NA CS Semifinal Recap
Riot·6/16/2014, 4:10:24 AM·0 votes·987 views
The finals are quickly approaching, and with four finalists the competition has never been this fierce. Incredibly close games coupled with the hottest in challenger talent made this week essentially a showcase on future LCS talent. Without further ado, here’s this weeks recap of all the action you may have missed!
Playing Kog’maw in the competitive scene has always been a difficult task. Incredibly squishy, no mobility, and essentially no passive ability (if you play well) usually leads to lackluster performances. However, Hoodstomp ran a master class on every aspect of Kog’maw - including how to overextend and get killed. Jokes aside, he had a perfect item build and scaling as well as not bowing down under pressure. He kept his cool the entirety of the match knowing that his team outscaled Frank Fang Gaming hard.
Even in his second matchup against FFG he went for an unconventional pick in Graves and dominated hard with an incredibly solid, albeit unorthodox, item build involving Youmoo’s Ghostblade. Although his impact was significantly less than the first game, it was solid enough to dominate his lane and the game securing LoLPro a trip to London.
Team Coast’s Mash
A name change was all it took for Mash to come to his full potential apparently. Looking stronger than he ever has on all previous teams, he had two killer games back to back against Curse Academy. Starting out with his first game with an untouchable 5/0/6 on Lucian combined with a perfect tower aggro juggling dive he shone through the rest of his team. He made outstanding plays and worked perfectly within his team to be that powerful hard carry that every team needs.
Though his second game on Corki was a bit bumpier, he turned a 2v3 first blood in top lane into a 1v3 double kill on Corki and very nearly escaped if it weren’t for Bunny FuFuu’s flash binding. Mash had great games but he exposed a glaring weakness. He is limited in his AD carry pool to pretty much his comfort pick of Lucian. He performs spectacularly on him, but is lackluster on other champions. Without a doubt, Mash has grown stronger over his time in the challenger series and beyond, and we’re only seeing the start of his rise to power with Team Coast. If he can fix a few key issues, they’ll dominate LoLPro in the finals in London.
Game of the Week
Team LolPro vs. Frank Fang Gaming - Game 1 Leading off with an incredibly strong show of force, Frank Fang Gaming rocketed ahead early on and stayed ahead throughout the entirety of the game. However, though they had a strong opening - they had absolutely no way to siege a base. Even with a huge 10k+ gold lead and pushing down all the way to the Nexus by 30 minutes, they could do nothing to stop LoLPro’s expert level turtling and anti-siege. All hope looked to be lost when LoLPro lost their final inhibitor, but FFG showed their inexperience by not being able to close out the game even with a 12k gold lead. LoLPro’s strategy finally came to light when they hit their peak on high scaling champions like Kog’Maw, Kayle, and Orianna. Not only did they absolutely destroy FFG’s morality and pushing potential, they straight up base raced FFG who had an entire base open compared to LoLPro’s single nexus turret. Coming down to split seconds, LolPro managed to edge out FFG and win the base race for the win.Top Performers of the Week
Team LoLPro’s Hoodstomp
Playing Kog’maw in the competitive scene has always been a difficult task. Incredibly squishy, no mobility, and essentially no passive ability (if you play well) usually leads to lackluster performances. However, Hoodstomp ran a master class on every aspect of Kog’maw - including how to overextend and get killed. Jokes aside, he had a perfect item build and scaling as well as not bowing down under pressure. He kept his cool the entirety of the match knowing that his team outscaled Frank Fang Gaming hard.
Even in his second matchup against FFG he went for an unconventional pick in Graves and dominated hard with an incredibly solid, albeit unorthodox, item build involving Youmoo’s Ghostblade. Although his impact was significantly less than the first game, it was solid enough to dominate his lane and the game securing LoLPro a trip to London.
Team Coast’s Mash
A name change was all it took for Mash to come to his full potential apparently. Looking stronger than he ever has on all previous teams, he had two killer games back to back against Curse Academy. Starting out with his first game with an untouchable 5/0/6 on Lucian combined with a perfect tower aggro juggling dive he shone through the rest of his team. He made outstanding plays and worked perfectly within his team to be that powerful hard carry that every team needs.
Though his second game on Corki was a bit bumpier, he turned a 2v3 first blood in top lane into a 1v3 double kill on Corki and very nearly escaped if it weren’t for Bunny FuFuu’s flash binding. Mash had great games but he exposed a glaring weakness. He is limited in his AD carry pool to pretty much his comfort pick of Lucian. He performs spectacularly on him, but is lackluster on other champions. Without a doubt, Mash has grown stronger over his time in the challenger series and beyond, and we’re only seeing the start of his rise to power with Team Coast. If he can fix a few key issues, they’ll dominate LoLPro in the finals in London.
