This Week In League Week 9

With the LCS season at its climax, the audience is clenching to the edge of their seats. Which teams be in the playoffs. Also Red Sox, WTF are you doing! Speaking of Baseball I got to go to a Spinners game, fun experience but they still lost 2-4.

I lastly feel that it’s important that we take the time to mourn those who lost their lives in the shootings on Sunday. Events like these should never happen and celebrations should be seen as times of joy, not opportunities for destruction. Please don’t talk about the shootings in the comments.

Day 1

CLG vs OPT CLG are on the verge of clinching the number 2 berth but have to face a challenge in a desperate Green Wall. CLG wanted a quick win so they decided to collapse on bot lane very early. It then turned into a deadly game of hot potato as the turret aggro was hitting hard and ended against their favor. It didn't matter as their remaining ganks were successful. Dhokla almost made the penta escaping a gank, oh right ignite exists. If you wanted to kill an Optic member, you needed to gank him and even then you could be turned upon. Fortunately for CLG, they had better control over the macro game. They then went for a ballsy call in rushing baron. Wiggly didn’t succumb to wtf is smiteits and cleanly secured baron. They used this baron to push mid and break midlane. But, they still needed one more baron to close out the game. No problemo, and as an added bonus you have your adc to run it down mid to intercept Arrow’s TP and win the game.

C9 vs GGS The premise of this game is near identical to the previous match. One team trying to clinch a bye week; the other trying to stay alive. Svenskaren continued to make his case as MVP with relentless ganks and prolonging his death making Xin relevant mid game. This was a bot lane fiesta to end all bot lane fiestas. Every early game skirmish was bot lane. The kills were back and forth in said skirmishes. What truly put C9 ahead though was the macro game as they got most of their gold lead almost purely from towers. They won teamfight and skirmishes alike and got a baron for their trouble. Within the span of one baron, C9 obliterated the guardians. GGS, you’re back in the muck with Optic.

CG vs 100T There is no way to overemphasize how important this game is. Whoever loses gets knocked out while whoever wins keep their dreams alive. CG for sure were not holding anything back as Vulcan picked Leo with the Lunar Eclipse skin, Cmon Riot that’s just lazy design; pls give Diana one too. It was a trade of ganks and counter kills between the 2 teams. A fight around Shelly gave CG the tools to break the game. They are power, they never break they break the chain. They are ruthless, they are fire. They won almost every teamfight from there on and cleanly secured baron. They then killed 4 members of the thieves and then proceeded to brute force their way down the nexus. Don’t waste this lifeline given to you CG.

FLY vs TSM Flyquest are doing anything to keep their gauntlet hopes alive. BTW Flyquest are eliminated from playoffs. TSM only need to win this game to do the bare minimum to make playoffs. Picking Aatrox usually means you don’t give a damn about gimmicks. BrokenBlade proved my point and solo killed V1per’s Tristana Top. BB’s solo dominance gave TSM the room to apply pressure on other points of the map. Flyquest retaliated by bringing both the jungler and mid laner bot. This fiesta transferred mid. Bjergsen proved why he has the best Syndra in NA, surviving several ganks and collapses. V1per couldn’t do anything with Tristana as he just didn’t have the damage with a starving Tristana. They say imitation is the best form of flattery, Zven mimicked Wildturtle’s aggression going forward with his blink. He then gets caught out to give Flyquest a free… wait nevermind the baron got stolen. I guess that worked out TSM? You won and you’re playoff bound. This could have been a lot easier if you settled in on a streamlined identity.

TL vs FOX To think that this team beat Liquid at the start of the split is now but a mere afterthought. TL just need to beat this team to secure a bye week. Doublelift’s pick of Caitlyn paid off as he was able to dictate the laning phase with ease. Impact was critical at securing kills and winning teamfights being the brick wall he is. He’s in pirate form this game. A teamfight win in the bot lane gave TL a free push with Shelly bot lane. Jensen didn’t succumb to Lee Sindrome and reset to spend their gold. FOX then decided to collapse on Impact. He’s low on health so 1 Jarvan combo should finish him. Nope! Xmithie then introduced Mike to the wonders of Trundle and denies him the chance to bring down the brick wall. Jensen punishes this overextension and gets a double kill. The only hope FOX had was catching out Doublelift which they did successfully. Jensen replies the only way he knew how. By diving onto the ADC and getting a double kill. WE GET IT LIQUID you want the playoff bye just take it. Jensen that’s a little over kill your 5/0 you don’t need to keep going in. Shut down. They’re Liquid it doesn’t matter. In fact, they don’t even need baron to end. Aside from feeding Fenix, Liquid brute forced their way to a playoff bye.

