Today's games had it all—from expected wins to some insane upsets. Every team had their moments. With two days of play this week already behind the region's teams, what more could we expect heading into today's matchups? The stakes were high, but the hype was higher.
Your winners today: FlyQuest, Cloud9, Disguised, and 100 Thieves.
Dignitas had a standout performance yesterday against Disguised, claiming their first win of the split. The team hoped to bring the momentum to their match against FlyQuest, one of the top-performing teams in North America, but their opponents' scrappy teamfight-focused comp proved too much to handle.
The early game was full of back-and-forth; FlyQuest secured Void Grubs while Dignitas grabbed Ocean Drake, and no kills were traded in the early laning phase. Just before the 10-minute mark, a clean gank by
Kacper “Inspired” Słoma and a clutch Rend from
Fahad “Massu” Abdulmalek netted FlyQuest First Blood in topside.
A chaotic teamfight erupted at the second batch of Void Grubs. Dignitas claimed one before a massive teamfight broke out, resulting in five deaths. A huge Renata ult from Alan "Busio" Cwalina ripped the teamfight in two, giving FlyQuest the Feat of Warfare.
Dignitas struck back at Drake Pit, with a huge double kill from
Frank “Tomo” Lam turning their pressure, and allowing them to secure their second dragon of the game. FlyQuest claimed first turret and locked in the Feats of Strength.
FlyQuest halted Dignitas’ dragon stacking, claiming the third for themselves, then used the Rift Herald to break open midlane—getting a quick kill on
Kim “Keine” Joon-cheol and taking down Dignitas’ tier two turret. FlyQuest continued scrapping across the top side of the map, secured Baron, grouped mid, and closed out the game in a commanding 14-3 victory over Dignitas.
After this match: FlyQuest (6-1) // Dignitas (1-6)
Yesterday, Cloud9 looked sharp in their win over FlyQuest—and they kept the momentum going with a surgical performance against LYON.
Robert “Blaber” Huang’s early jungle pressure and objective control laid the foundation for a textbook victory, keeping the team fed with gold and buffs.
Cloud9 started the game with two daring invades, stealing both Red and Blue buff from LYON. Then, a flash over the wall from Blaber to follow Kang "Saint" Sung-in secured First Blood for Cloud9. A well-coordinated behind-the-turret gank secured two more kills and the Feat of Warfare for Cloud9, pushing their gold lead in the early game.
Another scrap in botside jungle lead to two more kills to Cloud9. Cloud9 Prioritized objectives, claiming kill after kill and every objective through the 15 minute mark, choking out LYON with a near 4k gold lead at 15 minutes in. LYON could not stop the snowball.
Cloud9 won a 4v5 in jungle despite being outnumbered, pushing turrets and claiming the middle inhibitor before fighting a crushing 4v4 at Baron.
Park “Thanatos” Seung-gyu rushed LYON’s base solo, securing the win with a clean-cut shove down Mid as the rest of Cloud9 came to join him.
After this match: Cloud9 Kia (6-1) // Lyon (3-4)
The game was scrappy from the start, with a crazy Flash+W engage from
CoreJJ securing first blood for
Sean “Yeon” Sung botside. A gank by
Lawrence “Exyu” Xu followed shortly after and
Jeremiah “ScaryJerry” Leathe put DSG on the board to even the score. A sneaky Neeko minion-form gank by
Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun and a Flash engage topside gave DSG their second kill of the game.
Disguised pressured early objectives, grabbing the first Drake of the game while UmTi grabbed Void Grubs. DSG claimed the third kill of the game, claiming the Feat of Warfare. Neither team having yet claimed a turret,
Eain “APA” Stearns rushed one botside. Disguised got cornered in a skirmish top river, and Team Liquid pulled through in the Feats of Strength battle after killing Rift Herald.
A huge teamfight broke out shortly after near the Drake Pit, with DSG getting three kills to TL’s two. After recalling, the skirmish continued to Atakhan, with Disguised claiming the objective, but ultimately losing the teamfight, thanks to some insane Conqueror stacks on Team Liquid’s side. It looked like TL may have stopped the bleed, but Disguised had other plans.
Disguised rushed Baron, still ahead in kills, and picked up a slim gold lead, which quickly turned into a snowball into the late game. Disguised scrapped between objectives, shoving turret and grabbing a second Baron, shoving down top and mid to victory, claiming their first victory of the Split.
After this match: Disguised (1-6) // Team Liquid (4-3)
100 Thieves and Shopify Rebellion were both hungry for victory today, pulling out all the stops to secure early kills. These teams had something to prove—and 100T delivered. The Feat of Warfare went out before First Drake, and both of these teams were dying for a chance at early game objective priority.
Before any objectives had been secured, 100 Thieves secured First Blood, with
Cristian "Palafox" Palafox shuffling
Kim “River” Dong-woo straight into a long-range dive from
Juan “Contractz” Garcia's Naafiri. The conversion to Void Grubs was simple. A sneaky Teleport by
Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami turned the tides on the skirmish in botside river, giving Shopify Rebellion the Feat of Warfare, but the drake went to 100T. The second group of Void Grubs went to Shopify Rebellion, and things were looking pretty even.
The teams scrapped across the map, usually killing a trade or two without any major losses on either side, until the fight at Atakhan. While 100 Thieves worked on taking the objective, Shopify Rebellion flanked from botside tribrush, getting important picks on
Bill “Eyla” Nguyen and
Victor “FBI” Huang. 100T grabbed Atakhan. At a huge skirmish for Baron, all five members of 100T lost their Atakhan revives and the pressure was reset. They tried again, this time successfully clearing the objective.
100T claimed the second Chemtech drake while sieging bot and mid. Fights broke out in botside river as 100T’s minions shoved mid inhibitor. River rushed the team’s second Baron, leading to SR being aced, and 100 Thieves pushing to victory down mid.
After this match: 100 Thieves (5-2) // Shopify Rebellion (2-5)
Until Next Week!
This week had almost every kind of game imaginable—everything from full-on stomps, to almost surgically planned out slow burns. FlyQuest proved they still had their skill, Cloud9 looked sharp as ever, and Disguised finally broke the curse of the bottom four. Every team had great plays throughout the day, but in the end, the snowball can’t always be stopped. Between unexpected upsets and clean wins, the split’s starting to shake out. If these games were any indication, though, nothing’s set in stone quite yet.
Header Image Credit: LTA/Riot Games on Flickr
