The Saigon Jokers were able to defeat ahq Esports Club for the first time in the group stage, and the Taipei Snipers defeated Imperium Pro Team with unconventional picks.
It seemed ahq had every opportunity to win this match, as it got off to a very slow start, and their composition was heavily favored in the late game. At around fifteen minutes, Saigon Jokers began making plays, invading blue buffs, and taking dragons.
Despite ahq out-farming SAJ, the latter team managed to win the first dragon fight handily due to QTV's strong positioning on Renekton. After that, SAJ began to cautiously push out lanes, afraid of snipes from westdoor's Kassadin. After a drawn out game, involving an especially one-sided Baron fight, SAJ gave ahq their first loss of GPL Spring and took second in the group.
The Snipers came out of the gates with a strange mid lane pick: AD Twitch. GodJJ then took Kog'Maw bottom. The Twitch pick worked out because of Nidalee's work pressure.
However, there was a great deal of back and forth. Imperium Pro Team managed to secure a couple turrets off a strong dragon fight, and fights often resulted in one kill advantages from there.
Still, superior farming from the Snipers, and Taiwanese tendencies to come back from behind allowed them to make a strong showing in the end game, and they took the win.
