The Recap: NA LCS Summer Week 9
Riot·7/21/2014, 1:12:47 AM·0 votes·1,411 views
It was an explosive week in the North American LCS. AD carries came out to battle, and Tristana even found her way into the mid lane. With the remade Nidalee, top laners like Balls and Zionspartan put in big play performances of their own. With so many highlight reel plays, the anticipation for the remaining two weeks of the split will grow as fans rewatch some of the incredible matches from NA LCS Week 9.
Cloud9 has struggled this split due in large part to disappointing performances from star players Hai and Meteos. This week, however, Balls and Sneaky took over for the team and gave C9 two incredible victories. First with a split pushing clinic from Balls, and then with a lesson in positioning from Sneaky, the team took down two squads that have given them fits all split long. With only two weeks left before playoffs, Cloud9 has a chance to ride this momentum towards a high seeding, and potentially another shot at the World Championship.
In sports, success comes when talent meets opportunity. Counter Logic Gaming have proven this split that they have the talent, and were given a perfect opportunity this week. With matches against basement-dwelling Evil Geniuses and rival for first place, LMQ, CLG could have kept themselves securely in contention for first. Unfortunately, a shocking upset by EG followed by an incredibly intense loss to LMQ leaves CLG not only behind, but demoralized. They will have to dig deep and recover quickly from this disappointing week, and look to run the table in their remaining six games in order to keep pace with LMQ.
GAMES OF THE WEEK
Cloud 9 vs Complexity Complexity had been the kryptonite for Cloud9 all split long. Unfortunately for Complexity, Balls shattered C9’s curse with an incredible display of top lane Nidalee prowess. Both solo laners for C9 came out of the blocks with duels against their lane opponents, propelling the team to an early lead. After a bit of mid lane mind gaming earns C9 more kills and a dragon, Balls took over. With his teammates creating pressure across the map Balls was able to take both top lane towers, and then move to the bottom lane. Hai gave the team a few scares, getting caught out and melted by Pr0lly’s Ziggs, but the rest of the team continued to capitalize off their early lead. By the end, Complexity had no answer for Balls, who continued to split push in the bottom lane, taking the bottom inhibitor twice by himself. With no answer for the split push, Complexity’s base melted away, and Cloud9 shrugged the monkey off their back LMQ vs Counter Logic Gaming In the words of every veteran League of Legends journalist—“What did I just see?!” LMQ and CLG put on a show in this incredible match. Despite early success for LMQ across multiple lanes, Doublelift kept himself relevant with back-to-back long range Super Mega Death Rockets. CLG opened the teamfighting with a great dragon fight, picking up Vasili, the mid tower, and then three more kills and another mid tower in the ensuing fight. Unfortunately, CLG would then make an ultimately fatal mistake by going for baron. So early in the game baron weakened CLG too much, and a well-timed Destiny from XiaoWeiXiao’s Twisted Fate allowed NoName to steal the baron, and LMQ to pick up an ace. All seemed lost for CLG, but Doublelift refused to quit. With a perfect engage, CLG deleted Vasili at their mid inhibitor and Doublelift picked up the first of his two quadrakills. Both teams made incredible plays throughout the match, but ultimately LMQ’s gold lead would prove insurmountable, as the final team fight went to LMQ, who limped into CLG’s ruined base to pick up the win. Curse vs Cloud 9 Not to be outdone, Curse and Cloud9 put in their bid for best game of the week with the final match of Day 2. Cloud9 dominated mid lane early with repeated ganks in the mid lane. Looking to continue their aggression in the bottom lane, Curse looked for a countergank leading to a full 5 on 5 team fight. Cloud9 emerge from the melee with a lead and a dragon, but Hai soon got caught, leading to a 4-2 team fight victory for Curse. Voyboy played an impressive game on Yasuo, catching out members of Cloud9 in surprising fashion. Time after time both teams would clash and leave battered and scarred. Ultimately, Curse’s failure to take out Sneaky in two key fights would be their downfall. First, at baron, Sneaky earned himself a quadra kill that allowed his team to catch up in gold. Finally, when IWillDominate got surrounded by C9 members, Curse were unable to close out a kill on Sneaky, who emerged from the fight to race down the mid lane. With Meteos in tow, the late game Kog’Maw shredded Curses base, letting Cloud 9 go 2-0 on the week.BIGGEST SURPRISE
BAAAAAAAAAALLS (And Sneaky)
Cloud9 has struggled this split due in large part to disappointing performances from star players Hai and Meteos. This week, however, Balls and Sneaky took over for the team and gave C9 two incredible victories. First with a split pushing clinic from Balls, and then with a lesson in positioning from Sneaky, the team took down two squads that have given them fits all split long. With only two weeks left before playoffs, Cloud9 has a chance to ride this momentum towards a high seeding, and potentially another shot at the World Championship.
BIGGEST DISSAPOINTMENT
CLG Fall Down The Hole
In sports, success comes when talent meets opportunity. Counter Logic Gaming have proven this split that they have the talent, and were given a perfect opportunity this week. With matches against basement-dwelling Evil Geniuses and rival for first place, LMQ, CLG could have kept themselves securely in contention for first. Unfortunately, a shocking upset by EG followed by an incredibly intense loss to LMQ leaves CLG not only behind, but demoralized. They will have to dig deep and recover quickly from this disappointing week, and look to run the table in their remaining six games in order to keep pace with LMQ.
