In this first round series Snake eSports, the third seed from Group A, were matched up against fourth place Invictus Gaming from Group B. Due to the playoff format, the two teams would play a weighted best of 5 series where Snake would start with a one game advantage. Was iG able to overcome the one game deficit or were Snake able to capitalize on their advantage?
Coming into the playoffs, iG drew some attention due to their addition of Pak Kan "Tabe" Wong to the roster. The team had decided to bench long time support and shot caller, Liu "Kitties" Hongjun, with Tabe who was known most notably for finishing second at the season 3 World Championship with Royal Club Huang Zu. Tabe would retire after Worlds in 2013, but attempted a short lived comeback with Stand Point Gaming in 2014. The addition of Tabe to the roster was a surprise, but Kitties had been receiving some criticism for his recent lackluster play.
Game 1
The series would begin with the teams in inverse lanes, as the duo lanes would 2v2 in the top lane. After a couple of failed ganks from each team, Zeng "ZZR" Zhan-Ran would secure First Blood in the bottom lane along with Li "Flandre" Xuan-jun and Park "TANK" Dan-won, as Snake were able to dive Liu "Zzitai" Zhihao and kill him under turret. The pressure advantage would allow Snake to take the first turret of the game as well, giving them an early gold lead.
With the lanes then reversed to standard, Ge "Kid" Yan would attempt to gank Flandre in the top lane with Zzitai. Flandre would escape with just a sliver of health due to some fancy maneuvering and iG missing multiple skill shots that would have secured the kill. Because he lived, Snake were able to collapse and kill Zzitai in return, setting back his scaling Ryze and taking another turret. Tabe would initiate a fight at the outer mid lane turret as Snake were attempting a siege. However, iG failed to properly stack their crowd control and Snake would use their gold lead to turn the fight and pick up two kills and the turret.
As Snake tried to back away, iG would attempt to run them down but Snake again would turn the fight and pick up a delayed ace with only Kwak "Ella" Na-hoon dying. With a massive gold lead and the map under their control, Snake secured a baron and turned to fight iG before they could contest. Snake would chase too far into a choke and would trade 1 for 1 in kills, but were able to keep the Baron buff onto four members. Although they did not break the base immediately with the buff, Snake grouped with four members at iG’s top side inhibitor turret. Trying to defend, iG would initiate a fight with the numbers advantage but could not win the fight outright because of their massive gold deficit. TANK would come in on his Azir, turning the fight for Snake, as they would pick up the ace and go on to close out the game.
Game 2
With Snake now up 2-0 in the series, it was strange to see that neither team made any changes. The two teams would run the exact same team compositions with the only difference being the side of the map they were on. After a fairly quiet first ten minutes, ZZR would get caught in the enemy jungle and give up First Blood trying to escape through the Baron pit. Both teams would collapse into the river and a fight would break out. After a prolonged fight, iG would come out on top, 2 kill to 1.
Snake would give up another kill in the top lane after a three-man siege with the duo lane and jungler. On the retreat, after taking the turret, Ella would get caught and die as Kid came and joined the fight. The top turret take would allow Snake to open up the map as they would transition to the bot side and take two turrets their as well. With Snake sieging the inner top lane turret, fights would break out on opposite sides of the map as Flandre teleported into the bot lane to try and solo out An "Rain" Hyeong-uk’s Ashe. Zzitai would try to rescue Rain, but Ella’s Alistar was able to interrupt his teleport in the top lane and kill him alongside Yang "kRYST4L" Fan on Lucian. Rain would eventually get chased down and killed by Flandre, but the remaining players on both teams would engage in a team fight in the top lane with Song "RooKie" Eui-jin teleporting in and TANK coming up from the mid lane. Snake picked up three more kills while losing only one, allowing them to take the inner top and the outer mid turrets.
Using TANK’s Azir sun turret to back them up, Snake would siege the inner mid turret as well. An Ashe arrow from Rain would catch out TANK who would get killed but iG were unable to take any objectives from it. Snake went on to secure vision and were able to pick up the baron without losing anything. With the buff, they would break the base and push to take a nexus turret. They would, however, stay too long and Flandre would get killed on the exit allowing iG to get their first dragon. Snake, with such dominant map control, would hide in a bush near the iG base and pick off Kid’s Graves, giving them the numbers and allowing them to push in and take the game.
