This Week in League Week 4

From a broken champion and rework to a Nightblue 3 Controversy, this month has been weird.

Fortunately, there’s that sweet LCS action we can always count to sate our impatience. That and listening to CaptainFlower’s rap tracks. Let us sacrifice some narratives to satisfy the League of Legend Gods.

Like I promised, I'm making this a weekly thing relating to the LCS with side posts relating to struggling teams or revisiting resurging ones. I might even do playoff or final previews.

Although I mentioned it in another post on General Discussion, I became an Eagle Scout this past Thursday, which I’m very proud of.

Also, try using this music in the background https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6-FMx_gu6g&t=300s which is NFL primetime music and try reading my dialogue in a sarcastic tone, though I usually am more serious when I describe narratives, as like I said in my disclaimer post I’m looking for a dark humor laid back style fueled by mem es.

Day 1

TL vs GGS The Golden Guardians are looking to recover after getting obliterated by PowerofEvil. Team Liquid don't care about these narratives as their only concern is to reclaim the top of the standings. The game started as a back and forth affair as the game got bloody once the infernal spawned. The Guardians seemed to have an initial advantage, but, Liquid was out to win the war of attrition. Liquid secured objectives like Ocean Drakes and Rift Herald. This culminated into a Baron bait in which Froggen got picked off. It seemed like Liquid would choke out the Guardians, but Liquid made one major mistake, they got greedy and spoon-fed kills to Froggen’s Vel’Koz. This gave the Guardians life again. Throughout the game it was painful to watch the Deftly be unable to cash in on Draven. However they encountered a brick wall, it’s called Impact’s Aatrox. However, the ocean drake turned out to be a crucial piece in Liquids regaining their stranglehold. With a post Baron fight clown fiesta, Jensen broke the base. The Guardians couldn’t recover from that and a baron push by Liquid was enough to seal their fate.

TSM vs OPT TSM smell blood in the water and capitalize after slaying their nemesis in C9 with Optic trying to bounce back after a brutal 0-2 last week. TSM gets to face an old foe in Meteos. However, Optic have one major problem, they’re crownless as their star midlaner Crown is sick. They have to put their faith in rookie midlaner Scarlet, against Bjergsen’s Syndra, what could possibly go wrong. The name of the early game is the top lane as ganks were exchanged repeatedly. Scarlet is surprisingly faring well in the laning phase. TSM took a dragon while Optic got more pressure top against Broken Blade’s GP. TSM then secured shelly after they saw Meteos recall in front of them and used it to kill mid tower and transitioned that into mountain drake. This was one of those scrummy macro based midgames as turrets were constantly traded. A fight then exploded around the mountain drake. Dhokla got a kill on Aatrox to get his revive while at full health, but, he just scurries off to leave Scarlet to die... What? TSM then gets to work at carving up both Optic and their towers. After they secured baron, TSM should have no problem to finish this game. They then proceed to get aced as they got too aggressive with their baron. No triple mountain for you! But Optic’s base is in shambles, TSM should still win this. Oh right, Scarlet’s kamikaze’s Vlad and impeccable positioning by Arrow says otherwise. They get the prize of baron and the infernal. Optic then botches their own post baron push and the board is wiped clean and a stalemate occurs. Optic then breaks it with a swift baron rush which enables an elder drake rush. TSM just couldn’t endure the maelstrom of buffs as Optic brute forced the base. This game was a classic back and forth affair. This was crucial for Optic as it proves that their success was not just due to an easy early schedule. Serious note, it’s heartwarming to see Scarlet succeed without being under Crown’s shadow.

100T vs C9 With their first win of the split, 100T finally have hope. They have a chance to salvage the season. C9 was hunting for a weak target. Unfortunately, the Thieves were not having any of it and fought back. The early game showed promise for C9 and 100T. While C9 racked up the drags, 100T got the towers. Sneaky tried a new build with Essence Reaver Tri Force Ashe for maximum arrows. This plan backfired horrifically as he lacked damage and all the opposition had ways to counter arrows such as qss, mobility, tankiness, or spellshields. Bang returned to 2016 form and was shredding the frontline and was assassinating the assassin. After the thieves secured their second baron, there was nothing C9 could do to stop them. Who knew that Ryu was the piece needed to get the Thieves back on track. 100 Thieves fans finally have optimism as they have a chance to salvage the split. For C9, they need to hit the reset button.

