Four days from now, the North American LCS may have up to four new teams as the LCS Summer Promotion draws to a close. CLG, Dignitas, MRN, and compLexity are fighting for their LCS lives as eight up-and-coming teams are taking off their Challenger’s gloves and looking to fight their way into the big-time. This article takes a look at the teams participating to provide some knowledge about the lesser-known challenger teams and insight into old favorites.

 

Group A

 

Quantic

Roster:
BalIs – Top
Hai – Mid
Meteos – Jungler
SneakyCastro – AD
LemonNation – Support

Who They Play: Team Astral Poke (Challenger), compLexity Gaming (LCS).

The Hype: Quantic is by far the most hyped of the NA Challenger teams, and like a valedictorian is considered “most likely to succeed.” They’ve taken first at the two Challenger LANs this year, MLG Dallas and the IPL6 Promotion Qualifier, and the word going around in regard to scrims, is that they are winning. The entire team is in Challenger, with five of the top ten spots in Solo Queue Challenger belonging to Quantic; two of the accounts belonging to support player LemonNation.

The Reality: Quantic is strong, there is no doubt about it. Their biggest internal strife was the replacement of WildTurtle with SneakyCastro (when WT joined TSM), but SneakyCastro has melded with the team well. The comps played by Quantic tend to be unique, with a strong focus on situational aggression and very reactive gameplay. This has the added benefit of allowing great recovery. They’re not unstoppable by any means though. At the finals of the IPL6 Promotion Qualifier, they very nearly lost 1-2 to Curse Academy. CA however grouped up in a way that let Quantic shred through them and then they were able to recover from having inhibitors down, no baron, and a massive gold disadvantage. If they are given a chance to shine, they will blind the opposition.

Chances of LCS: Likely, but by no means guaranteed.

 

Team Astral Poke

Roster:
Anxietylol – Top
Newbert – Mid
Remstars – Jungle
bobbyhankhill – AD
NydusHerMain – Support

Who They Play: Quantic (Challenger),  compLexity Gaming (LCS).

The Hype: Unfortunately for TAP, there’s a lot less hype coming their way than both Quantic and compLexity. The big names here are bobbyhankhill and NydusHerMain. bobby was formerly on Epik way back in season 1, and Nydus spent a decent amount of time on Curse Academy this season. There hasn’t been much talk about their performance in scrims and there aren’t many tournament results to look at either.

The Reality: Team Astral Poke is in a rough spot. Their only tournament results are from the Ranked 5s qualifiers, where they placed last among qualifying teams. The team itself hasn’t existed for a particularly long time, being one of the fresher Season 3 challenger teams. The players aren’t well known, which could be a boon to TAP and allow them to bust-out secret strategies that are hard to predict. If they’ve been practicing hard, scouting like crazy, and doing everything they possibly can to prepare, they might be able to beat Quantic. The question then becomes, how do they take down compLexity? Do they have the prowess and experience to defeat some of the zanier cheese that is likely to be used by coL? Their limited results say no, though the team may be underestimated and hopefully has some surprises in store.

Chances of LCS: “Anything Can Happen” is true of the LCS Promotion, and is TAP’s big hope.

 

compLexity Gaming

Roster:
NickWu – Top
Pr0lly – Mid
Lautemortis – Jungle
Chuuper – AD
M eye A – Support

Who They Play: Winner of Quantic vs Team Astral Poke.

The Hype: Pr0lly, NickWu, and Lautemortis – a deadly trio. NickWu has an extremely stable toplane which lets the aggressive Pr0lly and Lautemortis combo go crazy across the map. The hype for coL is in an odd place right now; many fans are excited for Pr0lly, but others are worried how the replacement of Brunch Ü with Chuuper will affect the team. Regardless, the framework for ridiculous strategies is there and it’s always a blast to watch.

The Reality: The truth about coL is something that is only going to be known to teams that scrim coL consistently and coL themselves. Chuuper’s replacement of Brunch Ü was an act of necessity more than preference. The replacement happened late in the season and coL had to use a substitute that’d been on the team before LCS’s roster lock. Their choices were Bischu (who doesn’t AD), Meteos (who jungles for Quantic, their main opposition), and Chuuper. The dynamics between coL and Chuuper may be strained as coL had already benched him from the AP Carry role of the team. The question really is: has coL gotten past uncomfortable feelings to focus on the games at hand? The good news is that coL’s innovative thinking and cheese will still be in effect, and that can help remedy their possibly scarred team. They’ve also never been as dependent on their botlane as other teams, meaning Chuuper can focus on playing safely and going even rather than winning his lane. Unfortunately Quantic’s reactive playstyle is very potent against cheese, but coL’s standard play can still work quite well. In a best of five that standard play will very likely see at least two games.

Chances of LCS: They’re favored a little less than Quantic, but it should be a close match one way or another.

 

Group B

 

Velocity eSports

Roster:
Cris – Top
Vileroze – Mid
nk inc – Jungle
Frommaplestreet – AD Carry
Evaniskus – Support

Who They Play: The Salad Bar (Challenger), MRN (LCS).

The Hype: Velocity Gaming (formerly Dirt Nap Gaming) has had a solid showing in the past, but with changing rosters up until the lockout date for the LCS Promotion, it’s hard to pinpoint what the buzz around them is. Former players include Pr0lly, now on compLexity, and Prophet, now on Fidelis. They took 6th at the LCS Spring Qualifiers, but the only player remaining from that tournament is Cris. They’ve had solid showings at CPS, TSM IPL6 Qualifiers, and MLG Dallas; but at the IPL6 Promotional Qualifier, Velocity went 0-2 versus Quantic. The former Velocity rosters have done well, but what about the new blood?

The Reality: Losing Pr0lly right before the IPL6 Promotional Qualifier hit Velocity hard. Pr0lly, as he is now on coL, was a major member of the team in regards to strategies and composition. Luckily, word is that Velocity has adapted well to their new midlaner, Vileroze. While they may be playing a bit more standard (not Pr0lly based comps), they’re playing consistently and playing well. There’s still a lot of raw talent on the team as NK Inc, Cris, Evaniskus, and VileRoze are all older players with varying amounts of Season 2 experience. FromMapleStreet, the brother of TheOddOne, has a lot less experience than others but the base skill that runs in his family makes him a very potent AD. There’s not a lot of competition between LCS teams and Challenger teams, so knowing if Velocity has the umph to take down MRN is tough, but they are definitely a sizeable threat.

Chances of LCS: Not favored, but a very real opponent for MRN.

 

The Salad Bar

Roster:
Hirishin – Top
Ehomda – Mid
Ghoztzero – Jungle
DkBnet – AD
ArcZSlash – Support

Who They Play: Velocity (Challenger), MRN (LCS).

The Hype: The Salad Bar will always be a hype team because of their origins. They’re a group of friends that play normal games instead of ranked games, and this gives them a different perspective and level of innovation compared to most ranked soloqueue players. Ehomda is big news among the pros (with a lot of pros referring to the team as Ehomda’s team), and DkBnet is no slouch himself as an AD Carry. The team itself isn’t new to LANs, having played in the LCS Spring Qualifier (though going 0-2).

The Reality: The Salad Bar is a very cool team to watch because of the strengths that stem from practicing in normal games. They have wide champion pools since they’re not limited by bans, play very aggressively and creatively since they’re less restricted by meta, and just do what they want because of the more relaxed play in normal games. The limited events they’ve played in, such as the NESL Premier Series and LCS Ranked 5s Online Qualifier, show that their early laning is bonkers and is their main strength. Ehomda was one of the early mids to go Elixir of Fortitude and AD Runes to dominate in lane, a strategy that has been picked up occasionally by other teams when playing for the early game (and has since been nerfed by Riot). However, their late game is lacking due to their limited experience versus organized high-end teams. Quite often they’ll gain a lead but lack the ability to close out the game before a mistake punishes them and quickly spirals them to a loss.

Chances of LCS: TSB is the weakest member of Group B, but not respecting TSB is a death sentence.

 

MRN

Roster:
MegaZero – Top
ecco – Mid
ClakeyD – Jungle
Nientonsoh – AD Carry
Heartbeat – Support

Who They Play: Winner of Velocity vs The Salad Bar.

The Hype: Half of MRN’s hype is a combination of MegaZero making big plays, ecco wrecking people with safe mids, and Nientonsoh going HAM on the farm and picking up kills as a hard AD Carry. The other half tends to come from the team’s manager, Marn, hyping for hypes sake- which is a great way to promote a team. Raw excitement aside, the team has shown some improvements throughout the course of the LCS, and the big-play montages come through for every player on the team.

The Reality: MRN didn’t do particularly well during the LCS spring season, ending with a score of 10-18. MRN’s bigger wins were also very specific: 3-1 versus coL, 3-1 versus CLG, and 2-2 versus GGU. coL, CLG, and GGU tended to run more unorthodox compositions, and this might mean MRN is not as well-suited for standard play. At the same time, the team has improved as Heartbeat has become a much stronger support after switching from AD, and with Nientonsoh, MRN’s botlane has stepped their game up. Their ability to deal with the unorthodox will help quite a bit versus The Salad Bar, but that strength wont be nearly as useful versus Velocity. Their experience and learning throughout the LCS is huge though, and while some of the numbers may not favor them, they have improved significantly. The big weakness of MRN may be endurance; they have played very few longer sets due to the format of the LCS and lack Season 2 experience. When a set will go to a minimum of three games, being able to stay focused for those games is a huge deal.

Chances of LCS: Favored, but not by a huge margin.

 

Group C

 

Team Summon

Roster:
Grim Samurai – Top
Captain Korea – Mid
Sickoscott- Jungle
otter – AD
L0cust – Support

Who They Play: Fidelis (Challenger), Dignitas (LCS).

The Hype: Formerly Square Ducks, Team Summon had a pretty explosive burst onto the challenger scene back in February, taking first in the SoloMid IPL6 (RIP) Qualifier with a crushing set of victories. The roster is a blast from the past as well; they have L0cust, the former Dignitas support, to come up with strategies and gameplans, and Captain Korea, who may not be well known but was one of the anchors of Spellsy and Friends (the team that GGU’s ZionSpartan originated from).

The Reality: TS is in a tough spot. When they arrived onto the scene in February, they had a different top laner and AD Carry, both of whom had to be replaced due to age restrictions in the LCS. Even with the past members, they did not win a single game versus Curse Academy at Riot’s IPL Promotion Qualifier in April. Team Summon still packs a lot of potential though. L0cust knows his former teammates, and he’s got a keen sense of picks and bans. otter is a great AD Carry and Grim Samurai’s smaller champ pool has grown. If everything goes well TS can certainly put Dignitas into the ground, but past experience has shown that they may not have the LAN nerves. By all means they’re a good team that can do well, but can they beat a great team in a long set?

Chances of LCS: Difficult. If they do qualify, it will be a tight series, most likely a 3-2.

 

 

Fidelis

Roster:
Niko44 – Top
Arthelon – Mid
Tsunamiiee – Jungler
Virus – AD
Prophet – Support

Who They Play: Team Summon (Challenger), Dignitas (LCS).

