The Recap: North America Week 11
Riot·4/7/2014, 11:55:41 PM·0 votes·1,118 views
Week 11 brings us to the end of the split, making every last game extremely important. Every team but Cloud 9, Counter Logic Gaming, and Team SoloMid came into this game fighting for a playoff spot, some more desperately than others. Anything can happen in Super Week and we were not disappointed with a series of extremely exciting games this week.
In Season 3, Aphromoo was more of a streaming personality than a top-tier player, as the ADC for a number of NA pro teams before becoming the support in the now famous Rush Hour lane. But this season, he is quite possibly the best support in NA. He showed off his skills on Thresh, halting jump after jump from Kha'Zix or Corki with well-timed flays, and catching everybody out of position with his hooks.
Innox
Innox was a man on fire this week, dominating top lane in every game this week, for an overall KDA of 19-3-23, including an 11-0-12 Lee Sin victory over XDG to secure the No. 7 slot. Innox certainly wasn't working alone, though.
Snoopeh
The Scottish jungler was a force to be reckoned with this week, going 10-3-26 in EG's two wins. He was especially impressive on Pantheon, diving heedlessly into the poke comp of Curse and preventing them from disengaging.
Imaqtpie
Dignitas may only have managed a 2-2 week, but Imaqtpie was absolutely possessed this week, running 18-5-28.
Hai showed himself to be a top-tier mid both on and off of the rift, with words of wisdom in his interview after Cloud 9's victory over CLG.
“I don’t really care for what my stats show. I play to win this game. I don’t necessarily play to win the lane. I do a lot of things that aren’t really selfish. Like, a lot of people give Meteos crap for taking my blue buff. It’s not mine; he can take it if he wants. It just depends on who can make more out of it. And if me farming mid vs me diving bottom — Whatever one’s more important, I’ll go do that one. So all I want to do is win the game…I don’t want to be a star or anything; I just want to win the game, and that’s what’s important to me.”
“Well, when you’re in a game, you never hindsight something. So like, if somebody does a stupid dive, you do not call that guy out. You don’t say anything bad. You make a bad play, whatever, just move on from it. That’s the past. So, when that happened, we were just like, alright, whatever. Moving on, what’s the next thing we do? What’s next. Just make plans for ahead.”
For more information on the 2014 spring split, including VODs, schedules, team rosters, and brackets, check out lolesports.com.
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman is a League of Legends mathcrafter turned esports journalist who spends his spare time staring at mountains of League of Legends data. Follow him on Facebook or @GentlemanGustaf on Twitter for more analysis of competitive League of Legends play.
Games of the Week
Counter Logic Gaming vs Cloud 9 CLG came close to having Cloud 9's number, banning out Renekton, Soraka, and Morgana, and first-picking Shyvana. Once the game started, CLG outplayed Cloud 9 at their own strengths, out-rotating them all game and holding a gold lead until 24:30. Doublelift stepped a bit too far forward pushing tower, and Cloud 9 engaged, letting their characteristically strong team-fighting take over. Soon, Cloud 9 found themselves far ahead and able to slowly take the win. CLG put up a good fight, managing to get Doublelift a quadrakill and take an inhibitor off of a Cloud 9 overstay, but Cloud 9's methodical rotations and ward control allowed them to make bigger and bigger plays en route to the victory. CLG may have lost, but they established themselves as a legitimate threat to Cloud 9, and look better and better going into the playoffs. Cloud 9 vs Team Coast Somehow, Cloud 9 managed to start 3-14 yet still stay even in gold. As Coast pulled more and more ahead, Cloud 9 still managed to take back advantages, with Meteos farming a ridiculous 300 cs from the jungle, and taking ZionSpartan on 1v1 several times. Just when it seemed Team Coast had the clear advantage, Cloud 9 baited them into starting a fight as Meteos backdoored their base for the win.Overachievers of the Week
Aphromoo
In Season 3, Aphromoo was more of a streaming personality than a top-tier player, as the ADC for a number of NA pro teams before becoming the support in the now famous Rush Hour lane. But this season, he is quite possibly the best support in NA. He showed off his skills on Thresh, halting jump after jump from Kha'Zix or Corki with well-timed flays, and catching everybody out of position with his hooks.
Innox
Innox was a man on fire this week, dominating top lane in every game this week, for an overall KDA of 19-3-23, including an 11-0-12 Lee Sin victory over XDG to secure the No. 7 slot. Innox certainly wasn't working alone, though.
Snoopeh
The Scottish jungler was a force to be reckoned with this week, going 10-3-26 in EG's two wins. He was especially impressive on Pantheon, diving heedlessly into the poke comp of Curse and preventing them from disengaging.
Imaqtpie
Dignitas may only have managed a 2-2 week, but Imaqtpie was absolutely possessed this week, running 18-5-28.
Surprises of the Week
XDG vs Team SoloMid What an upset! As previously mentioned, XDG has beaten every team but TSM once, and they were able to get the win over Team Solo Mid in an exciting late-game, with mancloud's Orianna (4-1-16), Benny's Ryze (5-2-10), and Zuna's Jinx (8-3-10) only getting stronger and stronger. TSM looked like they were going to be able to pull off the win, but their initiations were all based on Syndra stuns or Dyrus teleports, and as the entirety of XDG picked up Banshee's Veil, they were able to power through teamfights for the win.Disappointments of the Week
Team Solo Mid vs Cloud 9 What better game of the week could there be than one between the top two ranked teams in North America? This match was hyped to no end, but defending champions Cloud 9 showed why they are the best team in America, thoroughly dismantling TSM from the beginning of the game. Team SoloMid seemed lost from the start, first-picking the low priority ADC Lucian. This let Cloud 9 get two priority picks in Renekton for Balls, (8-2; 5.16 KDA) and Evelynn for Meteos (4-0; 9.20 KDA). Cloud 9 went on to secure their second-most picked support, Morgana (7-0; 4.00 KDA), not to mention the newfound darling picks of Sneaky, Corki (3-0; 6.60 KDA), and Hai, Soraka (3-0; 5.00 KDA). Cloud 9 seemed in the driver's seat for the whole game, constantly pushing mid and top. Meteos was able to start the game off with a blue buff steal, and would invade and take a buff of TSM's at every subsequent respawn. TSM made a lot of strong attempts to hold even, but Cloud 9 was able to press their advantage time after time on their way to a dominant 32 minute victory.Guru of the Week
Hai
Hai showed himself to be a top-tier mid both on and off of the rift, with words of wisdom in his interview after Cloud 9's victory over CLG.
“I don’t really care for what my stats show. I play to win this game. I don’t necessarily play to win the lane. I do a lot of things that aren’t really selfish. Like, a lot of people give Meteos crap for taking my blue buff. It’s not mine; he can take it if he wants. It just depends on who can make more out of it. And if me farming mid vs me diving bottom — Whatever one’s more important, I’ll go do that one. So all I want to do is win the game…I don’t want to be a star or anything; I just want to win the game, and that’s what’s important to me.”
“Well, when you’re in a game, you never hindsight something. So like, if somebody does a stupid dive, you do not call that guy out. You don’t say anything bad. You make a bad play, whatever, just move on from it. That’s the past. So, when that happened, we were just like, alright, whatever. Moving on, what’s the next thing we do? What’s next. Just make plans for ahead.”
For more information on the 2014 spring split, including VODs, schedules, team rosters, and brackets, check out lolesports.com.
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman is a League of Legends mathcrafter turned esports journalist who spends his spare time staring at mountains of League of Legends data. Follow him on Facebook or @GentlemanGustaf on Twitter for more analysis of competitive League of Legends play.
