This Week in League: Week 1 (2020)
It has been 4 long months but we are here now ladies gentlemen. We shall offer sacrifice to the league gods. I spend many my time watching these contests. I pray for a bountiful harvest of pixelated bloodshed, baron steals, teamfights, backdoors, one shots, and pentakills. And may we hope that a challenger will finally take down the Liquid empire.
Before we begin may also take the moment to mourn the passing of Kobe Bryant. He was a legend on the court and after he dealt with off court controversies was a role model off of it too inspiring the wave of NBA talent that is now starting to blossom. As a Celtics fan it stings even more to hear about the death of an adversary, he made the 08’ celtics earn that ring. If you want to comment about it keep it brief like a simple “RIP Kobe”, “f”, etc and then talk about whatever else you wanted to talk about from LCS Week 1.
Day 1
C9 vs TL Ah the first game of the year which is also a rematch of the Summer Finals. An LCS tradition to get crowd revved up for an action packed year. Only for it to seem like it would be a boring macro chess match. Zven didn’t buckle against Doublelift meaning that C9 has an ADC that doesn’t fall behind in lane I repeat C9 has an ADC that doesn’t lose in lane. While Jensen was hoping that he could sit back and farm, Nisqy one upped him in the scaling department with Veigar. But then a fight happened with CoreJJ getting the first kill of the season in a 3 for 1 fight for the first skirmish for the year. But then C9 just kept on getting small wins in the little areas like trades and vision wars. This culminated into a masterclass of zone control by Nisqy to secure an infernal. Things quieted down again until the boys in blue got a pick on Shernfire. This was their cue to rush baron. Before Liquid could get a proper engage C9 cleanly secured it and had Liquid running back to their base. The power of baron and memes was too much for TL as I’m not kidding; Nisqy clips Doublelift with a full range cage, flashes under TL’s inhib turret with Impact’s Morde in range, One shots Doublelift and gets ulted by Impact, but still lives as the rest of his team cleans up Liquid for an ace and a quick 24 minute win. Despite Liquid having a sub jungle, this was a much needed statement win for C9 to establish their dominance with a new roster.
CLG vs DIG A pair of teams coming fresh from strong finishes to the previous season. Unlike the first game First Blood was shedded at only 3 and a half minutes. Fight after fight was on a knife’s edge with all but 1 or 2 players dying. Dignitas then started pulling ahead always getting one kill more than CLG in each fight. CLG tried to do everything in their power to kill Froggen but they just couldn’t. He either one shot the closest squishy and/or escape with a sliver of health. That was the same story for $2.3 million man as he would soak up more damage with stoneplate than the Flex Seal bucket. Then CLG got a pick onto Aphromoo and hoped to use the man advantage to rush baron only for Dignitas to just move in and take it themselves. Well played. Before Dignitas got the dragon soul CLG tried to rekindle the old Dignitoss memes, all it did was prolong the inevitable. Oh so you got a pick onto Froggen, doesn’t matter because you left Joshun and $2.3 million man unchecked to kill your entire team. Aphromoo killing Smoothie was a microcosm of this game.
100T vs GGS Again another pair of teams with similar narratives facing off in week 1. While both teams poked and prodded for the first couple minutes no one could find a kill. Shelly proved to be the icebreaker as both teams would go for each other’s throats. Then Cody Sun got a double kill off of a single double up. CG maintained control of the drakes then a pause happened dang mice. Like the power outage of SB XLVII this foreshadowed the events to come. Things got back on track and it became a game of guerrilla warfare. However, the Guardians’ priority over drakes paid off as they got an infernal soul. They were methodically picking apart 100T with every move they made until Meteos pulled off smite steal of the elder dragon. The Thieves then proceeded with the remainder of the heist and stole the game.
IMT vs FLY To start the season it was V1per’s birthday which was a foreshadowing of things to come. As a birthday gift he got to play his favorite champion Riven into a favorable matchup. The game got off to a quick start with the first proper bot lane fiesta of the season with a 2 for 1 trade. Not much happened for a bit then Santorin caught out Xmithie with Ignar swooping in to “secure” the kill which was the green flag for the drake. IMT took advantage of Flyquest spreading out and secured Shelly to get first brick bot. More objectives got traded around then a fight broke out in the river where V1per proceeded to happen and decimated the backline. From there it was the V1per show and made sOAZ his property. The rest of the squad constantly got picks across the map and claimed all of the objectives. Immortals has some work to do while Flyquest planted 121 trees.
Day 2
DIG vs EG Evil Geniuses make their 2nd LCS day view in the form of a Litmus test against Dignitas. The start of the game like most others, quiet with objectives being traded back and forth. Things are looking up for EG hell they got first blood and have Dignitas on the ropes in a skirmish mid lane. Then Kumo gets caught out and blown up. This pattern would repeat itself constantly. EG would make a play or get an objective but they over reached to get it and Dignitas responded accordingly and got more off of EG’s over step than EG got on the initial move. Dignitas then proceeds to pick apart EG piece by piece getting picks and cleanly securing objectives. Froggen turned into a deathball that destroying anything in his path. All they needed was a baron and proved that Evil Geniuses are what they thought they were.
