S.Samek

Week five NALCS Let’s go.

Leading off we have Echo Fox and 100 Thieves. The big play that swung this one was a 4-0 team fight won by 100 at the 15 minute mark. This gave them a kill advantage that they used to secure objectives to keep snowballing the led. Then at the 31 minute mark 100 broke the Nexus to win the match.

Cloud 9 and Team Liquid was next to play. C9 continues to shakeup the roster, this time by adding Blabber in the jungle to replace Svenskeron. They stayed toe to toe with Liquid, though had a two kill deficient at 25 and a half minutes. Then Licorice stepped in tied it up and took C9 to a baron. The play gave them enough firepower to defeat NA’s top team from last split. Licorice had seven kills with Poppy in the victory, while Blabber went 2/3/7 on Kindred in his first action of summer 2018.

TSM challenged Optic next. TSM and Optic stayed even early. Yet TSM build up a lead. Then a 4-0 team fight went the way of Optic, who then took a baron and rolled toward the base. They then denied a base defense and took the win. Power of Evil leading the charge with seven of Optic’s 11 kills.

Golden Guardians and CLG met next. Golden Guardians held a 9-5 kill lead with a five thousand gold lead at 25 minutes. The lead continued to escalate as the Guardians were pushing base at 30 minutes. It only took an additional two minutes as GG took the rest of the base for the win. Deftly finished with a perfect kda as Heimerdinger, while Mickey also impressed with his midlane Talon play to help secure the win.

Flyquest and Clutch ended day one. This match was neck and neck. At 20 minutes Flyquest scored a 3-0 to go ahead 7-6, then shortly a 1-1 trade would occur as Flyquest then takes a baron. Flyquest held an 11-8 kill and five thousand gold lead at 29 minutes, but Clutch was able to score a pair of kills. Yet Flyquest took baron and Wildturtle scored a triple kill to put his team up 15-11 at the half hour mark. Then the snowball kept pilling as Flyquest took the victory. Wildturtle racked up 11 kills matching the total of Clutch gaming. Refreshing to see Turtle have a strong showing and keep himself relevant.

Optic and C9 met up to start day two. Optic starts the coring with an early 3-0. Then it snowballed into a major lead of 13-3 at 24 minutes. Then an ace seven minutes later extended the led to 22-8. That was all they needed as optic shutdown Cloud 9. Arrow and PowerofEvil had 20 of 22 kills for Optic and looked sharp as a duo. Sneaky and Blabber had three kills apiece for c9 while Jenson had the other two.

Flyquest and 100 Thieves met second on day two. 100 held a 3-0 led and secured first tower 11 minutes in. At 20 minutes the led swelled to 8-1, five thousand gold and multiple towers. The battle ranged on and 100 kept the lead at the 30 minute mark 11-5. A kill by Wildturtle kept the base alive so for the moment and got the score to 11-6. The led didn’t matter has both team entered a base race at the 32 minute mark. A quick blink of the eye later and it was Flyquest stealing this one from 100 Thieves.

Team Liquid and CLG battled third on day two. Liquid started the scoring eight minutes in with a dive to get first blood and a chunk of the first middle turret. Liquid and CLG each exchanged a kill 16 minutes in while the gold continued to favor liquid. CLG then got a 2-0 in the jungle to take a kill led 3-2 at 18 minutes. Six minutes later a skirmish at the 24 minute mark went the way of TL to put them back in the kill lead at 6-4. A 3-0 at 26 minutes put TL in the driver seat for good as they rolled to the nexus and a win.

Clutch faced off against TSM next. It took 15 minutes to get first blood on the board. Then TSM and Clutch each took a kill to make it 2-1 TSM. TSM then traded a 2-0 for the rift herald at 20 minutes, but Clutch held the gold lead. TSM changed that with a baron and an ace that they turned on to turrets. TSM then charged onto the base. After a bit of stalling TSM was able to knock down the nexus and win 17-4. Bjergsen led the way with nine kills and no deaths, in the TSM massacre.

Week five ended with Echo Fox and Golden Guardians. Fox took first blood, but Guardians struck back evening the score. Then the Guardians helped themselves to two more kills and a 3-1 lead. Fox held the gold lead at 15 minutes despite the kills’ disadvantage. Then Contractz took over with his Nocturne and rolled the lead to 7-2. Then at 25 minutes the lead held at 9-4, yet Fox held a two thousand gold lead. Fox then moved towards base as the gold lead is extended.

At 31 minutes Fox held a six thousand gold lead despite an 11-5 kill disadvantage. Then Dardoch scored a triple kill, and Demonte added another and they set their eyes on the base. Fox then took out all the structures to score a victory and keep themselves in a packed race for first. Dardoch had seven of 10 Echo Fox kills and continues to be a leader for the team. I just really enjoy watching him play.

Wow did this week give us a lot of everything. From easy wins to close battles and star performances this week didn’t disappoint.