EU LCS Week 2 Day 2 Recap - Quick and Humorous Edition Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
VITALITY - BANS: Quinn, Tahm Kench, Corki. Vitality running something akin to their composition yesterday, except this time taking KaSing's Thresh. In this instance, this composition has the same strength as their one they had against Splyce, only now they have slight more peeling ability and have the safety of the Dark Passage.
ORIGEN - BANS: Gangplank, Lulu, Lissandra. Origen, on the other hand, are running something very interesting. They have the Shen offering engage, safety and skirmish power, coupled with Elise and Syndra, who does extremely well in narrow fights where she can land multi-man stun. Syndra also can instantly evaporate a Vitality carry, which there are a lot of, if she is given the chance. The interesting thing is Kindred as the ADC. Arguably, this is a snowball lane - marks your lane opponents and just murder them to stack marks and, by mid game, dish out a tonne of damage.
Kicking off with the first Lvl 1 fight we've seen in what feels like a whole season, Hjarnan picks up the First Blood 57 seconds into the game, a whole 19 minutes earlier than their last game. It then goes into standard lane, with neither team opting for the lane swap. The next point of action occurs at 4 minutes as Amazing ganks the bottom lane. Mithy gets the knock-up onto KaSing and the Mounting Dread is put on him. Cabochard tries to teleport to the fight, but it is cancelled by sOAZ. Sven picks up the kill when all is said and done. Shook then arrives in the lane and is destroyed by Kindred as the infamous insta-gib bug that was later identified rears its ugly head. With 2 kills, Zven is now in a place to do what he does and take over the game. Having now recovered the gold lead, Amazing looks again to gank the bottom and dive the tower with Mithy now hitting 6. Not able to find it, he instead steals takes the red buff. A gank on Nukeduck shortly after only blows Cleanse. Meanwhile, Cabochard, thanks to the early vision provided by Shook is able to constantly push and chip away at the top turret. At 12 minutes, Nukeduck finds himself the target yet again. Mithy, having Flash-Pulverized, knocks Ahri into PoE and Amazing, cementing another kill, this time for PoE's Syndra but it does't end there. While looking to establish vision, Mithy and Amazing are caught out by KaSing and Hjarnan. After Shen's Teleport, an extended fight and a chase through their own jungle, Origen get 3 kills and Dragon #1. After a push by Vitality, Zven is able to take the bottom outer turret after Cabochard finally takes down the top outer. Looking for the bottom turret, Vitality's duo is caught over-extended and they give a double kill to Zven and the bottom inner tower, but Nukeduck and Shook take out Syndra and, despite PowerOfEvil being able to take Shook with him, the middle outer turret goes down in reply. Now, with a 2k gold lead, Origen switch their lanes and then, using the Stand United, dive the solitary Cabochard with ease, giving Zven his 6th kill and the top tier 1 and the Rift Herald while Vitality manage to take only the bottom tier 2. A few minutes later, Origen take a pick onto Hjarnan in Baron-side river, but in the following extended fight, Vitality pick up 3, including Zven, and are then able to take down the middle tier 2, swinging the gold into their favour. Origen are then able, thanks to the 6 marks on Zven, to sneak a Baron from under the collective noises of Vitality. Putting Shen in his homeland of the split-push, Origen push the top and middle lane with Baron, taking the top tier 2 before rotating into the mid, looking for the tower. They are able to find it and, after disengaging from the fight, take Dragon #3 having taken Dragon #2 at 19 minutes. With Baron worn out its welcome, Vitality are able to push mid where, thanks to a Dragon's Rage into Death Zentence, they find a kill onto PoE. Now, with the advantage, they push hard. They grab the tower and the inhibitor without resistance from Origen. Origen quickly make the counter-push. Pressuring the mid Inhibitor tower, Vitality push them back. After some minor dance moves around Baron, Vitality start to bait it and find a fight. Vitality, with a 4 man advantage, push for the win, depsite sOAZ's best efforts.
