SK Telecom Masters Round 1 Playoff Recap
Riot·5/24/2014, 12:14:17 AM·0 votes·1,894 views
The SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters tournament has been running concurrently with both OGN Champions Spring 2014 and NLB Spring 2014. This week, it began its playoff system with a total of seven matches between CJ Entus and NaJin e-mFire. After winning a final, penultimate Masters match, CJ Entus emerged victorious and moves on to face the Samsung Galaxy squad next week.
LoL Masters has been running since February 13th, 2014. The playoffs began on May 19, 2014. During the intervening time, NaJin Black Sword failed to make it out of the group stage of OGN Champions, and the NaJin organization chose to shake up the roster in hopes of a better performance. Unfortunately, that also meant that Black Sword's new players couldn't play in LoL Masters due to a roster lock that took effect when the tournament began. Black Sword had to play a pair of subs in roles that they didn't even sign on to the team for. The result? Black Sword got annihilated in the two matches they had to play, and put a ton of pressure on NaJin White Shield to carry the organization.
The best of the seven games was the first Masters match on Thursday. Following a NaJin victory on the 19th, CJ Entus had to win this game in order to force a final decisive Masters Match. CJ trotted out the entire Frost roster, while NaJin pulled the stable elements of Black Sword and added the solo lanes from White Shield for the game.
Frost was in a dominant position throughout, but the NaJin team kept it close through clever usage of Twisted Fate's Destiny ultimate ability as a zoning tool to stop Frost from taking Baron Nashor, or to generate kills with the help of ohq's Twitch. The point & counterpoint around the Baron pit stretched out over fifteen minutes before CJ was able to secure the Baron.
The Baron was not enough to secure Frost the win. An extended team-fight erupted at the forty-seven minute mark that proved to be decisive, with CJ Space stepping up and managing to secure three kills right before his Kog'Maw was taken down. Thanks to long late game death timers, the three remaining members of CJ pushed through the NaJin base to take the victory.
CJ Entus vs NaJin em-Fire Masters Match #2
When: Thursday, May 22nd, 2014
The second match proved to not be nearly as close as the previous match. In fact, it was a stomp by CJ. NaJin desperately wanted Save's Yasuo to counteract Coco's Nidalee, and they swapped their mid laner Ggoong into the top and pulled Save down into the middle lane. The result was a disaster, with Ggoong looking obviously uncomfortable in the top lane, and unable to handle the CJ lane swap.
On the other hand, CJ's Flame was sublime on Jax. He handled the lane swap with aplomb, and managed to snowball the Grandmaster at Arms into an unstoppable killing machine. Whenever a fight would break out, Flame's Jax would appear after a Teleport and dive into the NaJin back line, killing anyone in his path.
While NaJin failed in the top lane, CJ succeeded in the middle lane. Yasuo is one of the most popular counters to Nidalee on the Rift, but CJ was ready for him, calling jungler DayDream to visit the lane multiple times to hold him off. The continued assistance from DayDream helped propel Nidalee out of the laning phase with no CS deficit, and accelerated the deployment of thermonuclear Nidalee spears.
MadLife came to play, particularly during the second day's games. He had exceptional performances on Nami and Sona where he was clutch with Aqua Prisons, Tidal Waves, and Crescendos. MadLife single handedly turned several engagements through positioning and accurate skillshot usage. His stats may not show it – his squishy champion selections did get blown up several times – the things he managed to do before he died though, propelled his team to the next round.
Masters Playoffs Format explained
The LoL Masters playoff format is unique. Due to the fact that it is actually four teams (two per organization) competing, each match is broken into a pair of best-of-threes that take place over two days. If an organization can sweep with normal rosters - if both CJ Frost and CJ Blaze win, for example - then that organization is awarded a set win and there is no Masters match. If the organizations each win one game with their normal rosters, a Masters match takes place with rosters comprised of any combination of players from both teams to decide the round win. Finally, if each organization wins a best-of-three set, there is one final winner-take-all Masters match to decide which teams moves on to the next stage of the playoff.NaJin em-Fire behind the eight ball
LoL Masters has been running since February 13th, 2014. The playoffs began on May 19, 2014. During the intervening time, NaJin Black Sword failed to make it out of the group stage of OGN Champions, and the NaJin organization chose to shake up the roster in hopes of a better performance. Unfortunately, that also meant that Black Sword's new players couldn't play in LoL Masters due to a roster lock that took effect when the tournament began. Black Sword had to play a pair of subs in roles that they didn't even sign on to the team for. The result? Black Sword got annihilated in the two matches they had to play, and put a ton of pressure on NaJin White Shield to carry the organization.
Games of the week
CJ Entus vs NaJin em-Fire Masters Match #1 When: Thursday, May 22nd, 2014
The best of the seven games was the first Masters match on Thursday. Following a NaJin victory on the 19th, CJ Entus had to win this game in order to force a final decisive Masters Match. CJ trotted out the entire Frost roster, while NaJin pulled the stable elements of Black Sword and added the solo lanes from White Shield for the game.
Frost was in a dominant position throughout, but the NaJin team kept it close through clever usage of Twisted Fate's Destiny ultimate ability as a zoning tool to stop Frost from taking Baron Nashor, or to generate kills with the help of ohq's Twitch. The point & counterpoint around the Baron pit stretched out over fifteen minutes before CJ was able to secure the Baron.
The Baron was not enough to secure Frost the win. An extended team-fight erupted at the forty-seven minute mark that proved to be decisive, with CJ Space stepping up and managing to secure three kills right before his Kog'Maw was taken down. Thanks to long late game death timers, the three remaining members of CJ pushed through the NaJin base to take the victory.
CJ Entus vs NaJin em-Fire Masters Match #2
When: Thursday, May 22nd, 2014
The second match proved to not be nearly as close as the previous match. In fact, it was a stomp by CJ. NaJin desperately wanted Save's Yasuo to counteract Coco's Nidalee, and they swapped their mid laner Ggoong into the top and pulled Save down into the middle lane. The result was a disaster, with Ggoong looking obviously uncomfortable in the top lane, and unable to handle the CJ lane swap.
On the other hand, CJ's Flame was sublime on Jax. He handled the lane swap with aplomb, and managed to snowball the Grandmaster at Arms into an unstoppable killing machine. Whenever a fight would break out, Flame's Jax would appear after a Teleport and dive into the NaJin back line, killing anyone in his path.
While NaJin failed in the top lane, CJ succeeded in the middle lane. Yasuo is one of the most popular counters to Nidalee on the Rift, but CJ was ready for him, calling jungler DayDream to visit the lane multiple times to hold him off. The continued assistance from DayDream helped propel Nidalee out of the laning phase with no CS deficit, and accelerated the deployment of thermonuclear Nidalee spears.
Top Performer of the Week
Hong "MadLife" Min-gi
MadLife came to play, particularly during the second day's games. He had exceptional performances on Nami and Sona where he was clutch with Aqua Prisons, Tidal Waves, and Crescendos. MadLife single handedly turned several engagements through positioning and accurate skillshot usage. His stats may not show it – his squishy champion selections did get blown up several times – the things he managed to do before he died though, propelled his team to the next round.
