Match winning plays of the 2015 LCS Summer Split Semifinals
You know that one big play. The one that may not win the game outright, but the one that makes you think, "Yup, this win's ours." Even in Solo Queue, that's an amazing feeling. But just imagine how it feels on the professional stage.
For the teams in the 2015 LCS Summer Split Playoffs, those moments are vital. They need to find momentum to finish out a Best of 5 series, and huge plays are exactly what get teams pumped.
Counter Logic Gaming vs. Team Impulse
This isn't the first time Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng has flown face-first into the enemy team.
In Game 1 of the Semifinal matchup between CLG and TIP, Doublelift and his Tristana had just made a play to shove Yoon-jae “Rush” Lee's Evelynn out of the Baron pit, spoiling his attempts to steal the big worm. Great play. But then, they found themselves on the wrong side of a team fight, getting chased down by multiple members of TIP with high health bars.
That's when Doublelift Rocket Jumped back in and started firing.
It wasn't reckless, though. He knew exactly what he was doing. "I go for diagonal jumps to clean up," says Doublelift. "Because if you jump straight in, you're jumping into a 1 vs. 3. But if you're in a 1 vs. 3 you want to jump so that you isolate three 1 vs. 1s…"
It wasn't a solo effort, though. According to Doublelift, "This fight was everyone playing well individually. I'm proud of everyone. We've been working on team fighting, which has been one of our weaknesses, especially in high pressure situations. Normally we don't commit fully to a fight and then right here, everyone was on the same page."
H2K vs. Origen
Sometimes, you don't need to do damage to carry. Just ask Paul "SoaZ" Boyer's Gnar in Game 4 of Origen's match against H2K. After noticing that H2K had gone with a full AD comp (with the exception the low damage Maokai, that is), SoaZ and Origen decided that Gnar was the way to go. "We had only played one game of Gnar in a month or something," he told us. "But he was the best option, and we just played it."
It worked out. 22 minutes into the game, he and Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño Martínez were caught in a 2 vs. 3 situation in the bot lane. It looked like trouble for the two longtime teammates. xPeke, slippery as ever on Fizz, dodged back from the situation, leaving SoaZ to fend for himself. Seconds passed, and Gnar's health began to fall -- but too slowly for H2K to find the kill.
Says SoaZ, "I knew that they would never kill me. They still tried to, but I was just basically buying time for the team." Once the rest of his team showed up, it was easy enough for a Mega Gnar ultimate, resulting in a trio of kills for Origen.
Bolstered by confidence from the fight, SoaZ built more and more Armor; He had Randuin's Omen, Sunfire Cape, Thornmail, Ninja Tabi, and an extra Cloth Armor for good luck at the end of the game. With Gnar's absurd 323 Armor creating a wall in front of OG, it was easy enough for them to take the game -- and the Semifinals.
Team SoloMid vs. Team Liquid
Speaking of Gnar players making big plays, let's take a look at Marcus "Dyrus" Hill.
Game 2 of the Semifinal match between TSM and TL was a close one. 40 minutes into the game, no team had managed to attain a gold lead of more than 3,000. However, TL had managed to secure four Dragons, and with the next one spawning in a minute and a half, TSM was going to have to make a play to stop them. Then, Dyrus' Teleport happened.
According to TSM jungler Lucas "Santorin" Larsen, the preparation for the play was key to the initiation. "We set this up by pushing them into the turret, then we warded behind them," he says. "We felt like the only way we were going to win this game was with us flanking with Dyrus."
Finding that engage was incredibly important, explains Santorin. "Both teams scaled evenly, so whoever gets the engage is the one that's going to win the fight," he says. "Both teams throughout the game tried to flank each other, and because Dyrus got the best flank, we won."
After the four-for-one team fight victory, TSM sprinted over to Baron, easily taking it despite the efforts of TL AD carry Gwang-jin "Piglet" Chae. "By getting the Baron, it definitely changed the game," says Santorin. "Dyrus making that play, that was the play that won us the game."
Fnatic vs. Unicorns of Love
League of Legends is as much about punishing your opponents' missteps as it is making plays of your own. Yeu-Jin "Reignover" Kim and the rest of Fnatic are masters at that particular style of play, and that was no more evident than in the early stages of Game 1 against Unicorns of Love.
Explains Reignover, "The game was already good for us, because we had successfully dove top. We were ahead and taking control of the enemy Blue side with vision to pressure bot lane."
Because Reignover was already in UOL's jungle, he was well within countergank range of the bot lane, and with Seung-hoon "Huni" Heo's Teleport available, Fnatic was ready to show up any time. They were more than ready to brawl on that side of the map, a fact that Unicorns of Love should have been aware of.
Here comes the goof up. "Suddenly, [Jae-hwan "H0R0" Cho] decided to gank bot with Teleport," says Reignover. "Huni TP'd instantly, then we killed them. We dove them and I got a double kill...That was a really, really big mistake for them."
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That early lead was exactly what Fnatic needed to take down Unicorns of Love in that first game, and gain confidence to complete their 3-0 routing. "From that time, I was basically going damage items because I felt like we could pressure the map really hard and finish early. We needed to finish fast because they had Kog'Maw mid...That was a really big part of that series."
What were your favorite #LCSBIGPLAYS of the Semifinals? Let us know below, and make sure to keep your eye on Lolesports to see all the fancy moves in the 2015 LCS Summer Split Finals. And if you want to catch up on all the Playoffs action so far, head over to the spoiler-free VODs page.
