The third place series in GPL Winter featured four long games between ahq eSports Club and the Saigon Jokers. Ultimately, ahq's coordination in their late game picks proved superior.
In the first game, early agression from Safety's jungle Wukong and Junie's Alistar gave Saigon Jokers early objectives. The synergy between the Wukong ult and Orianna and Prydz's Dr. Mundo's failure to peel for Sivir further carried the Jokers through the mid game. Ultimately, the Sivir pick on the side of ahq scaled much better into the late game in terms of both team fighting and taking turrets than the Jokers' Graves pick. At around fifty minutes, excellent fight control by GreenTea's Leona won the final altercation, and ahq took the game.
The second game started with a slower pace, but the Saigon Jokers still took an early advantage, grabbing all three first tier turrets and losing none by twenty minutes. The game began to drift back into ahq's favor, however, when QTV's Tryndamere pulled both Westdoor and Prydz bottom. The Jokers took the opportunity to start baron, but Naz stole it for ahq. The quick burst of gold allowed the team to sustain several onslaughts by Saigon Jokers, including the loss of their top inhibitor. It again came down to a final team fight, where ahq got the advantage and took the game.
In the third game, the Saigon Jokers pulled out an innovative composition with Kog'Maw and Zilean as the duo lane and forced a 2v1. Again, the game started slowly, but soon began to teeter overwhelmingly in the Jokers' favor. ahq's generally superior teamfight control, however, allowed them to get back in the game once more, and they even took the lead until about fifty minutes when the Kog'Maw and Zilean combo began to pay off. Zilean provided extra mobility and an additional life for Kog'Maw to do damage and shred towers as a hyper carry, winning a fair portion of the teamfights for Saigon Jokers until the game finally ended at seventy two minutes.
In the fourth game, the Jokers' composition had less synergy, as they chose a Nunu jungle with a caster AD carry. In addition, the game got off to a faster start with jungle ganks and mid roaming to the bottom lane. Again, the Jokers picked up an early lead, but ahq rushed a twenty minute baron and gained a vice grip on the game. From there, ahq's team worked much better together and outscaled most of the Jokers' composition. They failed to lose a fight from the baron pickup until the end of the shortest game of the series.
ahq e-Sports took home the third place title, but the GPL finals take place on January 11th at 10:00CET between the Taipei Snipers and the Taipie Assassins.
