Team Coast Wins NA Challenger Summer Series 1
Riot·6/22/2014, 9:37:41 PM·0 votes·1,195 views
We’ve finally reached the finale of this split of the NA Challenger Series! With the top teams, Team LolPro and Team Coast, competing for the much coveted circuit points and a whopping hoard of cash - this was an action packed weekend to say the least.
What can you really say to give enough praise to Bunny FuFuu’s Morgana? Absolutely nothing comes close to how hard he carried Curse Academy over the weekend in terms of catching enemies out and ward control. It’s difficult for a support to get the spotlight most weeks, but FuFuu was just stellar and so on point over the entire set. He single-handedly won the game for Curse Academy after their incredibly close second game, in which they had been pushing for a while but unable to clear out enough waves. Catching BabyZeus’ Lulu in a binding prompted the dive that closed out the near 50 minute game. Had he not landed it then and there, it’s possible that Frank Fang Gaming could’ve mounted a comeback - but more likely would’ve just led to an extra 10-15 minutes of agonizing pushing. Kudos to Bunny FuFuu for showing other supports how it’s done in the challenger scene.
Team Coast’s Rhux
Rhux has always been a formidable player in the Challenger Series, both leading teams to victory or playing a more supportive role in each team. He has finally found his niche it seems with Team Coast, allowing him to do both depending on which composition the team wants to run. His Jax in the finals against LolPro was their single solitary win condition and he played it out perfectly even though the team was down an immense amount of gold. A team should never underestimate Jax in any stage of the game, and he brought Jax’s wrath down upon LolPro.
Game of the Week
Frank Fang Gaming vs. Curse Academy - Game 2 Proving once again that though FFG has some of the best players in the league, they still fall through cracks and into traps that more experienced teams know to avoid. Instead of pushing their strengths as a team, they ended up forcing BabyZeus onto Lulu instead of his staple assassin/carry mids. Though normally not an issue, Lulu’s carry potential was severely cut with the 4.9 update. Lulu is still an incredibly strong mid, but you need a carry to get ahead and stay ahead in order to fully utilize her with the new changes. Instead of picking a strong mid, they limited themselves to relying on a single person (Nien or Lattman) as the solitary win objective. Not to take away from Curse Academy, but Frank Fang Gaming had backed themselves into a corner - leading to Curse Academy having a single solitary win condition. Destroy Nientonsoh was the name of the game, and they didn’t even have to work for the free win condition. With FFG having little initiation due to Bunny FuFuu’s insane skill with Morgana’s black shield essentially nullifying Vi, Curse Academy knew what to do and exactly how to do it. Though it still had the traditional challenger jitters and bumps along the way, Curse Academy kept it cool and collected even when the game was incredibly close. Finals - Team LolPro vs. Team Coast - Game 1 Proving that though they may be down, Coast is NEVER out - this game was a huge comeback for Coast from a 10k deficit to the longest comeback in NA Challenger Series history. Securing a win condition that can’t be destroyed regardless of anything LolPro could do meant that at all points in the game Coast could pull a win if they used the correct strategy, and that’s exactly what they did. Getting Rhux’s Jax ahead and allowing Goldenglue and Mash to farm out to late game provided a golden door for Coast to push into LolPro’s Nexus. Even though LolPro had a considerable lead, they had multiple opportunities to aggressively push and end the game with a solid pick. LolPro just couldn’t find a favorable position or didn’t have the calls in time to make the split second decisions they needed to make to secure the win. It not only cost them the game, but visibly shook them up for the next game as well after a grueling 62 minute slugfest.Top Performers of the Week
Curse Academy’s Bunny FuFuu
What can you really say to give enough praise to Bunny FuFuu’s Morgana? Absolutely nothing comes close to how hard he carried Curse Academy over the weekend in terms of catching enemies out and ward control. It’s difficult for a support to get the spotlight most weeks, but FuFuu was just stellar and so on point over the entire set. He single-handedly won the game for Curse Academy after their incredibly close second game, in which they had been pushing for a while but unable to clear out enough waves. Catching BabyZeus’ Lulu in a binding prompted the dive that closed out the near 50 minute game. Had he not landed it then and there, it’s possible that Frank Fang Gaming could’ve mounted a comeback - but more likely would’ve just led to an extra 10-15 minutes of agonizing pushing. Kudos to Bunny FuFuu for showing other supports how it’s done in the challenger scene.
Team Coast’s Rhux
Rhux has always been a formidable player in the Challenger Series, both leading teams to victory or playing a more supportive role in each team. He has finally found his niche it seems with Team Coast, allowing him to do both depending on which composition the team wants to run. His Jax in the finals against LolPro was their single solitary win condition and he played it out perfectly even though the team was down an immense amount of gold. A team should never underestimate Jax in any stage of the game, and he brought Jax’s wrath down upon LolPro.