Day 2

With 1 game for each team before tie breakers, here is the guide to survival.

Fight to the Death

GGS: win and in. If they lose, they need Optic to lose to force a tiebreaker.

Optic: Win and in. Or win tie break with loser of the CG or GGS game.

100T: Win and force tie breaker.

There will be a tie breaker no matter what. Though I hope it becomes a 3 way for 6th, more drama = more bang for our entertainment dollar. Let the killings commence!

OPT vs C9 Optic can secure their playoff spot with an upset over C9, the boys in blue however, need this win to have a chance to force a tie breaker with CLG incase they choke against the Thieves. Optic had an initial advantage to the laning phase, but, Big got caught out and Zyzal on his signature Alistar secured the kill. Then Nisqy kept on getting spoonfed kills and assists in mid. Meteos is trying his damndest to keep his team alive salvaging kills in lost skirmishes. All of this action has left Sneaky to his own devices to gain gold like the kleptomaniac Ezreal is. Blabber looked like he was ganking so much that he looked like he wasn’t farming. He’s also not going for that wussy iceborn build, he’s going for the Tri Force. As soon as a replay ends C9 collapses on people. The only saving grace was Dhokla’s Akali to keep up the CS lead and cleaned up a bot lane fight and escaping certain death. Crown you don’t get to play League of Legends today. Dhokla then cuts the gold lead in half with a shut down on Nisqy. C9 had enough of Dhokla’s shenanigans and forced baron. They rushed it without any regard of vision control, secured, and gave Sneaky his 2000th assist. They used the majority of the buff to set up the big push. Sneaky celebrated his assist count by sniping Arrow and Dhokla in a narrow teamfight, Now they wait to see if CLG lose.

100T vs CLG CLG can win this game to secure their playoff bye. This will be no easy match as the Thieves are dire to win this match to force a tie breaker with any mid team that loses. PowerofEvil takes Ryu’s Akali as a challenge and chose LeBlanc to go mano-e-mano with assassins. The Thieves were aggressive early, but, sometimes too aggressive. The rewards for these dives were rather disappointing as either Kench denies the kill on Sona or one member gets counterkilled. The Thieves were dominant macro wise, besides CLG just being good, the Thieves were holding themselves back with over aggressive dives. POE slowly got increasingly scary with magic pen especially since he go counterkills on dives. The mid game was very even as carries were farming and more kills were traded. A fight over mountain drake would break the stalemate. Ryu got a critical pick onto Stixxay. This triggered a baron rush. PowerOFEvil then pulls off a POE just with LeBlanc instead Ori. Out of desperation, the Thieves cleaned up the mess and pushed down mid even taking out both nexus towers but not the heart itself. They needed a little more. CLG scattered Thieves and picked them off. When Ryu was on the verge of death he would sneak in a kill just before his dying breath. Teamfights would be trades of 2-3 members dying in each one. A pick onto Ruin was enough to force the season saving push.

TSM vs TL There is little point to this match other than pride and a few laughs. Liquid decided to go the troll route and went the glacial comp as if they played Teamfight Tactics. Bjergsen joined in on the fun and picked Zed. A clown fiesta to end all clown fiestas. Jensen you’re not Froggen. Doublelift got a first blood for the Freiljord at a fight around dragon. All Xmithie did in the early game was steal and build up snowballs. Objectives were traded. A dive into the bot lane turned into a near disaster as Jensen averted a quadra kill. Impact Chose Volibear for the sake of muh Glacial but was essentially a glorified super minion until he solo killed BB. Also Bjergsen your Zed has seen better days. Jensen gave his best Froggen impression. One more fight in TSM’s bot jungle ended in an ace to close the game

CG vs GGS The importance of this match is simple. Whoever wins is in. Huni’s signature Rumble tp’ed bot to kill both bot laners and cooked them slowly smoked. They keep up the tempo and constantly invaded. Take it easy CG or you’re gonna get killed. Froggen, why are you taking Tristana into Irelia? You’re just asking to get ganked or solo killed. Enter the Macro Wars. CG dominated these battles of wit and cunning with Dragons and towers. After taking mid tower, CG saw the Guardians clumped and it another afternoon of BBQ Olivers and turned Froggen and Huhu into free chicken. The Guardians were able to avert the baron with shutdowns onto Damonte and Huni. Suddenly this game looked a lot closer. When Damonte engaged near baron, he was blown up right away. The Guardians have a chance. Wait, nvm your entire team got aced giving CG a free baron. CG effortlessly pushed and broke the bot side of the Guardians base. Only a couple misfires from Vulcan held them back. Huni was the real showstopper however as he was single handedly winning teamfights. One win in the Guardians’ jungle was enough to win them be playoff bound. My god, you guys really know how to make it as dramatic as possible, but you made it. You have to face TSM but you made it.

