Phoenix1 vs. Team Dignitas
DIG Lod ate a considerable helping of crow tonight. "I think [P1] will be pretty easy to beat, actually," he said in an interview before the series, emphasizing that Team Dignitas weren't even concerned about their round one competition. They should have been a little more worried - Phoenix1 were able to take a solid 3-0 victory off the back of excellent map rotations and a stellar performance by Ryu.
While Dignitas put up a good fight through game 1, they looked completely unable to deal with Phoenix1 in the subsequent matches. They had no counters for Ryu's LeBlanc in the second game, and P1's early rotations in the final match were too quick for Dignitas to handle. Though DIG were able to stall out game 3 fairly well, their early deficits left them unable to teamfight against P1 and they eventually fell.
If Ryu keeps playing like he did today for the rest of the tournament, P1'll be taking the championship with no problems. He posted a 13/3/17 KDA throughout the series and pulled off a couple fantastic Command: Shockwaves in the final game to secure DIG's fate.
FlyQuest vs. Counter Logic Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming stole FlyQuest's schtick of having unique champion picks in today's match - and it almost worked. Huhi's Aurelion Sol and Darshan's Dr. Mundo gave them an early 2-0 lead in the series against FLY, putting the veteran squad in the difficult position of having to win three straight. However, FlyQuest was undaunted. They pulled off the reverse sweep with ease to secure their place in the semifinals.
CLG were able to control FlyQuest's drafting shenanigans and exploit their weaker early games in the first two matches. However, once FlyQuest were able to adjust their draft strategies, CLG couldn't possibly ban out everything and ended up giving over too many power picks. With Hai on Talon and Moon on Rengar, FLY's early game looked far sharper than it did before and they took a pair of dominant wins over CLG. By the time game 5 rolled around, CLG were looking desperate. They fought it out against FlyQuest the best they could, but a pair of botched fights around Baron Nashor and the Elder Dragon gave FLY all the momentum they needed to complete the reverse sweep.
While FlyQuest managed to pull together as a team to take wins off CLG, it was Hai and Moon who gave them the ability to do so. Moon's Rengar proved to be too much of a threat for CLG to handle, taking a 13/7/12 KDA in the two games he was allowed to play the Pridestalker, and Hai being on a roaming midlane assassin helped him match CLG's rotations. His Orianna in game 4 wasn't too shabby either, picking up a 7/3/10 KDA with a couple clutch Shockwaves.
