The best of three between The RED and Gambit Gaming marked the first series of the professional tournament at IEM Cologne. The RED put up a fight against Gambit Gaming in the first game, but the experience of the veteran team proved too much for the rising stars.
In the first game, both Gambit and The RED swapped bottom and top lane. The fighting began almost immediately with Darien and FIRees trading summoner spells. First blood, however, was achieved when Alex got the drop on Fomko's unconventional Quinn pick, and Gambit secured the first dragon. The RED proceeded to focus a lot of attention on Darien, securing kills for FIRees' Shyvana and Fomko's Quinn, who roamed bottom. Despite Gambit taking advantages in other parts of the map, this strategy gave The RED the first tower and kept them in the game. The game first began to move into Gambit's favor when The RED attempted to initiate a dragon fight, and Edward caught them in a Tibbers ultimate with his Annie, resulting in a three to zero victory for his team. At this point, Diamond used The RED's top lane focus to his advantage by repeatedly ganking his bottom lane to snowball Genja. Gambit were comfortable with the strategy, as it has been said that, when Darien feeds, Gambit wins.
Experience allowed Gambit to take towers even after fights ending in even trades. It appeared that The RED might be able to make a comeback after Gambit lingered in the wake of a successful fight, and The RED managed to ace them and take baron. By then, however, Gambit was up 11k gold and could easily return the ace and end the game at twenty six mintues.
For the second game, The Red pulled out an AoE composition for team phase, but Gambit focused on shoving out lanes and invading the jungle to starve The Red and deny them a good team fight entirely. Aggressive plays began early with Diamond invading DimaJke's wraiths and nearly getting caught out. This seemed to simply serve as a method for distracting The RED's laners from their farm, as each of Gambit's lanes began to shove waves to tower and overcome their opponents in large cs leads. At around seven minutes, Diamond, Edward, and Genja all achieved level six before their counterparts, and Diamond dove bottom turret, resulting in two kills for Gambit Gaming.
From there, Alex, Darien, and Diamond continued to exert pressure on The RED by forcing down towers, proxy farming, and stealing jungle camps. Both Darien and Diamond got caught more than once, but the massive 100 farm lead Genja achieved over NikSar made it impossible for The RED to capitalize on these catches. Ultimately, the game ended swiftly, with Diamond chasing down FIRees' Kennen while his team took The RED's base.
Source: ESL TV