CONCLUSION: Origen had such a fantastic start to the game, despite the Lvl 1 fight, and put everything on Zven on Kindred, allowing him to rack up kills and marks order to put on a similar performance to yesterday. However, despite this, Vitality were able to take crucial fights and either kill Zven early enough in fights or kill everyone but Zven and then take crucial objectives like the first inhibitor.
ELEMENTS - BANS: Rek'Sai, Gangplank, Ryze
Elements' draft, as is seemingly common with a lot of team recently, is centered around making picks and skirmishes. Elise, Thresh and, do a degree, Tahm all do well in this scenario dye to having strong single target CC, although Tahm needs to stack his passive first. They also provided a great front-line for Kalista who can also contribute to fights and skirmishes through her ultimate. Morgana in the mid lane is a decidedly old school pick. Picked as a response to the Viktor, it overs a strong match to Viktor's wave-clear with Tormented Soil, provided the wave is static. Furthermore, it again contributes to that single target pick with Dark Binding which, in a full AP build can be very strong. Black Shield is also a strong tool against Shadow Dash and Viktor Gravity Well. It has been played in the LCK in both the mid and top lane, so it is not exactly a bizzare choice.
GIANTS - BANS: Fiora, Alistar, Lulu
Giants, on the other side, grab a nice siege comp centered on Viktor and Ezreal, though it is rather slow scaling. Ezreal is a very strong champion with the scaling build which, after some time, will do unbelievable amount of damage both in general and with the Mystic Shots coming in. This, combined with Viktor wave-clear, will allow Giants to siege up effectively when combined with the the rest of their team. Viktor also helps should they fall behind as it allows them to stall out the game. Shen and Trundle also help Graves, who lacks any CC, to gank their lanes effectively with Shadow Dash and Pillar of Ice respectively. Subjugation from Trundle with also go some way to deal with the tanky front-line of Elements, particularly Steve. The only trouble for Giants is, if they are set behind early, it will increase the time it takes for them to hit their power-spikes. But, considering both comps, it should be possibly for the m to stall out the game long enough to claw back in should that situation occur. They have the late game guarantee in the form of Ezreal and Viktor.
Starting off with a lane-swap by Giants, both teams send their top laners to double jungle. Tier 1's are traded. The worst least exciting gank occurs in mid and both Gilius and G0DFRED come into mid. Damage is traded, glances exchanged and the game goes on. Rotating the duos, the last of the top and bottom tiers ones are traded, though Elements manage to get their turret first and Giants are behind in the lane swap. With the 3 duo swap of the game, by this point making me extremely dizzy, Elements steal the Giant's blue buff as their strong lane is on the botom side. They then look to pressure the tower, forcing G0DFRED and k0u to help Atom defend. K0u manages to prevent himself being three-buffed by stealing a blue of his own with the Collateral Damage. With the duos swapped once more, each pressure the tier 2's, again trading them though Giants get the drop on Elements here and can go take Dragon #1 as Elements strong lane is on the top side. Elements then demonstrate the strength of their come after a Dark Binding lands onto G0DFRED. Though they don't kill him, they force the Stand United and then go on to take the Rift Herald, with Gilius taking the Doom's Eve. With each teams duo in the same lane for once, Steve, backed by the baying of the crowd, om-nom-noms k0u with the help of Eika grabbing the First Blood. Now sieging mid the the last ticking of Doom's Eve, Steve is caught by the taunt under the middle tier 1 and goes down to Adryh's Ezreal, but MrRalleZ is able to kill Shen for the reply kill, trading a sneaky ninja for a ravenous fish. Now it's Giants turn to siege middle, but a Dark Binding sneaks it way onto k0u and between turret shots, Pierce and Eika's Thunderlord's proc, k0u throws away his life. Elements no command a 2k gold lead. After