Samsung Galaxy Ozone and NaJin White Shield faced off in the second semifinal series of Champions Winter. It took four slug fests for Ozone to come out victorious.
imp solos Zefa with a bit of flare.
As with most of the games this series, the action began in the bottom lane. Mata came out with the second support Lee Sin of Champions Winter and died to White Shield's GorillA for first blood, but attained a kill for imp. The game followed the trend of near even trades as a teleporting Looper and DanDy traversed the map, creating pressure across the board, and NoFe answered with excellent ganks. Though Samsung Ozone picked up the first dragon, White Shield were able to answer with the first turret, and gold remained even throughout much of the game.
At Twenty three minutes, the game turned in Ozone's favor when they won a team fight and took dragon and two turrets. From there, Ozone controlled every single fight until the game's completion in thirty seven minutes.
Zefa pursues Mata after taking down imp with The Culling.
Mata's Blitzcrank burned two of White Shield's flashes before the two minute mark. DanDy's mid gank earned him first blood on Ggoong and a near double kill on NoFe. With these pickups and an early dragon, the game appeared to be going heavily in Ozone's favor from the start. Indeed, the only lane that went in White Shield's favor was top lane. Looper fell to Save and NoFe once, and then to Save on his own at thirteen minutes.
NoFe's ganks allowed Ggoong to close the gap on dade as Save's Jax continued to ramp. Ggoong's Zigg's ults stalled games by clearing waves on tower pushes by Ozone. At twenty four minutes, NoFe's gank netted Zefa a double kill and the team their first dragon, all but eliminating the gold lead Ozone had acquired. From there, White Shield made tight rotations, taking objectives rapidly. Mata's brush camping put him severely behind in picking up utility items, so Ozone were not able to catch out White Shield. White Shield closed the second game almost as cleanly as Ozone took the first.
Looper solos White Shield's nexus as the last man standing.
In the third game, Ozone forced a 2v1, but it ended up in White Shield's favor when the superior range advantage of Thresh and Sivir and NoFe's presence in the bottom lane gave them the early turret lead. White Shield then transitioned to the dragon pit, and a skirmish there granted them the first dragon and Ggoong first blood. Ozone peppered the map with pink wards in an attempt to maintain some semblance of control.
At the second dragon fight, DanDy executed his first successful smite steal, and though they lost two kills, Ozone came away with a dragon and a kill of their own. Even fights forced the gold lead teeter between the two teams, but Ozone took a slight advantage due to the superior turret pressure Caitlyn provided. This lead was eventually neutralized, however, when White Shield began to turtle and Ggoong's Kayle and Zefa's Sivir cleared waves with ease.
The game concluded when rotations trapped Ozone in White Shield's base, and all but DanDy and Mata were taken out by White Shield. White Shield attempted a baron without their jungler, but Mata and DanDy double-teamed them, and DanDy pulled off another successful steal. imp came in for the cleanup, but when Ggoong respawned, he wiped up everyone on Ozone except Looper. As the only player alive with seventy second death timers, Looper rushed White Shield's base and took the game.
imp and Mata bully GorillA in the bottom lane.
In the final game of the series, imp picked up an early first blood when GorillA's Sona facechecked the bottom brush where Looper, imp, and Mata waited. imp, Mata, and DanDy continued to bully the lane, repeatedly getting kills on GorillA until imp had snowballed out of control and picked up a Trinity Force at thirteen minutes. This game turned into the most one-sided game of the series as Ozone continued to pick up nearly uncontestable objectives on the bottom half of the map.
At around thirty five minutes, Ggoong's shockwave caught dade and imp, and White Shield looked like they might turn the game around. Immediately afterward, however, Ozone snuck a baron while White Shield cleared a push in the mid lane, and a nice Ziggs ultimate on top of Mata's initiation wiped White Shield off the map and allowed Ozone to take the game.
Though Ozone won the series, the games turned out to be much closer than expected. NaJin White Shield vs KT Rollster Bullets will duke it out for third place next week on the fifteenth of January, and we can expect White Shield to make those games just as exciting.
