All-Star Day 3 Recap
Riot·5/10/2014, 7:31:35 PM·1 votes·1,875 views
With the Taipei Assassins now out, All-Star Paris has boiled down to an East versus West confrontation, with Cloud 9 and Fnatic squaring off against OMG and SKT T1 K respectively for a seat in the finals. Not just national, but cultural, pride is on the line as two hemispheres collide in a bid for supremacy.
Day 2 demonstrated that at least Cloud 9 can tussle at this level, as they'd taken a game off OMG before, but nobody has yet managed to put much of a dent in the ten-ton South Korean gorilla in the room. Will it be like the KT Bullets all over again, or will Fnatic finally take a game off the Season 3 World Champions?
Cloud 9 fans were left appalled as Allen sank one Death Sentence after another into the North American team. To be frank, OMG's support player is so good on the champion – and, given his jungling record, so devastatingly good in general - that he made Sneaky and Lemonnation look miserable in comparison. Strong behind-the-wall positioning allowed him to catch the American team off-guard over and over again.
Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin
As usual, Faker was putting up a flashy display to the satisfaction of the audience – but the real weight of SKT T1 K's dominance over Europe's Fnatic was driven by Piglet. His game one Twitch smashed through Fnatic's defenses, and even xPeke's Intervention was barely a roadbump as Rat-ta-tat-tat and Contaminate damage burned through.
ALL-STAR CHALLENGE: PICK TEN
Team Ice put on a hailstorm performance in the Pick 10 portion of the Challenge set. Though Froggen was expected to have a tough time with Anivia versus Bjergsen's Zed, the matchup went completely against expectations; a sharp reminder of why the champion was constantly banned against him two years ago. Froggen snatched up 11 kills, suffered no deaths, and had a fully stacked Mejai's Soulstealer to complement his Warmog's Armor and Sunfire Cape. He was aided immensely by OMG's Cool, substituting for Caomei after an unfortunate family situation cut short Team WE's representative's stay in Paris. But while Caomei's departure might have chilled Ice's exuberance, Cool kept calm under pressure, outmaneuvering even Diamond's Lee Sin for his own on-point Dragon's Rages into Froggen's grasp. A kick on Bjergsen near Dragon was an especially poignant demonstration of synergy and camaraderie despite cultural and linguistic barriers.SEMIFINALS
Cloud 9 vs OMG Cloud 9 started off confidently, with Link's Nidalee coming out strong against Xiyang's Lulu. Despite the Chinese mid laner's impressive performance the previous day, it seemed as if he was uncomfortable on the Yordle, eating nearly every Javelin Toss sent his way, while the rest of his team's lanes weren't doing much better. Cloud 9 secured an uncontested Dragon 11 minutes in, was the first to take a turret earlier, and seemed overall like the stronger team. But then, at the 19th minute, the situation went terribly wrong for the American team. An ill-conceived Dragon attempt allowed OMG to collapse around them from two directions, and a Death Sentence onto Balls kicked off the fight. Despite Stranglethorns locking up OMG in the bot lane tribush, OMG secured three kills and Dragon, kicking off a reversal of fortune. Cloud 9 seemed shaken by their loss, and put up only paltry resistance in the second game. SKT T1 K vs Fnatic SKT T1 K might be in a slump back home, but here in Paris, they remain seemingly untouchable on the international stage. Fnatic started off game one with a few nice tricks, denying Bengi the early Ancient Golem buff and taking the first Dragon unchallenged, but that was arguably the last time they seemed to have an edge on the South Korean team. Once Piglet and Faker got rolling, the game was out of Europe's hands. At one point, late into the game, Faker purposefully dived into a 1v4 situation, picking up two kills before his own demise and cracking open more room for his team to push. Game two featured less overt flashiness, but didn't go much better for Fnatic, as they lost in a decisive 2-0 sweep by SKT.TOP PERFORMERS OF THE DAY
Yin "Allen" Le
Cloud 9 fans were left appalled as Allen sank one Death Sentence after another into the North American team. To be frank, OMG's support player is so good on the champion – and, given his jungling record, so devastatingly good in general - that he made Sneaky and Lemonnation look miserable in comparison. Strong behind-the-wall positioning allowed him to catch the American team off-guard over and over again.
Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin
As usual, Faker was putting up a flashy display to the satisfaction of the audience – but the real weight of SKT T1 K's dominance over Europe's Fnatic was driven by Piglet. His game one Twitch smashed through Fnatic's defenses, and even xPeke's Intervention was barely a roadbump as Rat-ta-tat-tat and Contaminate damage burned through.