pushing the middle lane, Elements take their first Dragon. However, thanks to Adryh's completed Iceborn Gauntlet, Giants take the mid tier one. Elements deem Rift Herald to be the next crucial objective, giving the buff over to MrRalleZ and, with it, they take the barely standing mid tier one. On the other side of the map, Steve had managed to push the bottom wave into the turret and now his teamamtes rotate to join him in his lonesome siege. Atom misses his Shadow Dash-Flash, serving himself on a platter of embarrasment to Elements. He manages to limp away and, with the arrival of Viktor, Giants clear out Elements. Proceeeding with all the dynamism of a glacier, Elements return to the bot lane siege, quickly and sneakily taking the tower. After chunking out multiple members of elements, Giants go start Baron, but the big tough purple worm is too tough for them and they meekly retreat after seeing Steve on the horizon. Having scared off Giants and with his recently recalled teammates returning, Steve starts to lick the Baron. The fights is imminent. Skillshots are traded, but sprattel is taken out by k0u and Eika teleports him only to donate himself to Giant's cause and koins his teamamte 6 feet under. With the fight won, Giants take the middle tier 2, although Elements are able to take their second Dragon and still have the gold lead. Giants are able to siege the top tier 2, thanks to a large minion wave. Elements are able to hold onto their tower and take out k0u in the process. Giants take another fight at around 21 minutes, killing 3 and only losing xPepii, now with their late game comp coming into its own but they cannot takle anything else afterwards. Elements grab Dragon #3, beginning to threaten Aspect. Another fight breaks out at 25 minutes. This time, Eika's TP is far more successful, allowign the shut down onto Adryh, though giving up his own life in the process. Atom also goes down and then Elements threaten the Baron. Fate's Call seals k0u's fate and, after the recalls, they go back and take the Baron, putting them 5k in the lead. Grouping in the middle lane, Elements take the last reamining tier 2 for Giantsand then move onto the Inhibitor turret. After a few waves, they take it down, exposing the Inhibitor. They secure the Inhibitor and back away. Rotating bottom they pick up 2 quick kills onto xPepii and k0u. They take the bottom Inhibitor and, with the super minion wave coming in and Baron buff still up, Elements knock the Giants off Summoner's Rift
CONCLUSION: Mistakes for Giants once again cost them the game. They had very good team composition but multiple errors by multiple members stopped them from having full control of the game. Elements in the early to mid game played around MrRallez effectively, but not crisply enough. Finally... STEVE!
FNATIC vs UNICORNS OF LOVE
FNATIC - BANS: Elise, Kindred, Tahm Kench
Fnatic are running a great siege comp. Corki and Grave can melt through turrets and Coki can push people off with Missile Barrage. Also in possession of enough diving potential to put most UK football players to shame. Poppy and Alistar are fantastic divers, especially post-6. Ahri is a very strong mid lane pick in the grand scheme of the meta and does pretty well into Zed. Sprit's Graves will very easily be able to out-duel Rek'Sai 1 vs 1 and the abundance of CC in his lanes means he should be able to ganke fairly easily and get out his damage. Poppy can also nullify Kalista's team-fight power by preventing her Martial Poise through the use of Steadfast Presence.
UNICORNS OF LOVE - BANS: Gangplank, Lissandra, Lulu
Unicorns opt for a very lane-centric comp. All their laners are very strong and they are relying on that in order to get an advantage going into the mid game. To complement this, Diamond got Rek'Sai, a strong early ganker. UOL also have plenty of split-push potential in their composition and can run a 1-3-1 very easily. Kalista x Thresh is a fantastic lane as I have mentioned in the past. Ryze is a riskier pick as he is reliant of his jungler in order to get ahead and, even then, he requires his team be to around him in order to truly succeed. He feels somewhat out of sorts here. UOL are taking a big gamble with this composition.