The Hype: Fidelis and Team Astral Poke fall into the category of more unknown LCS Qualifier Teams, and there’s a lot less info on Fidelis available. There is a bit of hype for Fidelis in the form of some of their individual players, but nothing as a team. Prophet is formerly from Dirt Nap Gaming, Arthelon played for Meat Playground during the spring LCS Qualifiers, and Virus is really good at Draven. Seriously, he’s really good at Draven.

The Reality: Vileroze left Fidelis to join Velocity before the trade lockout for the LCS Promotion, and the team has been in a recovery pattern since then. While Virus is a great Draven, everyone knows this. Both Team Summon and Dignitas will ban it, pick it, or form a plan around Virus’s Draven, and his other ADs are much weaker. They’re a team with very little LAN experience, very little time together, and very little achievements for the individual players.

Chances of LCS: Miracles do happen.

 

Dignitas

Roster:
KiWiKiD – Top
Scarra – Mid
Crumbzz – Jungler
Imaqtpie – AD
Patoy – Support

Who They Play: Winner of Team Summon v Fidelis.

The Hype: Dignitas was the 3rd placed LCS team prior to playoffs, and they’ve been a superstar team since Season 2 with hype orbiting around all of their players – from Scarra to the relatively new KiWiKiD. They’ve got the experience, the skills, the devilish good looks, and (with the dedication of Dignitas’ owner Odee) a very strong work ethic.

The Reality: They’re good, damn good, but they have had some recent turmoil. At the end of the LCS Spring Split, Dignitas was in a fairly big slump. This, timed with the improvement of other LCS teams, resulted in a less than impressive 3-7 record for the last few weeks. While by no means a stellar score, it is from LCS teams, and Dignitas has had weeks to crackdown and revitalize themselves. If Dignitas has been able to put the mariachi music aside for a bit and focus on gaming, they have a massive advantage in terms of experience and coordination that will be very difficult to beat. Even if L0cust predicts every pick from Dignitas, their comps tend to be aggressive and based off the entire team being a brickwall of team-fight potential, which is not necessarily something Team Summon can pick around. Even if Virus gets Draven, Dignitas will have a plan for him.

Chances of LCS: They’re in a phenomenal spot. The most likely to stay in LCS of all entrants in the qualifier.

 

Group D:

 

DoubleBuff

Roster:
InnoX – Top
nubbypoohbear – Mid
ScubaChris – Jungle
Flappy Bearfish – AD
Unstoppable – Support

Who They Play: Azure Cats (Challenger), CLG (LCS).

The Hype: DoubleBuff, formerly 1 Trick Ponies, has a lot of recognizable names from Season 2 and also placed well in the  “We Will Do It Ourselves Cup.” Unstoppable is the former jungler for TSM.Evo, nubbypoohbear was the former mid for Orbit, and ScubaChris jungled for 1TP at the last LCS Qualifier. Their skills aren’t super well known, but they perform well in scrims and while they lack tournament experience as a team, they still have a lot of old blood with decent LAN experience.

The Reality: They’re a lot less talked about than Azure Cats, but they’re still a very solid team. They do well in scrims, and while that isn’t the same as LAN experience, they could go far if nubbypoohbear, Unstoppable, and ScubaChris can keep the team confident. There are scraps of tournament footage from DoubleBuff, but it’s hard to research them from VoDs, instead having to go by word of mouth. This can be a huge advantage if CLG and Azure Cats are unable to do detailed research and be 100% ready when game time rolls around. Based off those whispers though, they’re good – really good. Azure Cats should fear them and CLG can’t pass them off either.

Chances of LCS: Betting on DB is risky, but payoff is certainly possible.

 

Azure Cats

Roster:
Cruzerthebruzer – Top
bigfatlp – Mid
xDragunerx – Jungle
Demunlul – AD
Obituarist – Support

Who They Play: DoubleBuff (Challenger), CLG (LCS).

The Hype: There’s big fat hype for bigfatlp’s return to the competitive scene versus CLG. CLG has said that Azure Cats is the team that will beat them and cause the team to disband. Azure Cats also has two former members of the great season 2 team Legion: Cruzerthebruzer and Demunlul. The old blood mixes well with the fresher players of xDragunerx and Obituarist. While it is really hard to beat the hype that is “The CLG Killer,” others that aren’t on the bandwagon have very vocally stated that Azure Cats are overhyped and CLG is trying to create hype for their matches.

The Reality: Like DoubleBuff, Azure Cats is a good team. A very good team. Their known elements are also similar to DoubleBuff’s. There are lots of whispers and lots of statements from players, but there haven’t been very many Challenger tournaments. As a result it’s hard to pinpoint how good the current roster is. Similar to DoubleBuff though, any team they face will need to respect Azure Cats or their chances for the LCS will get tossed out the window. The players are solid: bigfatlp has been steadily improving since his benching from CLG, Demunlul has returned after making a surprising splash on Azure at the last LCS Qualifiers, and Cruzerthebruzer’s team is no longer trying to ghost. On that note, there is going to be some personal blood between Cruzer, nubbypoohbear, and Unstoppable, as they were all members of Absolute Legends in December. Unstoppable and nubbypoohbear were caught ghosting during Spring LCS Promotion Qualifiers, costing aL.na (and specifically the innocent Cruzer) their chance at qualifying for Spring LCS.

Chances of LCS: About the same as DB.

 

CLG

Roster:
HotShotGG – Top
Link – Mid
Chauster – Jungler
Doublelift – AD
Aphromoo – Support

Who They Play: Winner of DoubleBuff vs Azure Cats.

The Hype: CLG is the oldest League team, and most of the hype isn’t around the team itself, but the fact that such a definitive team might be on the chopping block for mainstream competitive LoL. They have stated they’d disband if they’re eliminated, but what are the odds they won’t appear in the LCS Studio anytime soon?

The Reality: During the last weeks of the LCS, CLG went a middle-of-the-road 5-6 and 1-2 versus Vulcun in the playoffs. These are still good records considering it’s against LCS teams, in a high-pressure environment. CLG has had a lot of weaknesses though: inconsistent bot lane synergy, Hotshot dies quite a bit, Chauster sometimes fail to impact the game. While it’s easy to poke around CLG and say they won’t win, it’s because they’ve had so much practice and exposure at a high level that these flaws can be pointed out. The cards are in their favor, and even if they did average in the LCS, they still pose a major threat to both Azure Cats and DoubleBuff. Mechanically the team has quite a bit of potential, and a lot of the losses for CLG tend to be from teams with experience on how to beat CLG after playing them during the LCS. bigfatlp may have that knowledge, but CLG has gone through some winding roads since the LCS started in February, and the winning strategy has evolved to more than “Kill HotshotGG” (though that’s usually part of it).

Chances of LCS: Likely.

 

Wrap Up

It’s important to remember the golden rule of tournaments; anything can and will happen. It’s easy to look at past results (when available) and make an educated guess, but in the end outside factors can very easily change a game. A player could have a bad night’s rest, get caught up in the emotions of playing for salary, or have an epiphany on how to improve, moments before starting up the game. Old stars and young teams alike have a shot at making the LCS, just remember to tune in and support your favorite team. They’ll need it.

Christopher “Studio” Grant

@LeagueOfStudio

Greetings LoL-eSports fans.  This week’s Round-Up isn’t going to be as deep or in-depth as the previous two weeks.  After Wednesday’s matches, the other games had less impact on the grand scheme of things as far as the playoffs are concerned, so teams did not have to bring out their best. Rather than a near play-by-play, I’m just going to run through the picks, winner/loser, and how close the games were.  If you want more than that, I highly recommend subscribing to the OGN Twitch channel to view the VoDs of the group stage.  There have been some truly outstanding games.

MVP Blue versus KT Rolster A

This series was the key series for Group A’s playoff picture. As MVP Blue only trailed NaJin Sword and MVP Ozone by 1 point, a 2-0 of KT Rolster A (who had only 1 game win going into this series) would force both NaJin Sword and Ozone to also 2-0 their opponents of the week in order to advance to the playoffs.

Game 1:

Blue – MVP Blue – Rumble/Jarvan IV/Diana/Varus/Sona

Purple – KT Rolster A – Elise/Zac/Zed/Caitlyn/Thresh

 

Result: 42 minute victory for KT Rolster A. Gold lead of 69,200 to 55,800 with a kill score of 30-18.  No inner turrets for KT Rolster A fell.

 

MVP: Personal: Vitamin. Despite struggling all season long and often being the cause of a negative snowball against KT Rolster A, Vitamin played Elise to near-perfection, ending with a 9 kill score and only one death.

Sonokong IB MVP Award (voted by Korean fans/media): Kakao (3/2/21 as Jungle)

 

Game 2:

Blue – KT Rolster A – Rumble/Jarvan IV/Diana/Varus/Twisted Fate

Purple – MVP Blue – Kennen/Elise/Ryze/Kog’Maw/Thresh

 

Result: 28:19 victory for KT Rolster A. Gold Lead of 52,100 to 34,300 with a kill score of 21-7 and only losing 1 tower.

 

Interesting notes: Yes, that is a support TF. Both he and Varus opened with Red Pot start and went 2v2 top lane against Thresh/Kog’Maw. They got first blood thanks to the Red Pot’s extra HP.

 

MVP: Personal: Vitamin. Finished 9/1/5 as Rumble.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Vitamin.

 

NaJin Shield versus SK Telecom T1 #1

This series had greater implications for NaJin Shield than for SKT, but both teams were looking for any points they could get out of the series. An 0-2 for Shield would mean a really good shot for ahq.Korea to qualify for the playoffs.

Game 1:

Blue – NaJin Shield – Rumble/Jarvan IV/Kha’Zix/Varus/Leona

Purple – SK Telecom T1 #1 – Riven/Hecarim/Diana/Miss Fortune/Sona

 

Result: 38:21 victory for NaJin Shield. Gold lead of 58.5k to 53.4k. Despite trailing early, took kill lead of 23-13 and only lost 2 towers.

 

MVP: Personal: Save. He selected Kha’Zix and proceeded to be Kha’Zix late game.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Save.  8/2/10, 289 cs.

 

Game 2:

Blue – SK Telecom T1 #1 – Kha’Zix/Hecarim/Karthus/Vayne/Sona

Purple – NaJin Shield – Jayce/Nasus/Diana/Varus/Thresh

 

Result: 43 minute victory for SK Telecom T1 #1. Gold Lead of 65.2k to 57.3k. 9-3 on towers, 20-12 on kills.

 

MVP: Personal: Reapered. For the same reason Save got my personal MVP last game. He selected Kha’Zix. High burst champions late game are just useful tools to have on your team.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Reapered.  8/2/4, 314 cs.

 

 

MVP Ozone versus SK Telecom T1 #2

With Group A’s playoff picture already locked up, thanks to KT Rolster A’s 2-0 upset of MVP Blue, this match only held seeding implications for MVP Ozone. SK Telecom T1 #2 already had 10 points (3 ahead of CJ Entus Blaze) and the head-to-head advantage over Blaze to ensure the #1 seed. Ozone’s results would affect where they fell after the Blaze/Sword match the following night.

Game 1:

Blue – MVP Ozone – Shen/Elise/Ryze/Varus/Zyra

Purple – SK Telecom T1 #2 – Jayce/Jarvan IV/Nidalee/Vayne/Thresh

Result: 38:18 victory for MVP Ozone. 58.6k to 41.4k on Gold, 19-7 on kills, and 9-1 on towers.

