The TLDR - August 10-17

Here's a cruel reality: Watching every professional League of Legends match from every professional League of Legends league leaves little time to look at much else. You also may find yourself overusing words that begin with the letter "L." Wouldn't it be nice if someone would just come along and suggest the very best games to watch? Good news! We are just that someone! Each week, we'll put you to the five stand-out games of the week--one from each region--as well as pick our top play. Think there are games we missed? Leave your suggestions in the comments below!

Shut Down

Base Race Game 5 looked incredibly good for the KT Arrows. More than 12k gold ahead, ssumday initiated a fight under Samsung Blue's top tower. His confidence was punished as Heart's Alistar and Dade's Yasuo combined to knock the Arrows up in the air multiple times, killing every KT player bar Rookie, and keeping Blue's championship hopes alive.

This Week, Around the World

EU LCS: ROCCAT vs. Alliance Game four of the Team ROCCAT/Fnatic series was a tribute to the "never quit" attitude. FNC dominated the game throughout the first thirty-five minutes, but ROC was able to use the resets from Jankos's Kha'Zix and Celaver's Tristana to score an Ace and break Fnatic's momentum. They were never able to regain that lost momentum and ROC closed out the game in fifty-one minutes after erasing a 7,000 gold lead through map domination and superior teamfighting. Written by Thomas Watts. GPL: Taipei Assassins vs AHQ, Game 3 Strategic mastery prevails in three out of three games as the Taipei Assassins finished out a grand slam season, netting their third GPL split title in a row. It is clear now that the distance between the two top Taiwanese teams has grown since their action-packed spring split best-of-five finals -- though AHQ demonstrated strong individual mastery, with Westdoor putting on an especially good third-game split push that often resulted in Achie's death on the defense, they were routinely outmaneuvered and outflanked by TPA's meticulous warding and long-term planning. The final 3-0 result spoke volumes of TPA's preparations since Coach Sim's arrival on Taiwanese shores. Now they are set to test their growing talents against the international field as Southeast Asia's #1 seeded team in the World Championship. Written by James Chen. LPL: WE Academy vs. YG Normally, we would call a game with an Urgot and Nasus bottom lane a guilty pleasure, but World Elite Academy made it work. LPL's bottom two teams have improved by leaps and bounds, and they closed out their regular seasons with 2-0's against LPL Spring Playoff teams Invictus Gaming and OMG. Though the real standout players of this game were Khan and Soist, Smlz and Yuzhe's Urgot/Nasus combination exploited surprising armor shred and slow-then-aim synergy. While we don't expect Urgot/Nasus will be the new OP bottom lane, it's well worth a watch (or two). Written by Kelsey Moser. OGN: Samsung Galaxy Blue vs. KT Rolster Arrows, Game 4 It's summertime in Korea, and true to OGN tradition, the Champions grand final was a five-game nailbiter. We're not quite sure what it is about summer that makes for such high quality League of Legends, but we're not complaining. In Game 4, Samsung Blue's revive composition faced the KT Arrows' dive composition, creating many back-and-forth team fights. Both teams played magnificently, utilizing their compositions to the fullest extent. In the end, it was one decisive flank from ssumday that put the Arrows back into the driver's seat, and keeping their Champions hopes alive. Written by Alex Manisier.

Regional VODs

Check out all of this week's matches from each region on their VOD pages! We've got delicious statistics, item builds, and of course the most exciting games.

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