Nobody foresaw that Quantic would be crushed so badly after a dominating winter, falling 0-3 Saturday. COGnitive gaming clenches the top of the brackets as they rise to 3-1.
TBD vs TWZ
The first game of the day started between To Be Determined against The Walking Zed. TWZ was a force to be reckoned with from the get go being their first games as they did not participate on the four games on Friday. Everything was going well for TWZ from tower dives to global objectives as they took a massive lead. It wasn't until the 30 minute mark that TBD finally had a spark of life, catching out Bobbyhankhill out on the bot lane.
In the minds of the members of TWZ this was a signal to Baron, however with the ward changes nobody brought any sort of detection to check for wards. TBD managed to crush TWZ as they had all the information they needed and collect some kills. While this was a small sign of hope, it sure didn't last very long as TWZ came back with a vengeance crushing TBD under their own towers and rewarding themselves with an inhibitor and Baron on the way back. TWZ looked extremely good as they ended the game with a 22k gold lead and 24-10 in kills. Yazuki of TWZ played extrordinarily well as he managed to collect 400 creep in 38 minutes.
Short Summary: TWZ entered the Challenger Series with a mission and never let go of the lead. The aggression and precise plays from them had them in the lead the entire game.
the second match of the day was between Complexity going up against the Korean players of Quantic. This was Quantic's first of three consecutive games as they said they playing at an Internet Cafe. The Koreans started off the game with strong ganks down towards botlane's Megazero, however even after using two ignites no kills were obtained. It was Jintae one of the latest aditions to COL that managed to grab first blood as he managed to shockwave Prime back under tower for one final hit.
The way Quantic was playing this game was clearly showing signs of miscommunication and discomfort as they were playing somewhat disorganized. Jintae looked extremely good all game as he would almost single handedly push back two members of Quantic every time a gank happened mid. Quantic was growing desperite around the 23 min mark as they opted to do a base trade, forgetting that COL was running a jinx as their marksman. This would eventually cost them the game as COL would not only force Quantic back to base, but also grab the inhibitor without losing any members. COL would then regroup back in their base grab Baron and come back for a final fight, giving the Koreans their first defeat of the Challenger Series.
Short Summary: Quantic simply did not look like the same team that dominated the challenger scene of late. Whether it was playing at an internet cafe or just Complexity outplaying them at every turn, Quantic was demolished.
To Be Determined was Quantic Gamings second opponents of the day, bringing us to the third match of the day. TBD started with pure aggression pushing into Quantic's blue from the get go picking up first blood in the jungle. This however wasn't the end of the abuse as TBD would push forward into the jungle and collect even more kills starting the game with a 4-1, 1.5k gold lead before 5 minutes. Locodoco tried to get his team to get motivavted as he would finally secure some kills, but when you started two games in such negative ways it is hard to remain dominant.
TBD had Quantic's throat in their hands all game, but at the same time feared the capabilities of the team composition Quantic held. TBD would stray from finishing the game even with a 12k gold lead, and opted instead to lure out Quantic with a Baron. While the two teams fought at Baron, Quantic's base was getting crushed by minions, not only did that not pay off for them they would get demolished in the fight. Quantic proceeded to lose the second of the three games that they play today.
Short Summary: Quantic once again looked disorganized with mistakes. The members did say that lag was present but were nonetheless defeated at every oppurtunity. Quantic never held a lead really and was always facing an uphill battle.
Once again Quantic started off horribly, for the third time today Quantic was defeated by simply being outplayed early. TWZ started the game with aggression in the jungle and top lane as they would dive top lane early and pick up two kills from the jungle. This game was purely in the favor of TWZ from the get go managing to collect 5 kills in 5 minutes with a 1.7k gold lead. Quantic had a brief moment at 15 minutes in that they looked like they solved their issues and won a trade, 4 for 3. Unfortunately after that point both teams indicated that there was lag as pauses would happen from both teams. Even with some delays in the game the inevitable outcome was that TWZ just played better and took a solid win with 20k gold lead and + 10 kills.
Short Summary: Quantic was defeated early once againt falling victim to aggression from all lanes. TWZ would push that advantage of the early game and end it before Quantic had any chance of pulling themselves together.
While the EU suffered from lag, NA had started to as well. the COG vs vVv game could considered a nightmare for both teams. COG started the game off extremely dominantly with a 7-0 lead and 9k gold difference. While this game looked like a blowout vVv would make a comeback after 30 minutes grabbing a 4 for 1, 2 turrets, and an inhibitor. COGnitive Gaming who held such a dominant lead in the beginning were losing their ground. When teams get desperate the Baron dance occurs. COG, 42 minutes into the game decided to go for the Baron, while there was little to no opposition vVv managed to steal it from them with Xerath. It was hard to tell what exactly happened from this point on as the lag became visible even on the spectators streams, causing players to go through walls and everybody occasionally moving 10x the speed. It became to the point where RIOT had to intervene in the game with a pause themselves to ask for the game to restarted, however vVv refused the proposition as the game was well over 50 min and both teams had over 80k gold. RIOT agreed to just let the game play out and vVv pushed into COG's base, only to be pushed back moments later. Cris would pick up a triple kill shortly afterwards and COG would end an extremely long and laggy game.
Short Summary: COG was up entirely all game, but one good teamfight got vVv back into it. vVv would then proceed to start their comeback with a baron steal. Both sides then started to experiance heavy server lag to the point RIOT intervened. The teams decdided to play it out with the lag and COG would win it with better positioning in one last fight.
After a disappointing loss against COG, vVv looked dominant against COL. The game started off evenly in terms of gold, but vVv clearly outclassed COL in terms of kills. While the kill score started off with 4 kills to 2 in the favor of vVv, it soon went up to 8-2. This was a game that was meant for vVv to win after that performance from the previous game. Complexity had a few oppurtunities to come back into the game, but the hesitation that they had eventually caused them to make mistakes.
COGnitive Gaming has been on fire today and it so happens that the last game of the day would be against the undefeated TWZ. Both teams have been playing well all day but TWZ looked slightly better at the beginning of the match as they would pick up first blood 4 minutes in. Unfortunately for TWZ, that was the high point of this game as they would get crushed repeatedly by COG. TWZ looked like they had many miscommunication errors as they did look like the team that dominanted earlier in the day. COGnitive gaming would close out TWZ, ending their winstreak.
Tomorrow is the last day of the North American LCS Spring Promotion Challenger Series. Matches will begin at 22:00 CET with vVv Gaming against To Be Determined.