 

MVP: Personal: imp. Completely crushed Piglet/ManDu in lane and came out of laning phase 5-1, ending the game as 9-1-6 and second in CS only to Shen.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Homme. 1/1/10 as Shen, 295cs.

 

Game 2:

Blue – SK Telecom T1 #2 – Jayce/Lee Sin/Syndra/Ezreal/Elise

Purple – MVP Ozone – Jarvan IV/Udyr/Diana/Tristana/Anivia

Interesting notes: Piglet, the usual ADC for SKT2, was Lee Sin in the Jungle. Bengi, the jungler, was the Elise. PoohManDu selected Ezreal. And yes, that is a Support Anivia for MVP Ozone. Elise and Lee Sin both started with Machetes, and Bengi played as a roaming jungler.

Result: 20 minute surrender for SK Telecom T1 #2. MVP Ozone Victory with 36.1k to 23.0k gold lead, 26-6 kill score, and 5-0 turret score.

 

MVP: Personal: DanDy. A counter-gank on top lane completely shut down SKT’s gambit and Dandy emerged 3-0 from it. With the cheese stopped, MVP Ozone snowballed hard.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: DanDy.  9/1/11 on Udyr, 57 cs.

 

LG-IM versus ahq.Korea

A 2-0 from either team would grant them enough points to jump NaJin Shield and qualify for the playoffs.  If the teams were to trade 1-1, however, ahq.Korea would have to have a higher KDA per Minute than NaJin Sword in order to advance.

Game 1:

Blue – LG-IM – Diana/Nasus/Jayce/Tristana/Lulu

Purple – ahq.Korea – Rengar/Jarvan IV/Twisted Fate/Miss Fortune/Thresh

Result: 28:54 victory for ahq.Korea. 55.9k to 32.7k gold lead, 13-3 on kills, and a flawless 11-0 on towers.

 

MVP: Personal: HooN.  Showing what happens when Twisted Fate manages to slip through the cracks unbanned.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: TrAce. 3/2/3 as Rengar, 243 cs.

 

Game 2:

Blue – ahq.Korea – Jayce/Kayle/Vladimir/Caitlyn/Thresh

Purple – LG-IM – Irelia/Zac/Zed/Kog’Maw/Zyra

Result: 24:55 surrender from ahq.Korea, 19-10 kill score in favor of LG-IM, 41.1k to 34.4k gold lead, and 4-3 tower advantage. ahq surrendered as LG-IM killed Baron, shortly after an ace.

Interesting note: Unfortunately, the surrender vote was too late for ahq.Korea — it was later revealed that had they surrendered BEFORE getting aced, their KDA Per Minute (the final tiebreaker metric for playoff qualifications) would’ve been higher than NaJin Shield’s. However, they DID get aced, and they had just enough deaths to fall beneath Shield’s KDA/min and miss out on the playoffs.

 

MVP: Personal: Paragon. Hard to give an MVP award to anyone but the player with the 12/1/4 kill score when the next highest kills in the game is 3.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Paragon.  12/1/4, 178 cs.

CJ Entus Blaze versus NaJin Sword

With this match only affecting 2/3/4 seeding for Group A rather than the playoff picture, the teams were ultimately free to experiment with team compositions if they wished. The stage was set for some exciting games or epic twists and turns.

Game 1:

Blue – CJ Entus Blaze – Diana/Lee Sin/Jayce/Varus/Lulu

Purple – NaJin Sword – Kennen/Hecarim/Karthus/Vayne/Thresh

Result: 42:08 victory for CJ Entus Blaze. Gold lead of 66.5k to 58.3k. Down 22-23 on kills, but up 8-4 on towers.

 

MVP: Personal: Flame. Despite a really poor K/D ratio this game, his presence was really felt in team fights, putting himself in the perfect position for a Wild Growth from Lustboy to disrupt the entirety of Sword’s team comp.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Lustboy.  3/6/14, 38 cs.

 

Game 2:

Blue – NaJin Sword – Rumble/Jarvan IV/Kha’Zix/Miss Fortune/Leona

Purple – CJ Entus Blaze – Kennen/Lee Sin/Jayce/Vayne/Lulu

Result: 43 minute victory for CJ Entus Blaze. Gold Lead of 63.8k to 62.0k. Even 7-7 on towers.  Down 20-23 on kills. They trailed most of the game, but good team fights turned the game on its head and two more good team fights won them the game.

 

MVP: Personal: Fan Cosplaying as Gragas. Clearly the morale boost Blaze needed to win the game.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Flame. 8/3/10, 357cs. (The CC from his Kennen ults were a major turning point in the game for Blaze.)

 

CJ Entus Frost versus KT Rolster B

With both teams tied at 8 points, this match was for the 1st place seed in Group B. CJ Entus Frost once again brought in their ADC and Support substitutes for this series, Space and Muse, in place of the MadLife/Hermes duo.

Game 1:

Blue – CJ Entus Frost – Rumble/Rammus/Twisted Fate/Twitch/Sona

Purple – KT Rolster B – Olaf/Jarvan IV/Karthus/Vayne/Zyra

Result: 37 minute victory for CJ Entus Frost, up 35-20 on kills. 62.7k to 56.1k gold advantage, and 7-3 turret lead.

 

MVP: Personal: RapidSTAR. A really aggressive Destiny/Gate mid-game helped mop up a bad team fight for Frost. As the game progressed, his positioning got better, and to end the game he gave an ultimate final sacrifice.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: Shy.  9/3/17, 214 cs.

 

Game 2:

Blue – KT Rolster B – Kha’Zix/Shen/Nidalee/Ezreal/Zyra

Purple – CJ Entus Frost – Zed/Nautilus/Nasus/Vayne/Nunu

Result: 46:04 victory for CJ Entus Frost. 83.7k gold to 73.1k gold. 45-34 on kills, 10-3 on towers.

 

MVP: Personal: Space. I wanted to give it to CloudTemplar because at one point he was 10-1 as Nautilus. However, the game was still too close and KT Rolster B showed promise to come back. Space’s late game team fighting as Vayne triumphed.

Sonokong IB MVP Award: CloudTemplar. 11/6/13, 181 cs.

 

 

And with that, Group Stage of OGN’s Olympus Champions Spring ended.

 

Group A rankings, in order, were as follows: SK Telecom T1 #2, CJ Entus Blaze, MVP Ozone, NaJin Sword, KT Rolster A, MVP Blue.

Group B rankings, in order: CJ Entus Frost, KT Rolster B, SK Telecom T1 #1, NaJin Shield, ahq.Korea, LG-IM.

 

This week starts the playoffs, a Best of 5 Bracket Stage. SK Telecom T1 #2 faces off against NaJin Shield and KT Rolster B faces off against MVP Ozone in the first week of Quarterfinals Play, with CJ Entus Blaze and CJ Entus Frost facing off against SK Telecom T1 #1 and NaJin Sword respectively in week 2. If you haven’t already been watching, action is about to escalate even further, with any game 5 being Blind Pick, with potential for mirror matches (if you’ve ever wondered about the “2 Shens” joke, this is where it comes from.)

 

That’s all for this week’s recap.  I hope you all tune in to the upcoming matches!  As always, follow me @TiberiusAudley on Twitter.

 

Keep your calendars clear for the 17th and 18th of May. TSM will be joined by other top teams from the LCS to clash on the Rift, for your entertainment. Even better than that, SoloMid will be donating $20,000 to the Boston One Fund:

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino have announced the formation of The One Fund Boston, Inc. to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston on April 15, 2013.

You can read more about the Boston One Fund: HERE

The other teams that are taking part will be announced closer to the date. We hope to see you all there to support your favourite teams as well as a great cause!

Week 4 of OGN Champions Spring has come and gone. With only two weeks left of group stage, the stakes of each match are climbing higher than ever. Judgment Day and KT Rolster B have already secured their playoff spots with dominating performances already this season, but the remaining ten teams all still have a chance. There were some great matches this week, and for those of you unable to watch or subscribe to OGN’s TwitchTV channel, I’m here to recap the battles for you. So without further ado, let’s look into the first match of the week.

KT Rolster A versus SK Telecom T1 #2

Game 1
Blue – SK Telecom T1 #2 – Kennen/Zac/Kha’Zix/Miss Fortune/Sona
Purple – KT Rolster A – Rumble/Nasus/Jayce/Twitch/Thresh

Going into this match, KT Rolster A desperately needs a win in order to still have playoff hopes. If they get 2-0′d, they will not make it to the playoffs. And unfortunately for them, they’re facing off against SK Telecom T1 #2 (Judgment Day), the team leading Group A in points so far.

As Sona and Miss Fortune walked into lane after doing their double golems bot lane, Thresh and Twitch casually strolled out of the lane brush to pick up first blood off PoohManDu’s Sona, Bronze League-style.

Despite a gank top lane putting Judgment Day down 2-0 in kills, both mid and bot lanes came out ahead in fights at the 7 minute mark to bring them into the lead with a 3 for 0 globally, followed by an uncontested Dragon. No more action went down until about 4 minutes later, when multiple lanes aggressed upon one another again, with an over-dive top lane yielding a 2 for 1 in KT Rolster’s favor, and both supports dying in bottom lane.

Judgment Day focused a lot of bullying on Vitamin’s Rumble in top lane as he fell to half of Impact’s Kennen’s farm. With the kills on Vitamin going to Faker in the mid lane, the gap in both top and mid led to solo kills in both lanes a few minutes further in. Judgment Day continued to abuse their lane leads and fighting 2v2 and 3v3 skirmishes wherever possible and pulled into a 9k gold lead by the 19 minute mark as KT Rolster A’s bottom inner tower fell.

KT Rolster A still had hopes in the game as a few misplayed team fights for SK Telecom went down without the three AoE CC ultimates stacked upon one another, but SKT held on to their lead until a 28 minute uncontested Baron for SKT turned into a perfect dive and perfect team fight under KT Rolster A’s middle inhib turret, followed by a surrender to give Judgment Day the 1-0 series lead.
Game 2
Blue – KT Rolster A – Shen/Elise/Fizz/Ezreal/Lulu
Purple – SK Telecom T1 #2 – Jayce/Lee Sin/Twisted Fate/Vayne/Mordekaiser

PoohManDu once again showed his flexibility as he locked in a Mordekaiser for himself as the support. And yes, that is seriously a support Mordekaiser. Before you say, “Wow, what trolls!” — they selected Mordekaiser as a plan to 2v1 lane and make up for Vayne’s painful lack of wave clear with a manaless lane pusher.

Judgment Day’s early game plans paid off perfectly as Piglet and Pooh both walked into top lane against Zero’s Fizz, leading to him immediately turning tail, and heading back to base to swap with Vitamin’s Shen who had originally gone bottom. As Zero made it into bot lane, he found himself as a level 1 Fizz against an already level 3 Jayce.

Meanwhile, Bengi’s Lee Sin tried to invade for the blue buff of KT Rolster, he was collapsed upon by three members of KTR and cleaned up by Hiro’s Ezreal, passing over a red buff to the mid lane 2v1ing Ezreal.