This match starts off with one giant mind-game. Avoiding the laneswap ward by hiding under their top tier one, UOL's duo lane are able to get the Krugs over their opposite numbers who are put in the top side against them which also puts Fnatic in the match-up that they wanted to avoid and, thinking that they were going inot the lane swap, they didn't even do the Gromp, giving the early level 2 advantage to Steeelback and Hylissang. This will have fairly large implications for the rest of the game. By 7 minutes, both UOL's top laner and ADC ave significant CD leads, exactly the situation the UOL want with their composition. Two ganks by Spirit in mid and bot only blow Fox's flash and, by that point, UOL, thanks to their winning lanes, have a 1.5k gold lead. But, not content with merely that, UOL dive the Fnatic duo lane in the top side. NoxiaK goes down to Steeelback after Rekkles manages to Valkyrie out. On the other side, Spirit says hello to Vizicsacsi and grabs a kill with Gamsu's assistance. With their duo now put into the bottom side, UOL look to take their next turret. Fnatic mirror this move and both teams take the opposite tier 1's. Additionally, Fnatic is able to take Rift Herlad to further aid their push, but Diamondprox takes Dragon #1 for UOL. with Unicorns lacking safe waveclear in the top side, Fnatic keep pushing, easily knocking down the top tier 2. With that objective down, Fnatic swap to the mid to get some damage but back away as Steeelback arrives. With Rekkles pushing the bot side wave, Fnatic are them able to move and take down the outer turret with UOL trying to take the middle tier 1 in response, though are denied by Febiven and Gamsu. Fnatic are then able to take the mid tier 1 for themselves, thanks to having greater numbers in that lane. UOL then look themselves, having stopped the push in the bot side, look to try to close the tower deficit by pressuring the last outer turret. After trying to go all in for the tower, UOL are engaged upon by NoxiaK. Hylissang is the only man to go down when the dust settles and UOL are forced to back. With Fox now starting to split-push in the bottom side, they try for the middle turret again. Unable to find it, they try to sneak a Baron, but are spotted out by the spookies and forced to recall, but htye get the Teleport out of Gamsu. A fight occurs moments later. Initially, it goes even with 2 members of each side going down. But, an aggressive Flash by Steeelback allows Fox to pick off Febiven and then Steeelback finds the remaining members for a Triple Kill. Taking the last outer turret, they also grab the middle inner turret to put them 2k up over Fnatic. Using their vision effectively, Unicorns set up another fight but it fizzles out before anyone can go down. However, Fnatic get their second Dragon. UOL start up the Baron, but Foz is taken out in the Fnatic blue-side jungle and the fight is on once again. Only Ryze falls in the fight and Unicorns make it out with the Baron onto 3 members. But, because they won the ensuing fight, Fnatic can take the middle tier 2 tower. A 1-2-2 splitpush is set in motion with Fox in the top lane, Vizicsacsi and Diamondprox in the bottom side and the terror twins of Steeelback and Hylissang in the middle lane. They place more emphasis on the bottom side with everyone on UOL making their way over to it at 28 minutes. Thanks to Baron, they are able to take it. After Febiven is forced to burn Flash and Zhonays in the middle lane, Steeelback grabs a kill onto Spirit under his Inhibitor turret. Febiven, lacking any form of defense, goes down next, with Gamsu rounding out another trio of kills for Kalista. With this, they take 2 Inhibitors and make it out with at 5k gold lead. With pressure in two lanes, UOL are in a prime position to take the top lane tier 2 and to push for the Inhibitor tower and the juicy Inhibitor beyond. Fox trades himself for Rekkles and UOL have to back away, deeming the situation too risky, so they just decide that Dragon #2 for them will do just fine. With Baron now respawned and vision established, Unicorns begin to bait it, but with the bottom Inhibitor respawing, them commit to it. Gamsu teleports in, but a Death Sentence onto Spirit is the signal. Diamond, trapped by the Steadfast Presence is the only one to go down. They go back to baiting the Baron as they have the superior vision in the areas. They pick up the objective and they go 1 for 1 in the fight with Steeelback somehow surviving the Poppy onslaught. Putting the Baroned-up Zed to split in the bottom lane, the rest of the UOL squad look for the middle Inhibitor. A hook onto Gamsu takes him to 1/3 of his hitpoints and forces him back, permitting the Unicorns to stampede over the middle Inhibitor and prep for the next open Inhhibitor. Patiently waiting out for super-minions in the middle lane, the UOL continue the back and forth in the bot side. Fnatic find the engage that they wanted but only Gamsu and Fox see the grey screen and the Inhibitor goes down all the same. With superminions in 2 lanes, Unicorns take the Baron the instant it respawns and then move down the top lane with a gigantic minion wave. The Inhibitor turret crumbles and the middle Inhibitor is taken yet again, but Univorns willl not rest until the bottom Inhibitors goes down the moments it is resurrected. Fnatic try to defend valiantly, but the inhibitor goes down and they look for the Three-of-a-kind. Support is traded for support and all inhibitors go down, opening the super-minion floodgates. With an army of super-minions, Unicorns move in for the kills. Gamsu is the first to fall and a Death Sentence onto Febiven speels the end as Unicorns Of Love prove that magic really does exist.
