A Natural 20: Recapping the Amateurs and Dragons
WARNING: NA Scouting Ground spoilers lurk below so proceed with caution. If you’d like to just watch the NA Scouting Ground VODs, click here for the YouTube playlist.
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Twenty of the top players from the North American Ranked Ladder arrived at the Riot Games campus on the morning of November 14. For most of them, the last few weeks had been spent grinding the Challenger ladder just to make it to this point. While they had proven their skills and their eagerness, many of them did not know what to expect at the inaugural event.
The first North American Scouting Grounds was a week long event aimed at developing talent at the top end of the Ranked ladder. To many people, it seemed like a trip to LCS “space camp” - where highly skilled player-versus-player battles would be fought night and day to learn more about what it takes to be an LCS pro. But it takes more than just solo skill to develop LCS talent. It takes a team of people - both on and off the Rift.
Although the excitement levels were high, the players had a lot to do before any games could get played. After a tour of the campus and explanation of how the event works, players were greeted by representatives from NA LCS teams Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid, Echo Fox and Immortals. With introductions out of the way, the players were broken into groups and headed to the Rift with many eyes watching them. While day 1 of the Scouting Grounds continued with players swapping teams and opponents, coaches and analysts were hard at work interviewing, studying, and advising the players for one of the most tense moments of the event.
While players met with the Riot communications team and representatives from the press for interview training and professional player pictures, day 2 opened up in a much more difficult way for coaches - the draft phase. Each LCS team representative would try and craft their own version of a Scouting Grounds super team. The teams (renamed after the Elemental Drakes - Cloud, Infernal, Mountain and Ocean) took their turns in a snake draft format, each drafting a single player in order and then wrapping back in reverse until all 20 players were drafted. After some heavy decision making, the teams with their players and LCS representatives were:
Team Cloud Drake (CDN), supported by CLG:
- Top: fallenbandit
- Jungle: Omargod - Player to Watch
The first pick in the draft, Omargod was the definition of a carry Jungler throughout the Scouting Grounds event. Champions such as Olaf, Graves and Hecarim were his go-to picks while he became the wrecking ball Cloud followed behind.
- Mid: Butler Delta
- ADC: Zag
- Support: LOLFILL
Team Mountain Drake (MTN), supported by IMT:
- Top: Bobjenkins
- Jungle: BmxSpecks
- Mid: Tuesday - Player to Watch
An aggressive mid laner (sometimes to a fault) able to play any of the staple picks such as Cassiopeia, Viktor and Syndra. A huge source of damage in late-game fights.
- ADC: Shynon
- Support: Winter
Team Infernal Drake (INF), supported by FOX:
- Top: Shadow
- Jungle: Gahlin
- Mid: Strompest
- ADC: deftly - Player to Watch
An ADC with an extremely potent lane phase, whether it be on Caitlyn or Jhin. Left untouched, opposing ADCs would be left behind post-lane phase.
- Support: Jiu Jiu
Team Ocean Drake (OCN), supported by TL:
- Top: Maxtrobo - Player to Watch
While some top laners simply split push, Maxtrobo’s ability to split the map for his team was incredible to see on picks such as Irelia. His teleport useage on more team fight picks like Gnar was also great to watch.
- Jungle: Wiggily
- Mid: rjsdndgod
- ADC: Vex
- Support: Whyin
Who got the best team? It would be hard to say since no matter which team you asked, they would point to themselves. Spirits were high after the draft, as teams broke out to coach their players in a number of ways. With practice facilities on campus, some teams begin setting up scrimmage blocks for later in the day, while others took their newly drafted teams back to their team house to go over the coach’s notes from day 1 and build team communication. Everyone knew the next few hours would be crucial, as the tournament portion of the Scouting Ground would begin the very next day.
The tournament portion of the Scouting Grounds pit the teams against each other in a Round Robin Group Stage format, similar to the LCS. Every team played a Best of 3 against their opposing teams with the top 2 moving on to the Finals held inside the NA LCS Battle Theater. Day 3 started off calm and cool with a contract presentation, advising the players on any offers they may receive in the future. But by that evening things heated up with the first Best of 3, with the results being:
- Team Infernal (Echo Fox): 1-0 (2-0)
- Team Cloud (Counter Logic Gaming): 1-0 (2-1)
- Team Ocean (Team Liquid): 0-1 (1-2)
- Team Mountain (Immortals): 0-1 (0-2)
Team Infernal took a 2-0 victory over Team Mountain, while a full 3 games series between Team Cloud and Team Ocean saw Cloud taking it 2-1. Day 4 held the remaining matches, ending with an extremely close Group Stage.
- Team Ocean (Team Liquid): 2-1 (5-2, 71% Win Percentage)
- Team Cloud (Counter Logic Gaming): 2-1 (5-3, 63% Win Percentage)
- Team Infernal (Echo Fox): 2-1 (4-3, 57% Win Percentage)
- Team Mountain (Immortals): 0-3 (0-6, 0% Win Percentage)
With three teams tied at a 2-1 record, the win percentage of games played became the first tie-breaker, meaning Team Infernal was eliminated and Team Ocean would rematch Team Cloud in the Finals.
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The doors to the Battle Theater opened on the last day of the North American Scouting Grounds like any other day of the North American LCS. Players from Team Cloud and Team Ocean set up on stage for their first time, eager to play their last Best of 3 in the same spot many NA LCS matches had been played. Meanwhile members from the other two Scouting Grounds teams, the media and press they had worked with all week, their analysts and pro player coaches, and other LCS teams or players interested in the Finals filled the stands. Casters, cameras and production crew took their places and the show was on.
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The games themselves were filled with everything a League of Legends fan would want to watch - including surprising picks such as Cassiopeia top lane. In Game 1, early game map movements, followed by high-impact Jungle ganks from Team Cloud saw them pull out to an early lead. While Team Ocean was able to control the early Dragons, kills and Baron meant that Team Cloud cemented their lead and pushing Team Ocean back into their own base. While Baron was ready to spawn for a second time - once again going to Team Cloud - Team Ocean set up for the team fight they were looking for all game and in one fell swoop, stole a win at 40 minutes while down in every single objective count, gold, and total kills.
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Game 2 started off similar to Game 1, but even better for Team Cloud as an early teleport play bottom lane translated into 4 kills and the first tower bonus. Although ahead, Team Cloud would struggle to find their cohesion in mid game fights again as Team Ocean took the lead for themselves for the first time in the series. The rest was a back-and-forth swinging of gold leads and game tempo, but in the end incredible Ryze play let the tides turn favorable for Team Ocean as they took the 2-0 victory and became the first ever Champions of the North American Scouting Grounds.
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Here's all the VoDs from the event for your viewing pleasure or head on over to the playlist
Day 1:
Day 2:
- CLD vs INF Game 1
- INF vs CLD Game 2
- CLD vs INF Game 3
- INF vs OCN Game 1
- OCN vs INF Game 2
- MTN vs CLD Game 1
- CLD vs MTN Game 2
- MTN vs OCN Game 1
- OCN vs MTN Game 2
Day 3:
Optimus Tom Searfoss is an analyst for the NA Challenger Series. If you don't see him attached to the desk for NA CS, you can find him buried deep in the numbers with the Esports Stats team during the NA LCS. Never MIA for too long, you can find him @OptimusTom on Twitter. He also hates Poppy.