CLG vs FLY CLG want to prove that they can be a consistent championship contender and actually live up to their "potential". However, they face a tough test in Flyquest as they are in panic mode right now. The early game was fairly quiet until a teamfight happened in the midlane. V1per laid a perfect root and it was 2 for 1 trade. Another fight occurred in the jungle where Pobelter got greedy and enabled CLG to secure the infernal. Before CLG could snowball their lead, V1per bailed FLY out to secure an infernal of their own. Poebelter then gets caught out again. The rest of the midgame was dominated by CLG macro in which they secured 2 mountain drakes and 2 more towers than FLY. A teamfight then explodes mid in which, you guessed it, Poebelter gets caught out again. From that point on V1per felt near invisible as he couldn’t get optimal Pop Blossoms. CLG then secures the baron. After a baron fight, Poebelter gets caught out...again. CLG immediately goes for the kill shot and kill Poebelter for the 7th time and ran over the nexus. Flyquest, I can safely say you guys are in panic mode. Poor V1per, he deserved better than this.

FOX vs CG Echo Fox like Flyquest are in desperation mode after a rough start to the split. Their first hurdle to overcome to save their playoff hopes is Clutch Gaming who are looking to break into the top 6. The early game started quietly until a Clutch successfully 3 man dove Lourlo while FOX secured a cloud drake. Fenix’s Neeko repeatedly caught out CG’s mid and jungle or force them to play on the back foot. After FOX secured shelly, a small teamfight broke out in which FOX were able to successfully kite and barely win it. Both teams then proceed to trade objectives which leaves Huni’s Irelia well farmed. They deny FOX from getting the mountain drake, destroy mid tower, and take the drake themselves. FOX desperately try keep themselves relevant by forcing their own towers. Damonte then decided to go bold and ult bot to teamfight only to get fed to the foxes. After a brief stalemate, Huni tried to force the matter with an aggressive ult. He then gets isolated and blown-up. The teams then waged the vision war around baron which enables Huni to freely splitpush towers. During the baron dance, Vulcan decided to face check as Lux and gets caught out along with Lira. FOX then forced baron and decided to turn on the other members of CG. They tried focusing Huni, but, they forgot Cody Sun’s Siver existed. CG then got 4 kills and got the baron for themselves. This allowed Huni to dive FOX without fear and they ended the game off of one push. CG have established themselves as a solid mid-tier team. As for Echo Fox, you have dug yourself a deep hole. Now dig yourself out of it!

Day 2

C9 vs CLG

C9 are desperate to hit the reset button and need to hold off CLG’s new found momentum. Fortunately, they used this as an opportunity to vent out their frustration. It also helps that C9 used more normal strats. Nisqy had a field day on Irelia and was dashing in circles around POE like he would on Yasuo. It was domination from start to finish by C9. Ezreal was a bit of a problem going into the midgame as he got first blood. It didn’t take long for C9 to build a snowball. They then pushed the envelope with a baron force. CLG would have been able to contest if not for the K-Pop dancing moves Licorice had on Akali to assassinate Stixxay. The baron buff was all C9 needed to end this slaughter.

FLY vs 100T

Flyquest is running out of time to salvage the season and are also dealing with a team with momentum in the Thieves. The early game was fairly quiet with only a successful gank top. Flyquest then proceed to give FakeGod the Dyrus treatment and camp him. After FLY secured a mountain drake the Thieves get some return kills to stay relevant. FLY then continues to treat FakeGod like Dyrus and gank him again. A fight in the river ended with a 1-1 trade in which V1per got shut down. The Thieves then rushed baron to try to suffocate FLY. FLY continued to racked up the drakes in response. Thieves used said baron to break the outer layer of turrets. This translated into further momentum to break the 2nd layer of turrets. The Thieves try to force baron, they then forget how to macro and let V1per destroy the bot inhib and in their retreat let FLY destroy the mid tower. FLY then dance around the baron with V1per splitpushing bot for the next few minutes. 100T then rush the mountain drake while FLY try to force baron and they got the baron, but it came at the cost of 2 members. As elder drake spawned, V1per got caught out top and the Thieves brute forced their way to the drake and burned it. 100T then threatened baron to bait and catch out Poebelter, old habits die hard. The Thieves then proceed to shred baron, surely there is no way they can screw this up. They end the game cleanly and tack on a 3 game winning streak. Flyquest, next week is your last chance, going 0-2 in week 5 would probably mathematically eliminate you.

