Immortals and Echo Fox got off to winning starts for this week of NA LCS, though neither team was particularly convincing.
Despite relegation no longer being a concern, Phoenix 1 are still fighting hard to avoid finishing bottom of the LCS. They started the series against Echo Fox very well, fueled by a strong Zac performance by Mikeyeung. Fox closed the kill lead before the Baron spawned but the gold lead stayed in P1’s favour. Things exploded, appropriately, around an Infernal Drake which went Fox’s way but low health bars granted P1 an ace and a Baron. But Echo Fox rallied as the second Baron spawned, sneaking it down before P1 could properly respond. Both teams showed why they are at the bottom end of the table, as things got real messy towards the end, but it was Echo Fox who dragged themselves over the finish line.
Phoenix 1 took an early lead again in game two but again allowed it to slip. After a typically stand-offish mid game, P1 rushed down a Baron of their own, but giving up two kills in the process cost them the gold lead and an inhibitor. The remaining P1 members decided they needed to fight but things escalated quickly as they gave up kill after kill, leading to an unexpected ace and a match win out of nowhere for Echo Fox.
Immortals started this week’s LCS action the same way they ended the last, taking a small lead in the early game of game one. A double kill for Xmithie’s Jarvan put Team Liquid on the back foot but they battled back in the mid game, keeping the league leaders within reach going into the mid game. Then they caught Xmithie invading their jungle, converted that into a handful of kills and in the blink of an eye, had their own gold lead. But the second Baron had a plot twist in his tail, granting Immortals an ace and put them back in the ascendancy. That was it as far as twists were concerned, however, and Immortals secured a somewhat sloppy game one win.
Game two was just as close for the duration of the early game. Team Liquid got off to a 3-0 start, but by the 15 minute mark things were dead even in gold and kills. The kills slowed down from there, with Immortals playing better around the map and growing a lead with a couple of pick offs and a single tower lead, leading to a 25 minute Baron. From there, it was a pretty straight forward team fight win to secure the match for Immortals.
