GPL Summer 2014 Recap: Quarterfinals Week 1
Riot·7/22/2014, 12:56:28 AM·0 votes·3,434 views
With the summer title and a potential trip to Worlds on the line, the pressure is on as the GPL teams enter knockout stages. The first set of quarterfinals is especially important, featuring not just the current frontrunners in the Taipei Assassins, but also a bout of fratricide. The rapidly advancing Vietnamese scene is once again forced against itself, as their final group stage records sends sibling teams Saigon Jokers and Saigon Fantastic Five into a collision course for the semifinals slot.
But all that turned around for SAJ in game three. Suddenly, it was Safety's turn to shine – and mostly at support player Tsu's expense. Despite Morgana's absurdly long snare range, Tsu was constantly outflanked, proving a critical weakness that spilled over into the Fantastic Five's uncharacteristically poor vision control. They were clearly playing on tilt as well, as players missed kills by single autoattacks, and Jungleology in particular launching ill-fated kamikaze attacks into the enemy team without his own teammates to back him up.
The final game was no cleaner by either side. The Jokers held the early lead, mainly off Fantastic Five’s disastrous level one scouting failure that allowed the Jokers to flank around on the entire team. But split-pushing and constant rotations checked back against the Jokers' advantage. Despite winning one teamfight after another with the combined control strength of Morgana, Lux and Maokai's root, the Jokers were losing ground to the Fantastic Five's high-mobility splitpush core of Kassadin and Lee Sin. Finally, SF5 flanked the Jokers in their own base, allowing Minas's Jinx to Get Excited off a triple kill, ending the game and sending the Fantastic Five to their first-ever semifinals.
GAMES OF THE WEEK
Quarterfinals 1: Taipei Assassins vs Insidious Gaming Rebirth The results of this matchup were as expected. Insidious Gaming Rebirth outperformed expectations by qualifying for the quarterfinals during their rookie year, but the disparities between them and the Taipei Assassins was made immediately obvious as the games kicked off, and TPA demonstrated their greater mechanical and strategic depth. The 3-0 outcome should be no surprise, and the Taipei Assassins were dominant throughout. There was only one contentious moment in game three, as Bebe and Jay misjudged an exchange to give Valkyrie an early lead, but the pattern for all three sets remained consistent. The Assassins won their lanes, Winds shattered Rebirth’s resistances, and towers fell to TPA’s logging operation. Quarterfinals 2: Saigon Jokers vs Saigon Fantastic Five The Vietnamese showdown between the Jokers and Fantastic Five was a closely fought match that went the full five games, but closely fought isn’t the same thing as cleanly. Initially, the Fantastic Five were on a rampage, with Jungleology running roughshod over Safety, and the team coordinating perfectly to snuff out the Jokers' buff control. Meanwhile, the Jokers suffered repeated pratfalls, such as GoNy somehow allowing QTV’s Mundo to simply walk up to his Lulu and kill him, despite hugging the Jokers-side turret.
But all that turned around for SAJ in game three. Suddenly, it was Safety's turn to shine – and mostly at support player Tsu's expense. Despite Morgana's absurdly long snare range, Tsu was constantly outflanked, proving a critical weakness that spilled over into the Fantastic Five's uncharacteristically poor vision control. They were clearly playing on tilt as well, as players missed kills by single autoattacks, and Jungleology in particular launching ill-fated kamikaze attacks into the enemy team without his own teammates to back him up.
The final game was no cleaner by either side. The Jokers held the early lead, mainly off Fantastic Five’s disastrous level one scouting failure that allowed the Jokers to flank around on the entire team. But split-pushing and constant rotations checked back against the Jokers' advantage. Despite winning one teamfight after another with the combined control strength of Morgana, Lux and Maokai's root, the Jokers were losing ground to the Fantastic Five's high-mobility splitpush core of Kassadin and Lee Sin. Finally, SF5 flanked the Jokers in their own base, allowing Minas's Jinx to Get Excited off a triple kill, ending the game and sending the Fantastic Five to their first-ever semifinals.
OVERACHIEVERS OF THE WEEK
Chen "Achie" Chen-Chi It's easy to ignore top laner Achie when his mid and AD carry's traditionally hogged all the spotlights afforded to the team. But his contributions to the Assassins' quarterfinal games cannot be overstressed. Achie dominated Tofuboi, former Singapore Sentinels player and Rebirth’s ace in the hole, outfarming and outfighting in every game of the series. The third game, almost a disaster thanks to Rebirth AD carry Valkyrie's early lead, was washed out by Achie's indomitable presence. Nguyen "Jungleology" Hong Thang While it's true that Jungleology (and his entire team) played off-kilter in the latter half of the series, his total dominance of the first couple of games - and contributions to the fifth - cannot be overlooked. Nguyen has the best Lee Sin in all of Vietnam, and his aggression makes him the supportive bedrock to the team’s successes.