For the next ten minutes, no kills went down, although Judgment Day managed to knock down the side lane outer turrets, and KT Rolster shoved over mid lane. The teams finally got into a fight around Dragon and SKT’s Blue buff at the 13:30 mark, leading to a 3 for 1 in favor of KT Rolster A, who still trailed by 2k gold due to Judgment Day’s superior laning. 0-2 Bengi’s trouble in the jungle continued as Hiro all but evened up the gold with an Ezreal ult to steal the Dragon at 14:24.

KT Rolster A were looking strong as they caught Faker in mid lane and the Hiro/Me5 duo chased down Impact’s Jayce in top, but Benji managed to turn the tower dive on Impact into 2 kills for himself to catch him back up into the game.

The first full team fight erupted at KT Rolster’s bottom inner turret at 20:30 as KT Rolster engaged on Faker’s Twisted Fate, bursting him down as soon as possible. The fight stretched all the way up to Dragon and ultimately ended in a 3 for 3 trade between the teams. As Faker respawned and headed into bottom lane, Kakao’s Elise met him in the lane brush and picked up another kill to be 4/0/4 and drop Faker to a 0/3/1 score.

Another team fight erupted at the 24 minute mark as Bengi dove deep into the KT Rolster line-up mid lane, ultimately trading himself for Fizz and a Lulu ult, with Fizz’s ghost being abused to help SKT shove down the mid inner turret for KT. 9 minutes later the teams finally traded blows at KT Rolster’s bottom inner tower again as Zero initiated with a completely whiffed Fizz ultimate. Hiro managed a spectacular double kill as four members of Judgment Day dove the tower to finish him off, Arcane Shifting aggressively to ensure the second kill and salvaging the would-be 4 for 0 team fight.

The match was ultimately determined at the 41 minute mark as Kakao got caught farming too deep in the mid lane, turning into a chase and clean up of the rest of KT Rolster A, putting the final nail in the coffin both for the series and for KT Rolster A’s playoff hopes. SK Telecom T1 #2 wins the series 2-0, guaranteeing themselves a spot in the playoffs.

NaJin Shield versus ahq.Korea

Game 1
Blue – NaJin Shield – Rumble/Elise/Kha’Zix/Varus/Thresh
Purple – ahq.Korea – Jayce/Kayle/Ryze/Miss Fortune/Sona

This series carries a ton of playoff implications for both teams, as the two are tied for fourth place in Group B. If either team were to come out victorious, it would all but secure their spot beyond the group stage.

Despite Save’s Kha’Zix playing with reckless abandon in mid lane to try to secure first blood with an Elixir of Fortitude, first (and second) blood of the match came from a perfect gank out of NoFe’s Elise with help of a Wolf’s Thresh taking down both Promise and Loray. NoFe earned a killing spree with another gank top lane shortly after to put NaJin Shield into a 3-0 kill lead, with all three kills on NoFe. ahq.Korea answered the top lane gank back with a dragon.

The first tower of the game fell at 15 minutes, in NaJin Shield’s favor as NoFe executed another great gank with the kill going to a Wolf on Thresh. Rotating to mid lane, NoFe picked up another kill for himself and set up NaJin Shield for a free Dragon for their troubles. ahq.Korea tried to mitigate the gold advantage with a mid lane tower, but they could not kill it fast enough and Expession collapsed from top lane to pinch ahq as they fled, turning into two more kills and a 7-0 score for NaJin Shield.

Despite the kill deficit, ahq.Korea saw an opportunity to push hard down the mid lane as NaJin Shield was pushing bot lane. All but Save’s Kha’Zix recalled for Shield, and Save pushed on to the bottom inhib as ahq.Korea picked up 3 kills for themselves before taking down Shield’s mid lane inhibitor in return. However, ahq were whittled down too low and forced to back, leading to a completely free Baron kill for Shield. After the Baron, Shield managed to find back to back favorable fights, leading to their victory in game 1.
Game 2
Blue – ahq.Korea – Rengar/Lee Sin/Katarina/Varus/Thresh
Purple – NaJin Shield – Kha’Zix/Nasus/Kha’Zix/Miss Fortune/Sona

Although in game 1, Diana had been target-banned against Save in the mid lane, NaJin Shield decided to pass Diana to the top lane in Expession’s hands and give Save Kha’Zix. Meanwhile, TrAce selected a champion that he’d been teasing all season without actually picking — Rengar.

ahq.Korea managed to snag first blood in top lane, where the duo lanes resided, as Locodoco accidentally flashed into a Thresh Q while attempting to flee from ActScene’s Lee Sin. NaJin Shield answered back with a gank bottom lane, but TrAce showed why he was known for his Rengar with some clever usage of Unseen Predator’s leap to juke around Nasus and Diana. As ActScene came to bail TrAce out, the duo turned it around into two kills turning into a 3/0 ActScene Lee Sin by 6 minutes.

NaJin Shield managed to quell the aggression as they started to play a bit more passively, but ahq.Korea extended their lead through objectives of Dragon and all three outer towers over the next nine minutes. After 20 minutes, ActScene was still the only player in the game with any kills, as he secured his fourth kill of the game against Save’s Kha’Zix in an epic chase scene that displayed where Boots of Mobility got their name.

At the 22:30 mark, ahq pushed past the top inner tower for Shield and brought the kill score to 8-0 with all four of the new kills going on to Hoon’s Katarina. With no vision on the map out of Shield, ahq took a 24 minute Baron, leading to two more kills and a Dragon. After an ace in the top lane, ahq finished off the game with a 15-1 kill lead and not a single tower of their own knocked down to tie the series 1-1.

MVP Ozone versus NaJin Sword

Game 1
Blue – MVP Ozone – Jarvan IV/Nasus/Jayce/Tristana/Thresh
Purple – NaJin Sword – Renekton/Zac/Kha’Zix/Miss Fortune/Sona

Both MVP Ozone and NaJin Sword come into this match looking for a 2-0 victory, as a split does nothing to solidify either team’s playoff hopes, and the 4-way tie for 2nd place in Group A meaning any team that doesn’t pull ahead of the pack is on the verge of elimination alongside KT Rolster A.

First blood went to Watch’s Zac in bottom lane as he ganked Homme’s overextended Jarvan IV. Dade’s Jayce teleported bottom hoping to even out and force a kill trade, but ultimately ended up a waste of a summoner for himself. As teleport came off cooldown, Mata’s Thresh landed a hook onto Sona in the top lane, and four members of MVP Ozone just converged onto Sword’s duo lane for a kill onto Imp’s Tristana and Dade’s Jayce. However, as four members of Ozone were in the top lane, Sword took the free Dragon as Ozone pushed the tower.

A max range Zac dive at the twelve minute mark turned into a 2 for 1 team fight in Sword’s favor to tie up the kill score 3-3. The two teams butted heads again shortly after over Dragon, but MVP Ozone came out ahead with two kills exchange for another kill on Watch’s Zac, though neither team managed to finish Dragon. This led to the two teams returning to the Dragon as soon as many of the cooldowns were back up for the teams, but this time NaJin Sword found themselves victorious in the fight, going 4 for 1, only losing Pray’s Miss Fortune, and only failing to take down Jayce.

After a failed pickoff from sSong’s Kha’Zix, a team fight erupted around an empty Dragon pit in the 21st minute, and Sword managed to secure two kills to avenge sSong’s death, followed by knocking down their first tower of the game. The action dulled for the next seven minutes, until a huge crescendo out of Cain turned into a quadra kill for Pray and a final clean up for sSong, leading to a free Baron as MVP Ozone were stuck staring at the respawn screen. NaJin Sword grouped bottom before their baron buff wore off and managed four kills as the tower fell, leading to a surrender from MVP Ozone.
Game 2
Blue – NaJin Sword – Kha’Zix/Lee Sin/Orianna/Miss Fortune/Thresh
Purple – MVP Ozone – Jarvan IV/Nasus/Ryze/Vayne/Sona

The game started out painfully slow with no significant action or advantages coming out of either team, apart from a slight, and growing, CS lead for Miss Fortune. First blood wasn’t acquired until after the eleven minute mark, where, following a Bullet Time from Pray that managed no kills, Imp’s Vayne and Mata’s Sona turned to chase down PraY, and through some creative flashing, tumbling, and condemnation, Vayne managed to secure the first kill of the game. However, fearing that Vayne was getting back into the game, NaJin Sword answered back by quickly pushing down the tower upon respawning, and switching into the bottom lane and taking down a second turret to take over the gold lead.

The next aggression came at 15 minutes as sSong and Pray versus Dade and a tower turned into a dead Orianna and Ryze, followed by a dead Pray and dead tower as the rest of the teams converged upon one another. The next fight came as Dragon respawned at 19 minutes and MVP Ozone were directly on the spawn. The Bullet Time out of PraY hit air, and Dandy’s Nasus scored a triple kill in the 5 for 0 ace for MVP Ozone. With all of NaJin Sword down, and much of MVP Ozone still fairly healthy, Ozone took down a Baron as well, with Sona dying to a Baron execution.

The Baron buff turned into no objectives or additional kills for Ozone, however, and acted only as a deterrent from Sword’s itch for aggression. They attempted a Dragon after their Baron expired, but with a ward-Safeguard-Lantern escape, Watch’s Lee Sin managed to smite steal the Dragon away and get out without a single tick of damage making it onto him in return.

A bit after Baron’s respawn, NaJin Sword lost vision of the pit, leading to a snuck Baron from MVP Ozone as Sword pushed down mid lane. Ozone chased Sword toward Ozone’s own base, and Sword fled away toward Ozone’s blue buff, with a few flashes turning into a team fight in the jungle. Ultimately, the fight ended in only MaKNooN on Kha’Zix surviving with a triple kill. Yet another team fight erupted on Ozone’s side of the map at the 38 minute mark, but not a single member of Ozone fell as Imp scored a triple kill in the 4 for 0 fight. MVP Ozone pushed down Sword’s mid lane Inhibitor as their spoils of the battle.

As Baron respawned, MVP Ozone attempted to bait NaJin Sword’s lack of vision by waiting in the banana brush, but upon Cain illuminating their plans with his lantern, MVP Ozone popped Shurelya’s and hard-engaged. By killing MaKNooN and sSong and forcing the flash from Pray’s Miss Fortune, Ozone pushed into the mid lane and finished off the game to tie the series 1-1.

LG-IM versus CJ Entus Frost

Game 1
Blue – LG-IM – Rumble/Zac/Zed/Vayne/Sona
Purple – CJ Entus Frost – Jayce/Rammus/Diana/Kog’Maw/Thresh

LG-IM find themselves in a dire situation at the bottom of the rankings as Shield and ahq tied earlier in the week, granting them both a one point advantage over LG-IM and leaving Incredible Miracle looking for its namesake against the on-fire CJ Entus Frost in week 4 to pull themselves out of last place in Group B.

This was another game of announcer silence early game, with no kills on champions or turrets for the first eleven minutes of the game, at which point both teams traded a side lane tower. Frost gained the first gold lead of the game by taking Dragon as LG-IM backed off the dead bottom lane tower, and then turned their attention bottom lane as they drew first blood on Lasha’s Sona (losing MadLife in the process).

