Today’s LTA North matches brought a lot of variety, being the first best of five of the split. While FlyQuest kept things straightforward, we saw Dr. Mundo Jungle from Contractz during the last match of the day. The series went long, marking itself as the single longest 3-0 victory in North American League of Legends history
FlyQuest vs. Shopify Rebellion
Game 1:
A couple of ganks happened early, but neither team was quite able to take a kill. On his second visit topside,
Kacper "Inspired" Słoma was able to take down
Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami with a long-range Pantheon spear. FlyQuest tried their best to take down the Void Grubs, but could only take down one of them before losing the rest. Shopify Rebellion initiated a teamfight at the pit, going one-for-one. FlyQuest earned the Feat of Warfare.
FlyQuest took Hextech Drake without contest. Chained CC from
Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau took down Fudge once again following another gank from Inspired.
Juan "Contractz" Garcia invaded FLY’s jungle as Inspired and
Fahad "Massu" Abdulmalek took down Rift Herald. Shortly after, Inspired ulted and
Song "Quad" Soo-hyung teleported topside to turn what started as a 2v1 favoring Shopify Rebellion into an eventual 5v3 once everyone rotated. SR unfortunately walked away with no kills.
Rift Herald was sent down mid as Flyquest continued chasing Shopify Rebellion under their turrets, losing no members. Another two drakes and Atakhan went over to FLY with little contest. Two members of Shopify Rebellion fell in the fight that followed right after. Moments later, SR bit back and won an extended trade, nearly acing FlyQuest. While FLY’s lead was far from completely erased, it was almost halved.
On the rebound, FlyQuest took Chemtech Soul and started engaging onto Shopify Rebellion. The teamfight was full of non-stop crowd control ult combos, giving FLY a clean ace in just 3-4 seconds. They rushed Shopify Rebellion’s base, taking the game in a decisive push as five.
Game 2:
First Blood went to FlyQuest following a four-man dive botside. FLY went for the early Drake, but Contractz was able to hold them off of the objective. Contractz soloed all three of the Void Grubs, but that bit of momentum did not carry over into the next fight at the Drake Pit. Shopify Rebellion was able to take their first kill, but gave two more over to FLY. With two more kills in hand, FlyQuest took the Feat of Warfare and the Hextech Drake.
Contractz ganked up topside, getting Shopify Rebellion’s second kill off of Bwipo. A three-man run topside took down Bwipo once again, and the kill score was tied. SR put in major damage on the topside turret, giving them the Feat of the First Turret.
FlyQuest was able to claim the second Drake of the game as Cristian "Palafox" Palafox pushed top before getting caught out. All of FLY was topside for a teamfight that ended 1-1. Shopify Rebellion summoned the Rift Herald mid, but was not able to get much gold value off of it. FLY’s midlane turret did fall shortly after.
A teamfight topside saw
Denilson "Ceos" Oliveira escaping just by the skin of his teeth, before Shopify Rebellion was able to shred through FlyQuest’s defenses. The fighting didn’t stop, as a teamfight started up mid, favoring SR three-for-two. As Shopify went for Baron, they were able to get some key picks, taking down Bwipo and Massu before securing the objective. SR started stacking dragons, picking up a third Cloud Drake in a row. Now, Shopify had a sizable gold advantage and looked poised to upset Game Two.
Baron went to Shopify Rebellion, and the teamfight right after had no casualties. SR tried shoving into FlyQuest’s base, but were unable to end the game there. In a 5v5 topside, FLY managed to take out three members of SR, a huge teamfight win cutting SR's gold lead nearly back to even, and setting up a push down topside as three. A fight broke out at Baron pit once again, and the teams exchanged blows, going two-for-two, with both junglers falling first. Baron went to Shopify Rebellion once again, now possessing both the baron buff and Cloud Soul.
A fight at Elder Drake broke out, and FlyQuest was able to win the 4v4 along with the objective, securing three kills. Even though Shopify Rebellion had a near 7k gold lead, the tides turned as Massu’s Senna scaled further and further, taking out Ju "Bvoy" Yeong-hoon from afar in the crucial fight. FLY took their first Baron, and the fight after took out Contractz just as the next Elder Drake came up.
With Elder and Baron Buffs in tow, FlyQuest was able to push into Shopify Rebellion’s base and finish the comeback in a long, drawn-out 51-minute brawl.
Game 3:
The early game was far from calm, but there were no casualties despite the sheer amount of flashes spent within the first ten minutes. Shopify Rebellion was able to take Cloud Drake, but Inspired got all three of the Void Grubs. Just after the ten-minute mark, first blood was secured topside by Palafox in a gank onto topside.
A second kill went to Shopify Rebellion mid, following 4v3 skirmish at FlyQuest’s turret. Inspired took FlyQuest’s first Drake of the game, and a skirmish in topside river gave SR the last kill they needed for the Feat of Warfare. They also took First Turret, giving Shopify Rebellion the Feats of Strength boot buff.
Shopify Rebellion took the third Drake of the game, but ultimately ended up losing the extended teamfight. Bwipo teleported in and instantly got charmed, but Fudge was taken out of the picture too soon. Massu got both of FlyQuest’s first two kills.
A shockwave from Palafox put Massu in dire straits, and Shopify Rebellion was able to take Atakhan. FlyQuest made a daring run for Baron, but ultimately had to abandon it, thanks to Fudge ulting in. Baron was started again by SR, and the teamfight was looking great for them. Inspired fell early, and Bwipo did not last much longer, but aggressive play from Massu's Lucian allowed FLY to win out in the end, acing SR.
An Infernal Drake went over to FlyQuest, keeping Shopify Rebellion at Soul Point. A teamfight in mid left FLY without an ADC. The fight continued, but there were no further casualties. A deep engage from Bwipo tried to extend the skirmish, but nobody fell after the initial teamfight.
FlyQuest took another Infernal Drake, putting both teams at Soul Point as Baron got started. A fight broke out, and Massu fell quickly. Bwipo took the reins and decided to dive deep again, taking down Palafox in a crucial flank as Quad eliminated Bvoy. Just as the fight ended, another started, but no one died.
SR went and started the Baron yet again, but lost it to a key smite steal from Inspired. FLY followed this up with a teamfight win in botlane, pushing through as four for the end, forced to retreat at Nexus turrets. The teams clashed again in botside jungle, but Massu finished off the last Infernal Drake of the game, giving FlyQuest the Infernal Soul. FLY took the next Baron Nashor quickly and shoved in top and mid. Shopify Rebellion’s defense was strong, but the damage from FlyQuest was stronger. The game would still not end there, but all turrets protecting the SR Nexus got removed.
One more push later, FlyQuest claimed a long, hard-fought, yet clean victory 3-0.
Wrapping Up
With today’s matches completed, Shopify Rebellion might be down, but they’re not quite out yet. We will see them back on June 1st vs. 100 Thieves for a potential lower-bracket run. FlyQuest continued their domination, despite their games taking a bit longer than usual, and we’ll see them back on June 7th for the upper bracket finals.
Tomorrow, we’ll be back for the Cloud9 Kia vs. Team Liquid Bo5. Stay tuned!
Photo Credit: Riot Games // LTA North via Flickr