CONCLUSION: Unicorns got exactly what they wanted in the early game. Not only did they mind-game Fnatic into giving them the match-up that they wanted, but they also went into it with a exp advantage, allowing Steeelback to gain valuable early pressure. Viziscacsi was given a similiar situation. He always had a CS lead over Gamsu and always was more powerful because of it. Fnatic's engages also felt uncoordinated when they needed to be on the same page.
SPLYCE - BANS: Trundle, Kindred, Ryze
Splyce, in this draft, they grabbed plenty of the power picks in the current meta. Ahri is an ideal Sencux champion considering how he played throughout the Challenger Series. Graves in the jungle can be totally destructive, when combined with CC from Ahri, Morgana and Tahm Kench. Morgana also helps to mitigate the CC from Roccat in roder to protect either Sencux or Ezreal. Tahm also offers as well.
ROCCAT - BANS: Gangplank, Elise, Lulu
Airwaks managed to grab Rek'Sai, a champion that he has had decent succes on it. Furthermore, they also got hold of, arguably, the strongest duo right now in Kalista and Alistar. which can combo nicely with Ganr in order to turn fights in their favour. This also plays into Roccat's overall objective of a pick composition/skirmish comp. LeBlanc also fits this comp as she can provided huge amounts of burst on a confine area with double W and can also pick off targets.
Roccat start with the lane swap, putting Safir and Edward in the top side where as Splyce run standard lanes. Both also opted for the early double jungle. The 3 vs 0 lead to the common-as-muck turret trade. With little ganking opportunities available, Roccat, with their strong lane on the top side, settle for the Rift Herald.
With a gold lead for Roccat springing out of their CS leads, Roccat, now with the duo in the bottom side, take down the bottom tier 1, enhancing their lead futher. Unfortunately for Roccat, an Ariwaks misstep in the middle lane while pressuring the turret leads Sencux to get First Blood. Despite the set-back, Roccat do pick up Dragon #1 and segues nicely into a middle lane brawl. No one dies but multiple Rocca members are forced to beat a retreat and Splyce can grab Rift Herald and donate the Doom's Eve to Kobbe. With it they take the top outer turret but Betsy, thnks to earlier pressure from Airwaks, can take the middle outer in order to even up the score. Betsy, as 19 minutes, zeros out Nisbeth and slinks away with only 9 hitpoints remaining. With Roccat now running a 1-3-1 with in the two side, they make a push for the middle while simultaneously making a move onto Wunderwear. Both move do not bear any fruit and, instead, they go and take their second Dragon. Later, at 24 minutes, spookies into Dark Binding, Trueshot Barrage and Collateral Damage sends Safir to the Shadow Realm and the middle tier one to the junkyard, putting Splyce in the lead, if only slightly. After a few minutes of lane pushing and vision establishment, the respawn of Dragon herald the start of a melee. Despite a nice looking Gnar ult, Betsy is the only one who survives and Splyce are free to take their first Dragon. Now in the lead, Wunderwear cuts off the Roccat team and facilitates 2 picks onto Betsy and Safir, making it so that Baron is the next easy objective for Splyce. With the buff, Splyce siege the middle tier 2, but Edwards starts a fight. Sadly, not only to Splyce manage to take the tower, but they also get a kill onto Airwaks as they move to the top side and take another tier 2. The Syplce Baron train just does not stop as they take the top Inhibitor. Betsy and Co. chase down the retreating Splyce but Splyce turn it around, taking down everyone but Betsy and, with the Inhibitor down, they can push for their first victory in the EU LCS
CONCLUSION: Splyce looked better in the game more a number of reasons: one, they put Wunderwear on a champion where, even if he was set behind, he could still be useful to the team. secondly, they allowed Sencux to play the way he was known for in the Challenger Series, proactive and deadly. Finally, Roccat still do not have solid shot-calling as of this point in time and it is detrimental to their growth as a team.