As all ten players grouped mid after LG-IM dropped Frost’s mid tower, Lilac’s Zac engaged with no potential for Crescendo follow-up out of Lasha and turned into a kill for Frost with no retaliation. As Frost started the Dragon afterward, Lilac used his dash to attempt a steal, but failed and forced an engage which turned into a 2 for 1 fight for LG-IM. The teams traded kills back and forth for the next few minutes without any major tide-turning team fights, but Frost pulled ahead in gold to a 4k gold advantage.

Upon picking off Smeb’s Rumble with a Flash+Exhaust out of MadLife, Frost immediately turned to Baron. RapidSTAR was caught alone in mid lane, but Lilac again failed a Smite Steal and paid with his life. With Baron on all but Diana, Frost engaged a fight mid lane with a 4 for 1 in their favor, followed by knocking down an inhibitor in mid lane and the inhibitor turret in bot lane. Before the Baron expired, Frost pushed back into the bottom lane to knock down the naked inhibitor. Frost immediately moved to top lane where after a 2 for 2 fight, they managed to knock down the third inhibitor.

Frost regrouped and engaged a 5v5 fight in the open area of LG-IM’s base, but LG-IM managed to turn it into a 4 for 1 fight and cling on to the hope for a victory. Unfortunately, they remained pinned in their base, allowing Frost to take another Baron for free and leading to Frost pushing in and finishing off the game.
Game 2
Blue – CJ Entus Frost – Jayce/Nasus/Diana/Miss Fortune/Thresh
Purple – LG-IM – Rumble/Zac/Kha’Zix/Ashe/Zyra

Despite a very aggressive opening in bottom lane out of MadLife, this turned into yet another no-announcement early game, with the only significant advantage in the game coming out of MidKing’s Kha’Zix with a near-30 cs advantage over RapidSTAR by 10 minutes. The first kill of the game went to MidKing as LG-IM used 4 ultimates to kill CloudTemplar around the Dragon, but no Dragon was cleaned up to follow. As Shy dove Smeb top lane (with no kill going to either player), Lilac was pulled for LG-IM to cover the lane, leading to the Dragon and a small gold lead going to Frost.

After a bit of confused roaming, Shy was caught and pinched between Rumble and Zac and picked off with a kill going to Lilac’s Zac. Meanwhile, in bottom lane, Hermes and MadLife attempted some aggression of their own, but as MadLife’s Thresh Q pulled Lasha out of Bullet Time while Hermes stood on the Zyra ultimate, Hermes died to Paragon’s Ashe and MadLife was forced to clean up Lasha’s Zyra himself. MidKing roamed to bottom to catch the fleeing MadLife for a kill of his own between the towers, pulling LG-IM to a 4-1 kill score lead.

Once again the two teams aggressed onto one another in both top and bottom lanes with both teams’ top, ADC, and support players dying, but Frost came out on top as both side lane towers died for LG-IM. The teams both grouped after the 19 minute mark where Dragon respawned, and CloudTemplar managed to smite steal the Dragon started by LG-IM. The ensuing fight left 3 dead for LG-IM and only one dead for Frost, which led to the final outer turret of LG-IM’s falling.

The action slowed down until the next Dragon, where Diana was caught split pushing and attempted to teleport out, but an Enchanted Crystal Arrow from Paragon interrupted the summoner spell. LG-IM took Dragon to follow, but CJ Entus answered by taking Baron even with RapidSTAR down. A team fight followed, ending 3 for 2 in LG-IM’s favor, and Baron buff only remained on MadLife’s Thresh.

Frost began to split push top lane with Diana as RapidSTAR’s teleport came off cooldown, and as LG-IM engaged on Frost in the bottom lane, leading into a triple kill for RapidSTAR followed by two more kills as Frost continued to push. Frost healed up and grouped to push mid, with a 3 for 0 team fight in their favor breaking out and ending in an inhibitor taken down by CJ Entus. After regrouping yet again, Frost managed to split LG-IM up in their own jungle and pick off 3 players yet again, followed by the shoving of the top lane Inhibitor. Frost followed up with another Baron and polished off the game and the series with a 2-0 victory.

MVP Blue versus CJ Entus Blaze

Game 1
Blue – MVP Blue – Rumble/Zac/Kha’Zix/Caitlyn/Nami
Purple – CJ Entus Blaze – Diana/Lee Sin/Zed/Kog’Maw/Lulu

Yet another match between teams tied for second place in Group A. As NaJin Sword and Ozone tied earlier in the week, a 2-0 from either team in this series would secure their spot in the playoffs.

MVP Blue opened up the game with an incredibly aggressive play, with Zac and Kha’Zix skilling their leaps, and Nami burning flash to jump over the wall near Dragon and sneaking into the tribrush below Blaze’s blue buff, then sneaking up into the Golem brush itself, where they awaited Flame’s path into bottom lane. Easyhoon secured first blood with a leaping chase and ChuNyang stayed to secure the blue buff.

As soon as Cheonju’s Rumble hit level 6, he wandered down to the Dragon as MVP Blue knocked down Blaze’s mid tower, forfeiting his own top lane tower as Blue killed the first Dragon of the game. A while after a max-range Rumble ult was cast to initiate onto LustBoy and Cpt Jack in the bottom lane, turning into a kill for Deft’s Caitlyn with a Headshot. As Cheonju chased LustBoy, he was picked off by Diana instead. Blaze followed it up with a 2 for 0 fight and the bottom lane turret.

As Dragon respawned at the 15:30 mark, MVP Blue prepared to take it down, but after a teleport, Flame managed to steal it with a perfect Crescent Strike, and Blaze engaged onto MVP Blue and emerged with a 4 for 2 advantage post-fight, as well as two towers in the mid lane of MVP Blue falling.

Blaze began to take advantage of Diana’s ability to split push, leaving Flame in the top lane as the next Dragon came up, and allowing MVP Blue to dance around the Dragon. Blaze stalled the potential for backing with their ability to poke using Kog’Maw, leading to Flame knocking down the inhibitor turret and Blaze taking down the Dragon while MVP Blue were stuck between Scylla and Charybdis for decisions on which to engage, ultimately picking neither.

At the 24:30 mark, MVP Blue managed to catch 3 members of Blaze on an Equalizer, followed by a Let’s Bounce from Zac. However, Flame came in with a flank on Diana and managed to turn the fight into a 4 for 2 in Blaze’s favor. A few minutes later, ChuNyang attempted to scout and ward Baron, but was caught by Blaze, leading to a 4 for 0 fight and two inhibitors for Blaze. MVP Blue attmpted a desperation Baron only to be forced off and engaged for yet another 4 for 0 fight for Blaze, followed immediately by a surrender from MVP Blue.
Game 2
Blue – CJ Entus Blaze – Elise/Nasus/Karthus/Kog’Maw/Lulu
Purple – MVP Blue – Rumble/Diana/Orianna/Ezreal/Thresh

First blood went almost immediately to Deft’s Ezreal as the minions clashed in bottom lane as Lustboy and Cpt Jack got too aggressive onto FLahm’s Thresh. MVP Blue followed up the newxt few minutes with CS leads in mid and bottom lane, while Flame maintained a similar advantage in top lane. Deft pulled further ahead with a kill onto Lustboy a few minutes into the lane as Thresh landed a Death Sentence into Flay combo. With Flame bullying Cheonju’s Rumble in the top lane, ChuNyang came for a gank which allowed Cheonju to close the gap.

MVP Blue burned Equalizer and Trueshot Barrage to attempt to kill Flame under his tower as Diana came for another gank, leading to Blaze taking the first Dragon of the game. However, as Cpt Jack moved to assist, Deft dueled him to death to move to 3/0. Each team traded kills after the Dragon as well. MVP Blue stretched their kill lead to 6-1 with a three-man brush gank onto Karthus as he moved to take his second blue buff of the game.

After using several ultimates to kill Helios, Blue went for a Dragon, but Blaze chased after. LustBoy flashed over a wall to sacrifice himself behind MVP Blue’s escape path to slow down the entirety of MVP Blue to gain two kills for Blaze. After MVP Blue backed off from a mid lane siege, Blaze abused their Elise/Nasus/Karthus/Kog’Maw composition for a quick Baron as MVP Blue rushed to get back into position. Ambition’s Karthus and Helios’ Nasus were both picked off in the retreat, but the damage had been done.

After Baron buff expired, a hook from FLahm’s Thresh onto Nasus initiated a fight, but ignoring Nasus and Karthus a little too long led to a 4 for 3 fight in Blaze’s favor. After some cheeky vision wars with the Orianna ball, Blaze scared Easyhoon off far enough to initiate a sneaky Baron and close the gold gap MVP Blue had been holding onto for the entire game. Blaze sieged down a tower with a 1 for 1 kill trade.

Blaze aggressively pushed down mid lane with MVP Blue to their backs. Blaze pulled out a 3 for 2 team fight and pushed down the middle inhibitor with the main damage threats of MVP Blue stuck in limbo. As Baron respawned again, Blaze managed to pick off ChuNyang, ensuring they could attempt Baron without risk of a steal from Smite. After the Baron, Blaze forced down the bottom lane buildings for Blue and finished the series 2-0, ensuring their own playoff spot.

SK Telecom T1 #1 versus KT Rolster B

Game 1
Blue – SK Telecom T1 #1 – Kha’Zix/Hecarim/Diana/Twitch/Lulu
Purple – KT Rolster B – Irelia/Shaco/Jayce/Caitlyn/Sona

KT Rolster B comes into this match-up already guaranteed to be in the playoffs, and therefore able to take it easy for the remaining two weeks. SK Telecom T1 #1 is now tied with ahq.Korea and NaJin Shield following the two teams’ tie with one another earlier in the week. With a split in this series, SK Telecom T1 #1 (Terminator) only need a split with NaJin Shield next week to guarantee their spot in the playoffs.

Terminator is notorious for their split-pushing style of play this season. Knowing this, KT Rolster B went a little unconventional on their choice of jungle champion for inSec. InSec chose to play Jungle Shaco with Smite/Teleport. First Blood came from sneaky Shaco Deception with Insec deceiving over the top lane Tower Tri-Brush wall to come in behind Reapered’s Kha’Zix. Ryu’s Jayce secured the kill with his Ignite.

A second attempt gank came out at the four minute mark, with inSec teleporting onto a ward deep into the bottom lane, but Terminator answered back with aggression out of Raven and StarLast dropping Ssumday’s Irelia low, with SuNo’s Diana teleporting into the minion wave to dive the tower for the kill. Meanwhile in top lane, Reapered returned to all-in Ryu’s Jayce for a kill as Ryu whiffed his Shock Blast.

Action settled down four about seven minutes until Reapered’s Kha’Zix once again met Ryu in the mid lane and began engaging, only for Beelzehan’s Hecarim to ult and secure the kill, trampling Ryu. With a Pink Ward thinking it had cleared out the Dragon pit, but failing to kill a ward safely tucked away in a pocket of fog of war, inSec began a Dragon attempt. Terminator collapsed on the Dragon with a teleport from SuNo to engage, stopping the attempt and killing Score, but with Suno dying himself in the process. Shortly after returning to lane, Score died again to Raven’s Twitch as StarLast and Mafa traded support kills under the tower.

