The Recap: NA LCS Week 3

It was a week of surprises in the North American LCS. Counter Logic Gaming moved into first place, and fell right out of it again. Cloud9 struggled against Evil Geniuses, and revived against CLG. Every team had moments of greatness, and moments of total disappointment.

Games of the Week

Complexity vs Curse It was a back and forth match from the start in this battle at the bottom of the standings. Curse picked up first blood, but gave up the first dragon in return. The teams continued to trade kills for dragon throughout the early game as both teams were constantly roaming towards the mid lane. Things seemed to be swinging in Complexity’s favor when their total vision control earned them back to back free dragons. However, Curse was not done and was able to push down Complexity’s mid lane towers in aggressive team fights. Ultimately, Curse’s aggressive team composition would be their downfall. After multiple forced engagements, Curse fell too far behind to deal with RobertxLee’s Lucian. Through sheer gold advantage, Complexity weathered Curse’s final desperation engage, and took an impressive win. Evil Geniuses vs Cloud9 This game was a lesson in the importance of counterplay. In the early game, Cloud9 seemed to be playing at the level they were at last split They had early dragon control, strong vision, and were making plays. However, as soon as things moved into team fights, the game became all about Krepo’s Thresh and Altec’s Twitch. Cloud9 had created a composition designed to get to the back line of EG and blow up Twitch. Through perfect use of Thresh’s Flay and The Box, Krepo was able to shut Hai’s Kha’Zix out of every team fight. Cloud9 still made a few clever moves though. Meteos was able to make a heroic Baron steal alone, and the team was able to score a few good, aggressive picks. Unfortunately for Cloud9, in the end Altec was simply too strong and too well protected, and EG picked up one of the most impressive wins of the split. Cloud9 vs Counter Logic Gaming As if willing a reversal of the previous day’s disappointment, Hai put the team on his back in this match against Counter Logic Gaming. His Nidalee spears were catching out members of CLG with incredible accuracy. CLG had moments of greatness in the game as well, and indeed had an impressive gold lead for much of the game. Their coordination led to a well-timed pincer move that caught Cloud9 completely unaware and led to a 4-0 team fight victory. However, Hai’s determination was ultimately too much for CLG. As Doublelift and crew rushed for Baron, Hai whittled CLG down with a battery of perfect spears. CLG came so close to death that Hai nearly picked up a pentakill by himself. From there the game went back and forth in classic Cloud9 fashion - they would give up ground only to take more of CLG’s base. In the end, Cloud9’s disengage and team fight proved too much for CLG, and Cloud9 took a much-needed win.

Biggest Surprise

The Thresh Prince Returns Despite a tough loss to Dignitas on Day 2, Krepo’s Thresh shocked the world. He single-handedly made Hai irrelevant in EG’s upset victory over Cloud9. His Flays and Boxes were timed perfectly to protect his carry in every team fight. His Death Sentences stopped C9 members dead in their tracks, allowing EG to wipe them out fight after fight. EG’s team composition was built entirely around Altec being able to lay down constant damage, and Krepo’s perfect Thresh play enabled that. Even in their loss, Krepo made several great plays. Fantasy owners of Imaqtpie were screaming at their computers as Krepo escaped his clutches time after time. His play turned a wholly one-sided game into an exciting match. Krepo has dealt with a significant amount of criticism since moving to the NA LCS, but his play this week reminded long-time fans of the Krepo they fell in love with back in Season Two. If this is the Krepo that we can expect this split, then the landscape of the NA LCS will be forever changed.

Biggest Disappointment

TSM: 2 - Xpecial: 0 Curse fans were overjoyed in the off-season when Team Solo Mid released their veteran support, Xpecial. The perpetual bridesmaid of the LCS has always struggled to find the right bottom lane pair, as well as needing a strong leadership voice. Xpecial certainly fit the mold on paper, but the reality has been less than the team had hoped for. Curse has had a few moments of potential, but as a whole, their summer split has been a total let down. The imposed rivalry between TSM and Xpecial’s new squad has been wholly one-sided. If Xpecial wants to prove TSM wrong for benching him, he is going to have to figure something out fast, before he finds himself in next year’s Spring Promotion Series.

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