TSM vs IMT A rematch of the 2017 Summer Finals these teams continued right where they left off with a methodical slug fest with each team making calculated decisions. Players from both teams were flirting with death yet would always find a way to cheat it. Unless you’re Xmithie who got killed by a global snipe. The fans of both sides were holding their breath waiting for the other team to make a mistake. Neither team was willing to risk much only settling for the occasional turret or dragon. This was the epitome of consevative play. TSM was pulling ahead with small wins in fights and trades piling up over time. Then Immortals had enough and decided to rush baron. They secured it but it came at a cost and gave TSM additional map control before IMT had 5 members again. They had a net neutral gain from their baron buff. Afterwards another dance around baron occurred with nothing happening. Fights were breaking out in which nearly everyone would somehow live with Immortals slowly clawing their way back. TSM then forced another baron. Meanwhile, Altec got the dragon soul while nothing was happening in the baron river. Immortals was able to take control of the map and pick apart TSM in a needed statement win.
C9 vs GGS C9 and GGS are opposites in why they need to win. C9 wants to plant their flag as an elite team right away whereas the Guardians needs to stop the bleeding after a rough loss. GGS came in with a game plan to shut down Licorice and they executed that plan with decent success with well coordinated dives. But they forgot that C9 had a mid laner and a jungler who cleaned up after another tower dive onto Licorice. From there C9 just ran the show and it looked like they were omnipresent with how much they caught out the Guardians. Blaber was on a tear and looked like he was back in summer 2018 form. As punishment for his team’s mistakes Kieth had to take the brunt of all of C9’s engages getting obliterated in the process. Poor Kieth, the guy just can never catch a break. In a desperation move the Guardians tried to rush Shelly only for C9 to just drive by, take Shelly, and use her to destroy 3 towers. The only hope that the Guardians had was to prolong the Dragon Soul from C9. Things were looking up with a pick onto Nisqy enabling them to get their first drake. C9 responds by rushing baron which they used to herd the Guardians like sheep and butcher them on the spot. After feasting on rack of lamb and acidic baron dessert the boys in blue had some trouble breaking the base but the cloud soul gave them the map mobility to catch out split pushers. One more baron was all they needed to close out the game to start off the season strong.
151 Trees vs CLG The main story of this game is the matchup between POE vs Crown. I’m a sucker for his unconventional play style and want to see him get vengeance’e. Unsurprisingly, Riven got banned in phase 1. Things got off to a quick start as Santorin got a successful gank off mid then for some reason Wiggly thought it was a good idea to dash in alone on 2 full health close quarters champions. Then things quieted down for the next few minutes then another fight broke out mid which was a net neutral 2 for 2 trade. TreeQuest made it a priority to secure early dragons giving them valuable pressure when the mountain dragons would spawn. Then what seemed like a routine Shelly by Santorin was botched when crown denied it, to stop the bleeding Santorin made sure that no one got the eye. Crown would constantly get caught out of position giving TreeQuest crucial man advantages during objectives. POE didn’t even need to prove that he was the better mid laner as Santorin was a wrecking ball. Even then his Rumble would still destroy teamfights just because he is Rumble. Any objective they wanted they took. The only thing CLG could hope to do was have the divers pounce on WildTurtle only to forget that the rest of the team died. They used their priority at elder drake to force CLG to come to them. A methodical front to back teamfight along with super minions threatening the nexus towers was the green flag for TreeQuest to swiftly end the game
Monday Night League
EG vs 100T A match that is perfect to get the crowd ready for the main event with 2 squads with opposite reasons for the same goal. 100 Thieves trying to prove that their 1st win wasn’t a fluke while EG want everyone to forget the embarrassment they endured against Dignitas. EG made it their mission early to camp mid and killed Ryoma on the second try. They then took control of the map for a while then Svenskaren got caught out. It didn’t really matter as EG still got the drake. Jiizuke looked like he was back on Vitality. Anyone that wasn’t a tank would get blown up, when it looked like he would get caught out he would fully abuse the mobility of Le Blanc. Then he gets picked off enabling the Thieves to prolong the soul. Any optimism that they had was blown up like their team in the next couple of teamfights giving EG the infernal soul. Time for the one shots. In a last ditch effort the Thieves desperately rushed Baron only for Jiizuke and the rest of the squad to destroy them the baron the elder dragon the base their hope their dignity their spirit their soul and the nexus. This was important EG to get this win to start the season on a positive note.
TL vs TSM Now for the match everyone was waiting for which is a rematch of the 2019 Spring Finals that TSM choked. Like the finals TSM got off to an early lead applying pressure towards Doublelift to kill him twice. They used their lead bot to secure an early drake, push in top lane, and take Shelly. TSM was quick to trigger on the slightest misstep. This pattern repeated for the next 7 minutes. Then members kept kept on getting caught out allowing Liquid to claw their way back. TSM still had leverage as they could threaten the soul. In a 2 for 2 fight TL delayed the inevitable by taking the next infernal. And then they took the next infernal and some towers while TSM was obsessed with baron. When they had enough resources TL took an easy baron, another drake, and a partridge in a pear tree. TSM you had this game in the palm of your hands and you blew it. Liquid then proceeds to pick apart TSM and save their week.
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While it is only week 1 it felt like there was somewhat of a line drawn by the top teams. C9, FLY, and Dignitas established themselves as early contenders. TL, EG, IMT, and 100T were able to get a manageable start. Meanwhile TSM dug themselves into a hole that they should be able to get out of. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for GGS who I think will be in for a long Spring Split.
Seems like a nice start to the split. It is one of the few bright spots to the year so far. Year of 2020 please don’t ruin it pretty please?