A few kills came in some skirmishes top lane to keep some action in the game as Terminator slowly pushed for a turret lead with SuNo’s split push knocking down the bottom inhibitor turret before a fight broke out in mid lane, with SKT’s Twitch and Lulu falling to Score’s Caitlyn. The action slowed until inSec baited a freshly level 16 Reapered into a dive on top of him, dodging the Leap damage and blocking isolation by casting his ultimate while he awaited Ryu’s help.

The naked bottom inhibitor was finally taken down around the thirty minute mark on the back of a 3 for 1 team fight for Terminator. The next team fight game 4 minutes later at KT Rolster B’s red buff, with Raven being the only to fall for Terminator as four fell for KT Rolster B. SK Telecom followed the team fight by pushing the open bottom lane and finishing off KT Rolster B’s Nexus as inSec’s Shaco tried in vain to stop it.
Game 2
Blue – KT Rolster B – Renekton/Nasus/Kha’Zix/Miss Fortune/Fiddlesticks
Purple – SK Telecom T1 #1 – Malphite/Hecarim/Diana/Kog’Maw/Lulu

First blood came this game for Ssumday’s Renekton with an aggressive dive onto Malphite in the top lane. With KT Rolster focusing their other four champions in bot lane, they managed to also take down the bottom tower. Shortly after hitting level 6, Ssumday dove top tower with inSec again to kill Reapered once again, but this time around Beelzehan’s Hecarim managed to finish off Ssumday.

Mafa showed off the power of Support Fiddlesticks upon hitting level 6 with Ryu roaming bot lane as Mafa flash+Crowstormed onto StarLast for an easy kill, which led into a free dragon for KTRB. Ryu roamed back into the top lane, meeting Ssumday at the top tower to dive Reapered for a third time, followed by the tower finally falling as well.

The action stalled until the 16 minute mark where SKT’s Hecarim and Malphite ults chained into a dead score, with Mafa falling shortly after, and only SuNo’s Diana falling for SKT. As Dragon respawned at 18 minutes, SKT were forced into engaging without a Malphite ult, leading to a 4 for 0 team fight and a tower in KT Rolster B’s favor, though Beelzehand did manage to steal Dragon.

The sneaky thing about KT Rolster B’s composition was that Ssumday and InSec both bought Spirit of the Ancient Golem, and Ryu bought Spirit of the Elder Lizard. As Score pushed bottom lane on Miss Fortune, KT Rolster B took a 20 minute Baron with no vision from SKT giving any hint that such an action could be occurring. KT Rolster B grouped mid and quickly won a massive AoE team fight in 4 for 0 fashion yet again. InSec baited SKT into yet another fight as Terminator all respawned, but KT Rolster B emerged with a 5 for 2 victory in the fight, leading to SK Telecom T1 #1′s surrender vote, and a 1-1 tie in the series.

 After Week 4, SK Telecom T1 #2 and CJ Entus Blaze have secured their spots in the playoffs from Group A, and CJ Entus Frost and KT Rolster B have secured their spots in the playoffs from Group B.

Going into week 5, in Group A, MVP Blue plays the whipping boys, KT Rolster A this weekend while they trail Sword and Ozone by a single point. With a 2-0 win over KTRA, they can still secure a spot in the playoffs, as Sword and Ozone face off against the already-qualified Blaze and Judgment Day respectively.

In Group B, Shield faces off against Terminator, while LG-IM and ahq.Korea face off at the bottom of the group. The match to watch for this week will be Saturday’s clash of the titans between CJ Entus Frost and KT Rolster B to determine who will come out of Group B at the top.

With just one week of group play left, you can guarantee the teams that haven’t secured their spots are going to be training hard to play their best League of Legends to date in hopes of making it to the eight team, single elimination bracket stage.

As always, I am TiberiusAudley. Follow me on Twitter @TiberiusAudley, and look forward to my next A Look Back — which should be up later this week.

Seriously? If you are into the competitive League of Legends scene and you are not watching the Korean OGN Champions you are only depriving yourself of some of the most entertaining and spectacular League of Legends the world has ever seen. If you think the NA LCS is entertaining you haven’t seen anything yet. I have nothing but good things to say about this competition and encourage everyone that enjoys  eSports and gets aroused by  extremely high level competitive League of Legends to head over to the OGN Twitch Channel and watch.

• The level of play is completely next-level and out of this world. You have never seen anything so incredibly skilled, strategic and tactful, entertaining, and sometimes absolutely crazy in the best way you can imagine.
• The shoutcasters are divine! MonteCristo and Doa have an incredibly natural chemistry together and are not only incredibly informative about the game, and Korean scene, but also just as entertaining to listen to as the games are to watch.
• The crowd is incredibly loud and awesome, and they do it without stupid horns! People cheer, girls scream, and every play, juke, and kill is met with the appropriate amount of admiration that you would expect at any professional level sporting event! It makes it incredibly exciting to watch!
• The level of production that goes into the tournament is incredibly high. Even the “2nd rate” English stream is very impressive and I think even Riot’s LCS could stand to learn something from the production OGN puts into their Champions tournaments.
• It plays 2-3 times a week, 4 games a day. The amount of content you get access to is almost equal to the NA and EU LCS combined! It also airs extremely early in the morning (AM) which means you get to watch VoDs and can seek out the games you want to watch and skip past all the down times, interviews, and picks/bans if you’re just hungry to watch games.
• You will learn something new, or see something new, almost every broadcast! It isn’t a secret that Korean LoL is the real deal. If you are looking to improve your game or learn the latest trends and strategies then it would only benefit you to watch the OGN games.
• It’s only $5.99 a month! This is actually a lot better than OGN’s past broadcasting options where they would charge $1.00 for a 24 hour pass to watch VoDs.

No I am not getting paid by OGN to write this, I wish I was. I just feel bad keeping this secret to myself. Obviously some people probably know about, and watch, the OGN, but not enough do. Like I said in the beginning you are just depriving yourself if you don’t watch these games. They are really that good and entertaining. I have never been so entertained or smiled so much while watching League of Legends and for $6 bucks you can’t go wrong!

Love, Dcgreen

OGN Twitch Channel - http://www.twitch.tv/ongamenet

 

Hello Summoners. I’m sure some, or many, of you are fans of the eSports side of League of Legends, and have been enjoying the North American and European LCS matches airing every week.

But I have insomnia. No, it’s not a serious medical condition; it’s Korean LoL Fever.  Over in Korea, they have their own seasonal League of Legends event hosted by OnGameNet, known as Champions Spring. Although the matches air at the wee hours of the morning stateside, I highly recommend watching them over at the OGN TwitchTV channel. But, if you absolutely must get sleep at normal hours, I’ll do you a favor.

Every week I’ll be writing this OGN Weekly Round-Up to recap the previous week’s matches. Unfortunately, we’re already through the third week of the season, so if you missed the first two weeks, my condolences to you!

Champions Spring is currently in its round-robin group stage. Each team plays all the other teams in its group (one opponent per week) in a two-game series where each team plays from each side of the map once. If a team wins both games, they score three points for their group stage standings. If the teams split the games, each team gains one point. At the end of the group stage, the four teams with the highest points from each group will move on to the 8-team playoffs; a single-elimination bracket of best of five matches.

The groups are as follows:
Group A: MVP Blue, MVP Ozone, NaJin Sword, CJ Entus Blaze, KT Rolster A, SK Telecom T1 #2
Group B: KT Rolster B, NaJin Shield, CJ Entus Frost, ahq Korea, LG-IM, SK Telecom T1 #1

The first match of the week pitted SK Telecom T1 #2 versus MVP Blue. The two teams were tied at the top of the Group A standings with 4 points each. (Note for picks: My format will always be Top/Jungle/Mid/ADC/Support, just like the players are arranged in champion select in tournaments.)

Game 1
SK Telecom T1 #2 (Blue): Kennen/Nasus/Jayce/Miss Fortune/Sona
MVP Blue (Purple): Elise/Evelynn/Kha’Zix/Caitlyn/Thresh

MVP Blue opened the game with four of their players purchasing Elixirs of Fortitude and four-man invading the blue buff of SK Telecom T1 #2 (affectionately nicknamed “Judgment Day” by the casters) while their fifth member grabbed their own Blue and went to bottom lane.  They secured an early lead, but Judgment Day’s heavily “Press R” focused comp bailed them out of the deficit mid-game and helped them claw back into a position of power.

MVP Blue wasn’t to be counted out just yet, however, as around 35 minutes into the game they managed a favorable team fight going four for two, but shortly after respawning, Judgment Day decided to start Baron. MVP Blue responded by rushing Judgment Day’s base, getting forced into a team fight and led to MVP Blue getting aced and losing the game.
Game 2:
MVP Blue (Blue): Jayce/Elise/Karthus/Caitlyn/Zyra
SK Telecom T1 #2 (Purple): Shen/Nasus/Leblanc/Varus/Sona

MVP Blue started the game by sending their Karthus to a bottom lane 1v2 to avoid Faker’s Leblanc and (hopefully) allow himself to farm, while sending Caitlyn and Zyra mid lane to shut down Faker’s farm.  MVP Blue’s Jayce and Jungle Elise attempted an early tower dive against Impact’s Shen in the top lane, but a very well-timed taunt yielded a two for one in favor of SK Telecom, including first blood for Impact.

Finding himself unable to farm in the 1v2 without blue buff, MVP Blue’s Easyhoon returned to mid lane and immediately met the business end of Faker’s Leblanc. ChuNyang on Elise came to hold the lane and quickly found himself dead as well. Faker was in the zone on Leblanc, landing nearly every Ethereal Chains that left his champion’s body and bullying FLahm’s Zyra all game.

After Faker had snowballed himself to 11/0/2 on Leblanc in the mid lane, with the rest of SK Telecom T1 #2 performing nearly as well, MVP Blue surrendered shortly after the 20 minute mark and conceded the 2-0 defeat to SK Telecom T1 #2.

The second match from Wednesday night (well, early Wednesday morning here) featured the other SK Telecom T1 team (#1 / Terminator) versus ahq Korea. The ahq e-Sports Club is a Taiwanese eSports organization, but their Korean team was built around former NaJin Shield mid-laner Hoon.

Game 1:
SK Telecom T1 #1 (Blue): Elise/Volibear/Twisted Fate/Caitlyn/Thresh
ahq Korea (Purple): Malphite/Nasus/Rumble/Miss Fortune/Sona

SK Telecom T1 #1 started the game off with superior laning, gaining a gold lead just off the CS advantage Elise and Twisted Fate had gained over Malphite and Rumble, coupled with Twisted Fate’s extra gold passive. ahq Korea sought to offset this lead by focusing their ganking attempts on the overextended Reapered, catching him multiple times to prevent the game from snowballing out of control.

SK Telecom T1 kept their lead for most of the game, but as the two teams began to clash in full team-fights, the combined CC of Malphite and Sona’s ultimates combined with the AoE damage of Miss Fortune, Rumble, and Nasus proved too much for Terminator, leading to a victory for ahq.
Game 2:
ahq Korea (Blue): Elise/Vi/Diana/Caitlyn/Sona
SK Telecom T1 #1 (Purple): Shen/Nasus/Karthus/Miss Fortune/Thresh

SK Telecom T1 opened the game with another early lead as a 2v1 under Reapered’s turret quickly turned into a two kill turnaround in SK Telecom’s favor, with nothing to show for it for ahq.

