(original photo courtesy of slaskiepozytywnie.pl)
Entering the 2016 European LCS, Origen had high expectations. Instead, they have regressed significantly from their Worlds semifinal form. Their first international tournament of 2016 pits them against some of the world's best League of Legends talent, and game one against Chinese Group A favorites Royal Never Give Up presented one of the most difficult possible opening game challenges.
Analysis:
Origen earned an early lead, taking a lead in towers and overall gold, contrary to what many expected from the game. At around nine minutes into the game, however, Royal Never Give Up took first blood over Origen’s Paul "Soaz" Boyer with a three man gank top. Due to some questionable overextending, despite their 2k gold lead, Soaz stayed for the wave and paid for it. The kill count at 15 minutes was 3-0 in RNG’s favor, the tower count 4-2 in Origen’s favor, and the dragon count was 1-0 in Origen’s favor. Origen maintained a 1k plus gold lead at 15 minutes in. All three early game deaths came from Soaz's Nautilus.
Looking at only the fights, RNG seemed dominant this game, despite Origen holding leads in objectives and gold for over 20 minutes. This game was extremely close at the 20 minute mark, and it seemed as if Origen just needed to figure out their comp and team fight better with their gold advantage. A 23 minute fight saw Origen net their first kill of the game. But they did not stop there. They went on to get four for four trade. At the end of the skirmish we saw a kill spread of 10-4 for RNG. Shortly after the fight, RNG grabbed their second dragon of the game, putting the pressure onto Origen. Despite all of this, due to some great objective secures and farming Origen maintained their gold advantage. RNG kept the pressure on and took two towers and finally overtook Origen’s gold lead.
Origen continued to lose team fights until RNG finally found an opportunity to take baron and had a strong hold on the game. With baron, a 4k gold advantage, and Soaz dead, RNG pushed this advantage all the way to the nexus. Despite an Origen gold lead throughout the majority of the game, RNG was victorious in just 30 minutes. Origen was not able to do much with their early game advantages. RNG was just one step ahead of Origen the whole time, and just worked better as a team to find kills and secure objectives.
Looking forward Origen should be thinking about how they can press advantages harder and really make it difficult for their opponents to do anything. This was a great showing from RNG though, as they show everyone why they are the Group A favorites. RNG look to be playing very strong this weekend and are definitely a contender for first. With strong performances from all players on their team, it will be hard for anyone to topple them this weekend.