CG vs TL

Team Liquid look to get a stranglehold on the standings, but, they face a challenge in Clutch Gaming. The game revolved around the bot lane early game as ganks were traded. The top lane was the Huni show as he would bully Impact after level 6 and even solo killed him on Sylas and abused all of the stolen ranged abilities Jayce has. Liquid just had Xmithie run over everyone with Sejuani of all champs. The game was scrappy with some blood to keep the crowd entertained. Objectives and kills were traded throughout the mid game. CG was however constantly held back by the carries miss positioning as they got consistently isolated and picked off by Jensen and Xmithie. To break the deadlock, Damonte and Lira duoed the baron thanks to having an Asir. They proceed to shave off the outer layer of tower but their habit of getting caught out stifles their momentum. After the baron Liquid reign supreme and steamrolled CG with impunity down mid. Out of desperation CG forced the baron and tried to turn and burn instead of a Liquid rigged 50/50. Cody gets a tripe kill but CG also lost two members including Lira, just reset and spend your gold. Wait, why are you sticking around when you could still die and there are supers pouring down to your nexus? Cody, this for the love of God just retreat! Cody Sun NOOO!! Team Liquid then finish their business and run it down mid to end the game so they could go back to reading the Canterbury Tales with how patient they are.

GGS vs TSM

Both teams look to bounce back after rough losses yesterday. While TSM looked to bring the fight to the Guardians early, they were looking to play the macro game. This translated into TSM getting a kill lead while the Guardians got first brick. After TSM 4 man dove Olleh, Deftly mispositioned too far up and got caught out by Skarner. Hauntzer then baited Akaadian into a vulnerable position by trying to steal red buff which allowed Contractz to flank Akaadian and gave the kill to the toplaner. This gave a swing in momentum to the Guardians enabling them to kill all of the first tier towers. During an Infernal dance, Froggivia, yes pun intended, shut down any chance of contention TSM had and proved the Guardians had the better bird mage. Froggen then gets caught out as I praised him and gives TSM the mid tower, impeccable! This brings the game back to even. During the next infernal dance it’s Froggivia at it again who near single handedly wins the fight to allow Hauntzer to beatup on TSM for replacing him with Broken Blade. During a baron siege, the Guardians get too bloodthirsty and get straight up aced. I guess Bjergsen wants to prove that he is the superior bird of prey. During a teamfight around the ocean drake it was the Guardian’s to lose but Deftly over extended and Bjergsen got to cleanup. This game has entered the late game. After another lost teamfight this game would have ended if not for Contractz heroics on Trundle. The cost, his death meant that TSM could secure baron. They also secured the elder drake, surely there is no way TSM can screw this up. Oh right the Guardians have both Anivia and Sivir this might take a while. TSM then try to beat them with guerrilla warfare and it worked as they got another baron. After the Guardians picked off Zven, Broken Blade tried to be the hero and backdoor them. Froggivia then denies this and saved the game to enable his team to secure elder. Olleh then tried to make the engage but found nothing but Skarrner which gives TSM the baron. One more teamfight win by TSM was enough to break the ice and win the game.

Geze that took forever. Now Guardians, if you didn’t get bloodthirsty on the first baron like you should have done, you would be 5-3.

OPT vs FOX Echo Fox need every win they can get to even have a chance of making it into the playoffs. Though for some reason they decided to bench Solo over Lourlo even though Solo was not the problem, seriously he was the one carrying. Optic wants to try to turn this fox into a stepping stone though they are still crownless. Meteos solo killed Panda before 4 minutes to establish that the jungle is his domain. Lourlo’s struggles continued as Dhokla constantly bullied him out of lane. Meteos then secured shelly as we transitioned into the midgame. As Panda got some peace to solo the cloud drake CaptainFlowers dropped an F-Bomb and the chat spamed fined. Meteos then ganked Lourlo, again, and killed Fenix while they were at it. Scarlet became a brick wall made of blood that can kill you, please get the reference. Not much happened for the next 3 minutes until Scarlet got caught out. Optic tried to go back to their favorite pastime in killing Lourlo, this backfired as the dive was miss coordinated. A teamfight happened bot in which Optic got bloodthirsty, they choked away the fight and let FOX drop all of their aoe on them and kill 4 members. They then proceed to get baron and wipe any objectives in their path. This also gave Lourlo relevance again. This lead to teamfight loss after teamfight loss until a clean wipe broke the green wall. That scene where Squidward chokes on a fork while laughing was a microcosm of this game.

So what do we learn from this week. 100T is actually good once they put Ryu in. Flyquest is trash, aside from V1per though he got caught out occasionally. C9 is still C9, the 100T lose probably got them to get their shit together. No opponent is a free win, except Flyquest NA is still top heavy and this week left me with more questions than answers.

And that concludes this week in League.