break the base, but did obtain the Cloud Dragon Soul. GG stuck to their narrow win condition and picked off Licorice in the side lane, but again, C9 collapsed and killed two. Before they started Baron, they killed Closer too, which made sure there could be no steal. Once they had the second buff, it was easy for C9 to knock down all three Inhibitors, win a fight and claim the GG Nexus.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 33:34
- Kills: 7-19
- Turrets: 3-11
- Gold: 54.1k-65.1k
- Dragons: 1-4
- Barons: 0-2
FlyQuest vs Counter Logic Gaming
To wrap up the day, FlyQuest (“FLY”) won a game against Counter Logic Gaming (“CLG”) in dominant fashion. Honestly, CLG had very little answers to what FLY was throwing at them, and FLY was happy to push their advantages ruthlessly. It was as early as three minutes when FLY found their first advantage. Here, Santorin killed the opposing mid-jungle duo with the help of his own mid laner. Stacked with First Blood and Double Kill gold, Santorin grabbed an Ocean Dragon and Rift Herald for his team. The Herald was promptly used to take the First Tower bonus bottom.
FLY didn’t let up the pressure moving forward. Ignar’s Leona, in particular, had impressive, snap engages that got them many kills. At 14 minutes, FLY won a team fight mid three-for-zero, then at 17 picked off Crown, and finally won another fight two-for-zero at 20. All the while FLY was accumulating dragons and, after yet another team fight success, secured the Mountain Dragon Soul at 23 minutes. Now faced with an even more frightening FLY opposition, CLG failed to find any footing.
On the other hand, FLY was ready for anything CLG could try. At 26 minutes, CLG tried to force a fight, and though FLY lost Wildturtle, they won the fight three-for-one and took the Baron to boot. After picking off Ruin in the bottom lane, FLY easily destroyed the bottom lane Inhibitor. At this point, the Elder Dragon spawned, which forced CLG to contest. FLY was more than willing to fight again, and of course, they won. Three CLG members lie on death timer after that engagement and CLG could only watch as FLY claimed their Nexus.
QUICK STATS:
- Time: 31:25
- Kills: 19-6
- Turrets: 8-2
- Gold: 57.9k-49.4k
- Dragons: 4-0
- Barons: 1-0
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