Ambition and Emperor two-man baron in the match between CJ Entus Blaze and SKT T1 S.
In a series of three tie-breakers, CJ Entus Blaze snuck into the Round of Eight, and Samsung Ozone and Xenics Storm claimed first place in their groups.
After perhaps the closest Round of Sixteen Champions Winter has ever seen, three tie-breaker matches closed out the Group Stage. The first game was a match between SK Telecom T1 S and CJ Entus Blaze, and it decided the final spot in the Round of Eight. In typical CJ Entus Blaze fashion, they gave up many objectives early on, including a tower in the 2v1 lane bottom, a dragon, and a lot of damage on the mid lane turret nearly for free. Though they fell behind in the map control game, they succeeded in holding onto their lives, and they came away with the first three kills.
As mid game progressed, SKT T1 S continued to pick up small objective advantages, while CJ Entus Blaze capitalized on mispositioning by H0R0 and easyhoon. Both teams fumbled back and forth in attempted sieges, with Lustboy missing the ocassional Tibbers ultimate and SKT T1 S playing overly cautiously and sending MaRin to split push. The game began to pick up for CJ Entus Blaze when they started a two-man baron with Ambition and Emperor, sustaining off Nidalee heals. From there, they managed to take all of SKT T1 S' outer and inner turrets and force them into a turtling position while they avoided spears.
The game looked as if it might be in the bag for CJ Blaze, but after they took SKT T1 S' first inhibitor, CJ Entus Blaze lost two fights, a baron, and an inhibitor, putting them on the back foot. From there, control of the game teetered until SKT T1 S lost BANG to a Nidalee spear, and CJ Entus Blaze rushed mid to take the forty eight minute game.
Seraph returns to base too late to save the game for his team.
In the second game between NaJin White Shield and Samsung Galaxy Ozone, dade came into the game with an unexpected Kassadin pickup, but it proved effective against Save's Zed. Early movements from DanDy netted a double kill for Mata in the bottom lane, a kill for dade in the mid lane, and the first dragon. dade and DanDy spent much of the rest of laning phase terrorizing bottom lane with ganks while Seraph's Shyvana pushed Looper's Dr. Mundo back. Looper managed to make plays later in the game, however, particularly when NoFe went down, netting the team a baron, and Looper teleported into NaJin White Shield's jungle to get them a pick on GorillA and the middle inhibitor.
Seraph, meanwhile, took most of his team's gold to split push and often returned to base too late to make a difference as Ozone made inward pushes. There was little he could do as the last man standing against Ozone's entire team in the final fight of the game. Both teams advanced to the playoffs, but Samsung Galaxy's Ozone strong playmaking granted them the coveted first seed.
Swift flashes wraith camp wall and lands Cocoon for the first blood play.
The battle between Xenics Storm and CJ Entus Frost proved the most decisive game of the tie-breakers broadcast. Alistar picks haven't been the most successful in Champions so far, but Piccaboo proved himself the new Cow King against Frost's Madlife. What really got the game rolling, however, was Swift's flash-cocoon on Elise through wraith camp wall. His impressive mechanics granted Coco's Nidalee first blood, and the game only escalated from there.
After little success against Shy's Riven in the 2v1 lane, Picaboo and Arrow swapped bottom to make something happen. Both Helios and Swift saw playmaking opportunities in the bottom lane, but excellent crowd control by Picaboo and Coco's pre-emptive roam nullifying Ganked By Mom's teleport ended the altercation in a four for one kill trade. Three of these kills went onto Arrow's Ezreal. Picaboo continued to pressure his lane's lead, granting Picaboo more kills and making it impossible for Madlife and Space to come back. From there, the duo lane roamed, taking kills and turrets across the map. Ultimately, Xenics Storm took the game in twenty four minutes and claimed the first place seed for Group D.
Champions Winter continues on Christmas at 11:00 CET with the first quarterfinal match between SKT T1 K and Samsung Galaxy Blue. The remaining best of fives will be played over the course of the next two weeks. Meanwhile, the bottom seven teams from Champions Winter, including SKT T1 S, drop into NLB. Be sure to keep up with GosuGamers for coverage of both tournaments.