FOX vs FLY This game is bittersweet as this is the last time that Solo, Mike, Fenix, Apollo, and Hakuho will don the Orange and Navy Blue. It seemed that it was going to be another lost cause as Flyquest was constantly camping bot. MikeYeung made sure to make this game count by ganking bot lane to give kills to Apollo. Tankiness meant nothing in the mid game. The remainder of said mid game was dragon trading until the lure of baron broke the peace. Because FOX had the lead they got to force the baron rush. With Solo as the soul sacrifice, Echo Fox cleanly secured baron. FOX then push with a standard of cleanliness that Mr. Clean would be proud of. They kept Flyquest’s base at impossible levels of upkeep to win the game. Goodbye Echo Fox.

This leaves tiebreakers.

OPT vs 100T Because Optic lost and the Thieves won. They got to force a 3-way tie and create drama and tension for our comedic enjoyment. Optic decided to use Tristana for her intended purpose as a bot laner. This would pay off later. The Thieves took the opposite approach with picks looking to win early. The name of the game was the mid lane as both teams made it their mission to play around the Sylas. After a trade of drake and Shelly, another fight exploded mid where Aphromoo missed his ult costing them potential kills and lost the fight. Optic got to control the mid game and hog up all the drakes. All of these fights and turret taking however was slowly helping Arrow turn into a monster. Aphromoo then missed another ult but the team bounced back with picks on the front liners to retake the lead and force baron. Optic averted it however and punished the Thieves by taking their 2nd mountain. Not too long after, Optic caught out Aphro and Amazing to reassert their dominance. After that fight, Arrow got his 3rd item spike and developed a full Rambo complex mowing everything in sight down. The crits were too much and the Thieves didn’t have the late game threat to burst him. They effortlessly took baron to break into the Thieves den. One more teamfight was needed to face the Guardians. As for the Thieves, they are in jail for the Offseason. If you did what they should have done and had Ryu be in the starting roster at the beginning of the Split then it wouldn’t have been another wasted year.

C9 vs CLG Because of the 100 Thieves desperation, C9 gets another crack at CLG for the playoff bye. What was supposed to be a close game turned into early game domination by the real boys in blue C9. Nisqy turned his opposition into just another brick in the wall with constant roams bot on a surprise pick in Taliyah. CLG could do little to stop the onslaught as Sneaky turned the game into a bullet hell as Caitlyn with Morgana at his side. A baron was decisively secured thanks to the help of mountain drags. C9 used this lead to do something they haven’t done for a while. Cleanly pick apart their opposition with a baron and top lane siege to push for the win. C9’s got the bye baby woooooo.

OPT vs GGS The final tiebreaker match. Whoever wins, makes playoffs. The loser has to wait for the gauntlet. Despite Contractz picking Lee Sin, he did next to nothing in the early game which is the reason you pick him. Maybe he was trying to invoke the magic of his rookie debut. Instead, it was Optic, learning from the C9’s blowout, utilized Taliyah’s roaming capabilities to get off to an early lead. An ocean drake was taken by Optic at the price of 2 members. The Contractz and Froggen then tried to team-up against Dhokla which, unsurprisingly ended in disaster as the rest of the Green Wall came to re-enforce their top laner. The Guardians Hauntzer trying to TP but got chuncked out by Crown and died as soon as he finished the channel. Optic took over the mid game by acquiring picks and dragons to enable Dhokla to splitpush and fully leveled by 30 minutes. FBI was starved of exp and underfed as Arrow’s Sivir was always ahead of him while FBI would get picked off. Optic were so far ahead that Braum got evaporated and they had more tools than the Guardians had escapes. Optic tried to force a baron after taking the mid inhib, but, the Guardians deterred them and forced the mountain drake. They got the drag and got a kill but it cost them more than their lives, it cost them the game and by proxy their summer split. Starting off the year 3-1 even being considered an elite contender, only to collapse in the middle of the season, it was just too little too late.

I knew my predictions were going to blow up in my face. I post a playoff preview later this week.

Goodbye Echo Fox. Unit Lost.