Top Alistar, tower dives, and brave Baron calls in SHC vs. ROC

When ROCCAT burst onto the scene during the Season 4 spring split, they became known for their unique playstyle and meta-breaking strategies. Overpow was single handedly responsible for turning Kayle from a has-been to a must-pick for an entire split, after all. Since their success last split, however, they’ve struggled to remain consistent - particularly against Supa Hot Crew. The two teams went even over the course of the split, going 2-2 against one another, seemingly due to ROCCAT’s struggles to continue to innovate. Meanwhile, Supa Hot Crew has only been improving since their escape from relegation after their 10-18 finish in spring split. On the back of their star ADC MrRallez, they managed a 3rd place spot after the regular season and a spot in the playoffs, looking strong as they head into the postseason. During the quarterfinals, however, ROC showed SHC exactly what they could do when given room to experiment. With their unorthodox success, it remains to be seen if other teams will follow suit and experiment with their own picks. Will we see more as the road to Worlds continues? We’ll find out soon enough. For now, though, here’s our favorite moments from the quarterfinal match between Supa Hot Crew and ROCCAT.

Game 1 - The pick

Our first moment came before the teams even made it to Summoner’s Rift to start fighting it out. With their support and ADC already selected - Morgana and Kog’Maw, respectively - they seemingly jokingly moused over Alistar, causing more than a couple of raised eyebrows. No way they’d lock the cow into a position that wasn’t support, right?

Game 2 - Into the deep end

After 24 minutes of play, it looked like Game 2 could go either way. That is, until ROCCAT decided that they were just going go ahead and win. Nice dive, Xaxus.

Game 3 - Die hard

The first two games went almost entirely ROCCAT’s way, but the Crew wasn’t going to go down that easily. Late in the hotly contested Game 3, they showed that they more than had enough spunk left in them to put up a fight against ROCCAT’s unique style.

Game 4 - Into the pit

Outside of LMQ over in North America, there are very few teams in the LCS willing to call a Baron fight before the 25 minute mark. ROCCAT is one of those teams. With a 3-1 victory over Supa Hot Crew, ROCCAT moves on to the EU LCS semifinals to face Fnatic on Friday, August 15.