?
?
Coverage
The first game of the final day of LPL this week would kick off between the slumping Invictus Gaming and the underdogs where we see yet another resurgance of Shyvana play. We also see Kane pulling out Draven for the first time in awhile in competitive LoL since his change, not faring to well against Kid's Vayne. Both teams would trade a turret in opposite lanes and Energy Pacemaker would defend their red from Shyvana to close out the super early game.
With a barrage of summoners, Energy Pacemaker was able to pick up the first blood onto Zz1tai who would not survive Xin Xhao even with her trusty ultimate escpae. Things were overall looking pretty good for the last place team as they tied in towers and had only a small deficit but a two-kill advantage. SuperCat's Zed was quick to make plays around the map when needed and had assisted in every kill for his team up to 15 minutes.
Despite the solid beginning, Energy Pacemaker's mid-game lack of vision would cause them to suffer a loss of free dragons and also to be shoved in, allowing Invictus Gaming further map dominance. Even after the initial first blood, ZZ1tai had caught up with a 3-1-1 score and the generally lane-dominating draven was stuck at 0-3 against the hyper carry that is Kid's Vayne. This game would continue to be the highlight of why vision is so important.
Proceeding onward, Invictus Gaming took a completely free baron after already having a massive lead at this point. A once close game was settled when Invictus Gaming showed map dominance and Xiaoxiao lit the rift up. Even engaging inside their base would not be enough for the Hong-Kong quintuplet, allowing Invictus Gaming to roll through and pick up an easy victory in an otherwise close game.
?
Out of all the games we've seen in the LPL this weekend, the drafting of this particular one ended up the most normal. Both teams went with generally strong picks, but there were some crazy moves right off the bat. Jing blew his flash to try for an immediate first blood onto YanSir, almost killing him before the red buff true damage wore off, leaving both players without flash, but both of them alive and well. This put Jing behind in the jungle.
Young Glory would capitalize on this and pick up a 2-0 start with their duo lane diving Canines and Xin Xhao falling to Lee Sin. Laning phase would end early as usual with both side towers going down for each team, but with Young Glory still picking up kills. With proper warding, Young Glory would extend their lead and take the first dragon of the game, using excellent disengage to keep themselves safe and far ahead.
What we were witnessing this game would appear to be a reborn Young Glory, absolutely demolishing the second place team of the LPL. At an 8-0 lead 10 minutes and working on their 3rd tower, diving without any repercussions, Positive Energy looked completely outclassed. Young Glory was waiting at every corner and preventing comebacks, but Positive Energy still held onto only a slight tower deficit despite being behind a massive 7k gold.
A little bit of an overzealous dive would give Positive Energy the only possible comeback chance they had, but even then it was only a 3 for 3 trade. Young Glory were able to close the game out and give almost a humiliating defeat to Positive Energy, rendering the audience a bit surprised and wondering where this Young Glory team was hiding all this time.
?
Somehow, OMG has consistently been allowed to grab Blitzcrank for Pomelo, a champion that has proven to be a wonderful asset to the team. However, despite OMG being the dominant team in China, LMQ would be the first to draw blood on Karthus this game. They wouldn't stop there however, and would pick up another 2 kills onto Vayne, attempting to shut down OMG's bottom lane for good and snowball their hypercarry.
LMQ had a strategy going into this game and was executing it quite well. Their "protect the Vayne" comp not only complimented her in defense, but were also threats on the team capable of peeling or nuking. OMG found their first advantage after rushing dragon near the 14 minute mark and backing off, actually shoving the global gold lead in their favor by a slight amount.
An early oracle by LoveLin would assist the team in grabbing the comeback they needed by securing vision advantages across the map to prepare for the midgame. LoveLin would pull out some insec moves by diving nearly two towers deep for a kill onto Karthus, but with all the pressure mid, LMQ were able to dive the bottom tower and take it out. LoveLin was keeping OMG in the game, assisting in every kill thus far and being a huge thorn in LMQ's side.
The vision advantage was really working out for OMG as they were allowed to grab an essential free baron, rampaging through LMQ's jungle and bringing the pain. While LMQ had an early advantage, it completely flip flopped when OMG began focusing exclusively on map control. As usual after a team in the LPL takes baron, OMG slow pushed through inhibitors and secured their win, still proving nearly invincible this season.
?
There's no other way to end a great LPL weekend than an exciting drafting phase. Royal Club pulled out Fizz, Shyvana, and support Annie this game while World Elite actually were the ones to ban Twisted Fate themselves, a staple pick for Misaya being an understatement of the century. The game started off with World Elite taking a long sweep in the bottom half of the jungle to try to invade on Royal Club. Tabe's flash was blown straight away due to an incredible grab, giving Fzzf first blood.
Even with his support down, Uzi was bringing the pain onto Misaya, 1v1ing him in mid lane and reaching level 2 before him, zoning him afterwords and giving him a massive advantage in the 2v1 midlane. Royal Club would find their revenge kill up top with Lucky assisting Wh1t3zZ in taking out Caomei on Renekton, who's otherwise been having an awesome week. Though World Elite were trying to take an early tower bottom, Shyvana's waveclear kept them safe and allowed Shen to back.
Since Royal Club were finding the advantage in picking World Elite off, WE grouped up middle for a 5 man push onto the middle turret. Even with 4, Royal Club were able to fend it off as Godlike pushed top as Shen. Though Royal Club had the tower advantage, World Elite were setting up for dragon on time, but Royal Club were able to push them out and absolutely melt it.
The game was quite close in the mid-late game despite World Elite being at a 4k deficit. However, when Fzzf grabbed the wrong target allowing for a successful counter engage by Royal Club, things would go downhill for World Elite. After acquiring a baron off of World Elite's mistakes, the usual slow split push began once again, with blue build Ezreal not being enough to help World Elite stall out the game.
?
STANDINGS