Around the 14:30 mark, ahq grouped as ficw for Dragon, but Beelzehan casually strolled up to the Dragon for an easy Smite steal, followed by a three for one team fight in Terminator’s favor. The two teams played a little more passively following it, with a few skirmishes netting kills before the next big team fight in the 24th minute. The fight looked good for SK Telecom T1 until Hoon’s Diana shield baited perfectly, ending in an aced SK Telecom T1 and three dead for ahq.

Feeling a little overconfident (or desperate), ahq attempted a Baron down 6k gold and were aced by Terminator. They followed the fight with finishing Baron on their own and using the buff to snowball the game to completion to tie the series.

Friday night kicked off with a match between the very hot MVP Ozone and CJ Entus Blaze, who had been struggling and without at least a 1-1 split could find themselves at the bottom of the Group A standings.

Game 1:

MVP Ozone (Blue): Elise/Nasus/Diana/Vayne/Sona
CJ Entus Blaze (Purple): Jayce/Jarvan IV/Ryze/Kog’Maw/Thresh

The game started off very slow for both teams, both ADC and supports ventured into the top lane rather than the standard bottom lane. It wasn’t until 9 minutes in that any significant action took place, when MVP Ozone ventured too far into the Blaze jungle for a kill, turning into a one for three trade favoring Blaze. While this occurred, imp, behind his 20 cs advantage over Cpt Jack’s Kog Maw aggressively went for a kill to offset Blaze’s gold lead.
After the second Dragon of the game, things were looking really good for MVP Ozone as Imp’s Vayne sat comfortably at a 4-0 score. Blaze decided to slow things down and focus on picking off targets with Ryze and Jayce, and after a catch of two kills in the top lane around the 32 minute mark, Blaze took baron. They used their Baron and Ozone’s lack of a significant front line to win a team fight and knock down two Inhibitors as they carefully closed out the game.
Game 2:
CJ Entus Blaze (Blue): Jayce/Nasus/Zed/Kog’Maw/Zyra
MVP Ozone (Purple): Renekton/Jarvan IV/Diana/Ezreal/Sona

The game started out with another fairly passive opening for both teams, with the action not ramping up until the seven minute mark where a 5v4 clash between the teams led to a three for three, with two kills going onto Imp’s Ezreal and two kills for Flame’s Jayce. Helios on Nasus used his ultimate to solo Dragon and gain a net positive for CJ Entus Blaze.

As Dragon respawned, the two teams postured around it for another fight. Ambition managed a pincer maneuver onto the back of MVP Ozone getting free hits into the back of Imp and Mafa on his Zed. The fight went four for zero in Blaze’s favor and they secured their second Dragon of the game. Not content to wait around while they had such a large advantage, Blaze initiated another fight a few minutes later, going four for one yet again and pushing down two of MVP Ozone’s towers and sitting on a 10k gold lead 18 minutes into the game.

Unable to face down such a large deficit, MVP Ozone surrendered, giving Blaze the 2-0 series win and new life in Group A.

The second match of Friday night was between Group B Leaders KT Rolster B and Group B’s last place team, LG-IM.

Game 1:
LG-IM (Blue): Jayce/Jarvan IV/Ryze/Caitlyn/Thresh
KT Rolster B (Purple): Rumble/Lee Sin/Zed/Varus/Sona

KT Rolster B’s early Zed pick was written off by LG-IM as “Oh, that’s inSec jungling Zed” as he is fairly well-known for doing. However, KT Rolster B last-picked Lee Sin, playing mind-games with LG-IM and revealing Ryu could in fact play Zed as well, in mid lane.

LG-IM opened the game with a four-man invade. A Thresh Death Sentence hook landing onto sSumday’s Rumble secured first blood. KT Rolster B was unfazed by the loss of first blood, and through strong laning and skirmishing kept themselves in the game. Neither team gained any major upper hand during the laning phase.

In the 16th minute, the relatively slow paced game finally reached a boiling point as LG-IM began a dragon attempt. Ryu arrived with a flank into the side of LG-IM’s champion line, and KT Rolster B managed to ace LG-IM without losing a single champion in the fight.

KT Rolster B continued to win team fight after team fight from that point on, with their lead expanding until LG-IM surrendered to a Baroned KT Rolster B at the 26 minute mark behind an Ace from KT Rolster B.
Game 2:
KT Rolster B (Blue): Rumble/Diana/Orianna/Caitlyn/Lulu
LG-IM (Purple): Kennen/Nocturne/Lee Sin/Varus/Sona

Once again, KT Rolster B showed their potential for mind-games in champion select as they picked Diana third, a champion Ryu is very well known for playing. However, this time, the Diana was for inSec in the jungle and Ryu was to play Orianna mid lane.

LG-IM started off with yet another four-man Red invade, showing a weakness in KT Rolster B’s ward placements and burning Score’s flash and stealing Red buff, but not gaining any kills this time around.

After an otherwise slow start for both teams, InSec positioned for a gank top lane at the 11 minute mark, only to find Smeb’s Kennen and Lilac’s Nocturne ready to dive sSumday and score a two for zero (which did get cleaned up for a single kill onto Ryu’s Orianna).  MidKing’s Lee Sin roamed bottom lane meanwhile, and picked off Mafa to ultimately net a three for one in favor of LG-IM.

Around the 18 minute mark, LG-IM hyper-aggressively dove mid lane, almost reminiscent of Season 2 NaJin Sword, but only killed Mafa before KT Rolster B began the turnaround to chase the full length of the map, ultimately yielding a four for one in favor of KT Rolster B.

KT Rolster B slowly made their way into the lead during the downtime of Kennen ultimate and secured a six-two tower advantage. After a baited and ineffective Kennen ultimate in the mid lane in the 29th minute, KT Rolster B aced LG-IM and knocked down the middle inhibitor. Two minutes later, they finished off Baron and LG-IM conceded the game and the 2-0 series to KT Rolster B.

Saturday night was dubbed NaJin Night as both NaJin Sword and NaJin Shield were set to play against KT Rolster A and CJ Entus Frost respectively. Much like CJ Entus Blaze, Winter champions NaJin Sword were in a tentative position to fall to the bottom of Group A with a poor performance, but they were facing off against fellow last place team KT Rolster A.

Game 1:
Najin Sword (Blue): Rumble/Jarvan IV/Diana/Twitch/Sona
KT Rolster A (Purple): Kennen/Lee Sin/Jayce/Caitlyn/Thresh

Neither team were truly aggressive early on. Small skirmishes dotted Summoner’s Rift for the first fifteen minutes of the game, but no large scale engagements or flashy plays managed to stand out early on. It wasn’t until around the 16 minute mark, where both teams grouped for Dragon, that the beauty of NaJin Sword’s team composition showed up. sSong’s Diana dove into the center of KT Rolster A’s line-up, as did Jarvan, with a Moonfall and Cataclysm combo’d nearly on top of one another and a MaKNooN Equalizer to cut through the entire KT Rolster A line-up.  In the ensuing chase, MaKNooN managed a quadra kill as part of the ace of KT Rolster A.

The rest of the game was nearly as fluid for NaJin Sword, with team fight after team fight featuring ults demonstrating a team with a tremendous amount of chemistry and familiarity with one another. KT Rolster A eventually fell too far behind, and after NaJin Sword slew Baron at 37 minutes, they finished off game 1.
Game 2:
KT Rolster A (Blue): Shen/Lee Sin/Ahri/Varus/Lulu
NaJin Sword (Purple): Diana/Nocturne/Twisted Fate/Twitch/Leona

A few eyebrows were raised as the loading screen / intro left the screen and Zero’s Ahri was shown to have an inventory containing a Doran’s Blade and a Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation. The Korean observer highlighted Ahri’s character page revealing she was fairly heavily spec’d into Utility, with spell vamp and Cooldown Reduction.

The gambit out of Ahri did not manage to pay off as sSong managed to solo kill Zero in mid lane, though first blood had already been obtained elsewhere.  At the ten minute mark the teams began to focus their global ultimate pressure top lane (where both teams ADC and support were fighting). KT Rolster A came out ahead in the battle with three kills, but the empty bottom lane meant a free exposed tower for MaKNooN to kill.

A few minutes later, Watch overextended and was picked off by KT Rolster A, leading them to believe they were safe to kill Dragon with their five man advantage. However, as they turned to engage on the encroaching Sword, MaKNoon and Pray managed to turn around the fight to a four for one (two counting Watch), followed by a Dragon for themselves to ensure the momentum was in their favor.

For the rest of the game, NaJin Sword had but one strategy which they executed every time Nocturne’s ultimate was off cooldown. Watch would activate Paranoia and use it to dive directly onto Me5′s Lulu, forcing her to burn Wild Growth on herself. The following team fights went three for two, three for one, and three for zero in NaJin Sword’s favor, with the gap increasing each time. After one more fight, KT Rolster A finally surrendered, giving NaJin Sword the 2-0 Series victory.

After being 2-0′d by KT Rolster B in Week 2, NaJin Shield came into week 3 looking to climb out of their last place position. They were to face off against CJ Entus Frost, who were fresh off a clean 2-0 stomping of ahq Korea the previous week.

Game 1:
CJ Entus Frost (Blue): Jayce/Rammus/Twisted Fate/Kog’Maw/Thresh
NaJin Shield (Purple): Kha’Zix/Jarvan IV/Diana/Miss Fortune/Sona

The crowd erupted as the Armordillo was locked in to be used by CloudTemplar, a champion he is well-known in Korea for being favorable towards.

There wasn’t much early aggression in the game, first blood did not come until Twisted Fate’s level 6 with a Destiny catching a Wolf (the name of NaJin Shield’s support, not a jungle monster!) and leading to an early bottom lane tower kill for Frost. Frost used this map control advantage to also secure the first Dragon of the game.

CJ Entus Frost used a combination of the Twisted Fate ultimate and Rammus’ mobility and CC to ensure pick-offs one at a time throughout the midgame. In the sixteenth minute, both teams began to dance around the Dragon, until they moved up into the NaJin Shield jungle. A combination of MadLife’s Thresh and CloudTemplar’s Rammus locked down NoFe’s Jarvan long enough to burst him down and prevent him from having any impact on the fight, leading to an 18 minute five for one ace out of Frost.

The game more or less stalled out for a bit at this point, with NaJin Shield too afraid to split off from one another in fear of Frost’s 10k gold advantage and fearsome pick-off with Rammus/TF. However, around 25 minutes, Shield quickly shoved their way down the mid lane to catch Hermes off by himself and blow him up alone. Frost quickly engaged into the back line of Shield, with CloudTemplar managing to cut off Shield’s escape, and the chase of Rammus, Thresh, and Jayce proved too much for NaJin Shield and led to a Quadra Kill for Shy’s Jayce and a Baron for CJ Entus Frost.