G2 - BANS: Poppy, Corki, Elise
G2 have made things interesting this time round by picking up Udyr in the jungle. Typically, his problem is that he can be kited relatively easily and cannot stick to his targets. Here they have Lulu to speed to him towards H2k and Hybrid to slow H2k down. Emperor can also contribute to this once he has his Iceborn Gauntlet completed. They also picked safe laners that also pack some good wave clear and, if Udyr decided to go tanks, their front line can be quite strong. G2 will do well in extended engagements for the most part and will also be able to pick off targets with Zed/Udyr.
H2k - BANS: Tahm Kench, Kalista, Gangplank
H2k have gone with a comp that seems pretty standard these days. Shen is seeing a good deal of play in Europe for reasons previously explained. Graves is a insanely highly burst jungler who does very well when there is a wealth of CC in his lanes like they have here. Lissandra = plenty of AOE damage, CC and also lockdown/fight stalling ability. Finally, Forg1ven is on his old favourite in Lucian and Alistar is considered to be a top tier support. Overall, H2k have a nice 5 v 5/Wombo comp with insane amounts of burst damage.
Early lane swap is initiated by G2 and towers are traded as if you didn't see that coming. Duo lanes are swapped yet again as they look to push in for another turret trade. The pace of this game remains relatively slow for the most part as Dragon #1 is taken by G2 but neither team is dictating the pace yet. G2 come into a early gold lead as the H2k duo comes into the middle lane, looking for the middle push but, as Perkz is too healthy, they have to go deal with the push by Emperor. Now, it's G2's turn to try to siege mid, but Hybrid is caught by the Alistar into the Frozen Tomb and is locked down for First Blood. G2 do grab their second Dragon which H2k trade for a Rift Herald, giving Doom's Eve to Jankos. In the mid, Emperor, after Arcane Shifting forward, get locked under the turret and take a Collateral Damage to the face for another kill. With Zed splitting in whatever lane he can, H2k siege up and secure the mid lane tower as they wave-clear is no longer there for G2. The next big fight is at the third Dragon. Despite an nice engage by Ryu and Odoamne, it ends with a 2 for 2 as Trick slaps his way to a double kill. As long as the Dragon is up, there shall be fights and, with all member back up, there is another fight though ,this time, H2k pick up a kill onto Perkz and the Dragon. Ryu, with the help of Jankos, grab a kill onto the unsuspecting Kikis, but G2 do take the middle turret but are forced to retreat. Now H2k engage in their own 1-3-1 with Ryu and Odoamne taking side lane duties. Odoamane does take down the bottom tier 2 at 26 minutes, in the face of Kikis's resistance. A fight breaks out in the middle lane following G2's push. Once again, it goes in the favour of H2k as Perkz and Kikis go down and now they can get the Baron and further augment their split-push. With the buff, Odoamne takes down the top tier 2, but Ryu goes one better, allowing his team to pick up a kill on Perkz yet again and to take the bottom Inhibitor. They then look to crack open the middle lane and G2 are forced to give up another Inhibitor with only the top one left standing. With that in their sights, G2 look to makk their final stand as the Inhibitor turret goes down. Ryu, in what looks like a step too far, goes in and around 100hp, and ults Emperor, using his Zhonyas just in time and being the recipient of Stand United. He then manages to Ring of Ice 3 of G2's squad and, while he goes down, it allows his team to pick up the win.
CONCLUSION: H2k rebounded very well form their loss against Fnatic. Their typically macro style look good here and Ryu was on a champion that can make plays and set up fights for his team. Trick felt restrained on the Udyr pick overall, being unable to make the same proactive plays that he did in Week One that earned him not only Riot's Week MVP but my own personal MVP award. Kikis also was on a champion that he did not look comfortable on in the form of Lulu and looked much better on champs like Tahm Kench in a similar fashion to Wunderwear.
MMVP of the Week: Raymond "kaSing" Tsang of Team Vitality