Following the Baron, Frost won yet another team fight and finished off the game cleanly.
Game 2:
NaJin Shield (Blue): Rumble/Jarvan IV/Diana/Miss Fortune/Sona
CJ Entus Frost (Purple): Jayce/Rammus/Lux/Twitch/Thresh

Neither team ventured too far from their game 1 team composition as they went into game 2.  However, with Twisted Fate banned, RapidSTAR had to fall to his comfort pick of Lux for the mid lane. NaJin Shield decided to focus on this major change as their strategy for gaining the upper hand.

NoFe managed to burn RapidSTAR’s flash on his first gank into mid lane, and immediately came right back into lane. Save’s Diana secured First Blood, but a Light Binding just inside tower range managed to offset the deficit for RapidSTAR as he secured a kill for himself.

NoFe was not done showing up in mid though, as he caught RapidSTAR warding his lane and immediately got another kill for Save. Save managed a 3-0 score by the 8 minute mark, and Shield had already knocked down both side lane outer turrets by 9 minutes.

Shield rotated around to bot lane’s inner tower at 13 minutes and dove for 3 kills without losing a single member. With RapidSTAR’s Lux shut down, and Jayce still busy stacking up a Manamune, CJ Entus Frost lacked the damage to deal with this heavily snowballing NaJin Shield team.

Shield forced fight after fight and tower after tower, going on to win with an 18-2 killscore at 32:29 and tying the series 1-1.

That’s it for this week’s game recaps. SK Telecom T1 #2 (Judgment Day) currently lead Group A with 7 points, with all but KT Rolster A (1 point) tied at 4 points in second place. In Group B, KT Rolster B also have 7 points at the top of the mountain, with CJ Entus Frost in 2nd place with 5 points, SK Telecom T1 #1 (Terminator) in 3rd with 3 points, and the remaining three teams tied with 2 points a piece.

Next week’s key match-ups will include NaJin Sword versus MVP Ozone on Friday (around 5:30 Eastern/2:30 Pacific) and CJ Entus Blaze versus MVP Blue on Saturday (around 6:30 Eastern/3:30 Pacific). If you haven’t checked out the games already, be sure you try to catch them on the OnGameNet Twitch.TV channel. If you don’t catch them live, but still want to watch some extremely entertaining and high-level Korean League of Legends play, subscribe to the OGN Twitch channel for access to the VoDs.

As always, follow me @TiberiusAudley on Twitter, and keep an eye out for my next A Look Back!

Travis sits down with Xpecial (and MissFortune’s breasts) to discuss WildTurtle’s performance, being at the studio without Chaox, and more.

The rest of GameSpot’s LCS Coverage
Travis on Twitter
Travis on Facebook

News broke a little earlier today that Jang ‘Woong’ Gun-woong would be departing from CJ Entus Frost. It appears he is taking some form of break, however he may end up fully retiring from professional LoL, though he may return after a break. His replacement will be Kim ‘Hermes’ Kang-hwan, formerly of MVP Blue.

You can read the full announcement, in Korean, here

 

TSM announced today that Chaox, their AD carry, would be taking a short break from competitive League of Legends. For one week Jason “WildTurtle” Tran, already an official TSM sub, will be filling in for him.

http://www.twitch.tv/tsm_chaox
https://twitter.com/ChaoxLoL

 

 

The following LCS suspensions were announced by bitingpig for NA and EU players:

 

Suspensions

 

North American Pro Players
European Pro Players

 

Region: North America
Date: March 19, 2013
Subject: Elo-Boosting
Players/Coach:

 

• Brandon “Dontmashme” Phan
• Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black
• Samuel “Chuuper” Chu
• William “Meteos” Hartman
• ChengLong “NyJacky” Wang
• Keith “Phranq” Hunter
• Kennen “Rhux” Santos
• Jake “Xmithie” Puchero

 

 

Region: Europe
Date: March 19, 2013
Subject: Elo-Boosting
Players:

• Viktor “Cowtard” Stymne
• Jon “Jimbz“ Mangas Cayetano
• Dan “NeeGodBro” Van Vo
• Rim-Ramon “Nono” Amanieu
• Jérémy “ViRtU4l “ Petit
• Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim

 

 

Facts:
An investigation has determined that seven LCS NA players as well as six LCS EU players (and one NA coach) have been engaging in Elo-boosting. These violations occurred as early as the middle of Season Two and some have continued until recently.

Relevant Rules:
The Summoner’s Code establishes the standards of conduct for all League of Legends players and establishes the importance of exercising good sportsmanship and upholding principles of good behavior.

The League of Legends Terms of Use prohibits players from sharing, transferring, selling or trading user accounts and/or login credentials.

Definition of Elo-Boosting:
“Elo-boosting” is the repetitive and intentional act of an individual playing on someone else’s account (a “client”) for the purpose of artificially improving the client’s Elo rating. There is no minimum number of games required to be played, nor a minimum amount of Elo gain necessary to qualify as Elo-boosting. An attempt to boost Elo need not be successful in order to qualify as a rule violation.

The following also constitutes Elo-boosting:

• Playing on a less-skilled player’s account while the less-skilled player accompanies you in duo-queue games.

The following does not constitute Elo-boosting:

• Permanently transferring a high-Elo account to a less-skilled player. This is illegal, but it’s in the nature of account-sharing and/or account-selling, not account-boosting.

Analysis:
Elo-boosting damages the interests of players of all skill levels because it cheats the internal matchmaking system of League of Legends. Boosting leads to less-skilled players confronting a far superior opponent (the booster) and also leads to less-skilled clients being placed onto higher-skilled teams after the boost has been completed.

The NA investigation identified seven pro players and a team manager who played repeatedly on the accounts of their clients and boosted their Elo ratings. The most severe cases involved players boosting hundreds of games for a client; one player boosted a client a total of nearly 900 points.

The EU investigation identified six pro players who played repeatedly on the accounts of their clients and boosted their Elo ratings. The most severe cases involved players boosting more than 100 games for individual clients. Two different EU pros each lifted the Elo ratings of an individual client more than 800 points each.

There is no way to know whether an Elo-booster performed a boost for money or other consideration, but all boosts are viewed as wrong.

The individuals who are subject to this ruling are:

Penalties:
With respect to the pro players/coach named above and all of their clients, the Player Support / Player Behavior division has:

1. Issued 14-day suspensions of their accounts, effective immediately;
2. Revoked all Season Two rewards (see http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/season-2-rewards-and-ratings-changes).

In terms of LCS competition penalties, the pro players and coach named above are hereby given a final warning with regard to Elo-boosting. Any further infractions will result in a permanent account ban and corresponding penalties, as deemed appropriate by LCS.

 

Is Elo – Boosting bad practice?

 

Typically any method of progressing in a system by abusing some part of it is considered a violation and Riot has every right to pursue such players. Naturally, it allows players of a lesser skill level to reach a higher rating by paying for it, which some might view as a Pay-to-Win mechanic. However, being a MOBA game, League of Legends can hardly be considered such.

In games like Diablo III, for example, there is a clear line of progression and it’s possible that a person is boosted beyond his current skill level and stays there, due to how gear in that game works specifically. LoL, however, is pretty much safe in that regard. Since a boosted player gains no gameplay advantages by being placed in a rating he did not deserve, matchmaking will most likely punish him and return him to a division more fitting. In all strategy games skill is the primary factor; playing beyond your self- achieved rating is almost always temporary.

Elo-boosting is both a punishable offence and a somewhat understandable practice. Players who have achieved certain proficiency in the game will likely seek to turn this fact to profit and there will always be buyers for such favors. At the same time however, it devalues a system designed to put players in similar-skill environments. It’s only logical that the developing company won’t permit such exploits.

 

Hexo caught DDoS-ing

 

The manager of Good Game University, Hexo, was supposedly causing FXOpen e-Sports’s AD Carry ROBERTxLEE to be disconnected from his client, due to a DoS attack.

 

Date: March 19, 2013
Subject: Denial of Service Attacks
GM: Sam “Hexo” Bouchard

 

 

Facts:
In light of recent evidence regarding denial of service (DoS) attacks on players on the North American server, we investigated allegations that Good Game University (GGU) General Manager Sam “Hexo” Bouchard has engaged in this prohibited behavior.

An example:

• In a game last month, Hexo posted a message in all-chat implying that he was exploiting software to determine the IP address of a particular opponent, Robert “RobertXLee” Lee.
• Fourteen seconds later, a teammate of Hexo responded with the chat message, “Hit it.”
• A few seconds later, RobertXLee suffered a DoS attack which disconnected him from the game.
• After repeatedly attempting to reconnect to the game, RobertXLee eventually was able to rejoin the game in progress, where he was prejudiced by a noticeable disadvantage in creep score and experience.
• RobertXLee streamed the game live.
  • A video excerpt of the incident can be seen here; a longer excerpt can be seen here (at 9:07:28).
  • Screenshots are below.

For context on Hexo’s usual in-game behavior, his harassment rating is currently the worst of all LCS North American managers and players (including both starters and reserve players). No other North American pro player or manager has a higher harassment score.

Definition of “DoS Attack”:
A DoS attack (or a distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack, which is a particular type of DoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer unavailable to its intended user. The tactics vary, but generally consist of the interruption of services of a host connected to the internet.

In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing a targeted computer to reset, consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service, or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.

Relevant Rules:
The Summoner’s Code establishes the standards of behavior for all League of Legends players.

The League of Legends Terms of Use prohibits players from harassing, threatening or hacking/interfering with other players in the game.

Analysis:
There is very strong circumstantial evidence that Hexo has engaged in DoS activity against one or more LoL players. We will continue to monitor the situation and investigate allegations into this behavior, using all available internal and external data.

Any DoS activity represents a blatant and willful disregard of the letter and spirit of the Summoner’s Code and the League of Legends Terms of Use. Intentionally disconnecting a competitor from a game is the very definition of unsportsmanlike behavior and unfair play.

As an LCS team General Manager, Hexo has a responsibility to lead by example; the creation of even the appearance of being a DoS attacker is grossly inappropriate.

Ruling:
Hexo has violated the Summoner’s Code and the League of Legends Terms of Use by implicitly threatening to launch a DoS attack on another LoL player and may be guilty of the much more serious infraction of engaging in DoS attacks.

Penalties:
Hexo is hereby given a first and final warning regarding the issuance of threats of DoS attacks or the actual launching of DoS attacks. Any future such actions, or any confirmed past or future DoS attacks will result in a permanent account ban and corresponding competition penalties, as deemed appropriate by LCS.

Regarding DOS

As you understood from bitingpig‘s post, Hexo was caught using DoS to disconnect ROBERTxLEE, AD carry for FXOpen e-Sports. Such an action can only be punished and rightfully so. It’s worthy of mention, however, that the information surrounding this case is rather scarce. Having to rely on in-game chat as your main evidence seems like insufficient proof. Regardless, Hexo has been warned with a permanent ban should he attempt such a stunt again.

So what is a DoS (Denial of Service)? Typically this is a direct network attack from one IP to another and is aimed at halting the receiver’s access to the Internet, for all manner of reasons. Normally targets of DoS attacks are busy websites which prove more vulnerable. However it’s effective against hosts who have not defended their system from such intrusions. In Hexo’s alleged case it’s most likely a series of sent network packets that have led to ROBERTxLEE’s client to cease functioning.

 

What’s your opinion on Elo – boosting and DDOSing?