NALCS 2018 Week Three Summer Split Recap

S.Samek

WE move on to week three of the NALCS. Here’s the recaps of the action.

Cloud 9 and TSM led off the day one action. This is a rivalry match between two of NA’s mainstay franchises. Also of note Cloud 9 bought back Jensen and Smoothie from academy for this week’s matches.

The decision looked like it would pay off as C9 scored first blood. Yet A bit late TSM was able to get two kills back to tie it up. Both teams traded blows and it was tied 12-12 in kills at 30 minutes. Then 10 minutes later TSM found an ace that secured them an opportunity to take the c9 base and the win. Jensen and Smoothie both made impacts despite the loss, with Jensen having eight kills and Smoothie chipping in 10 assists. TSM’s Zven added eight kills of his own with Varus in the win.

Liquid and Echo Fox matched up next. This matchup was pretty much the Doublelift show. The adc/bot lanner used Xayah to rack up a game high 11 kills. Pobelter used an Irelia to rack up eight kills himself for Liquid. Both individual efforts were higher than Echo Fox’s seven kills as a team. The duo each picked up a triple kill as well during the course of the match, as Echo Fox just couldn’t overcome the dominance of Liquid.

100 Thieves and Clutch in a battle of red and black jerseys was up next. This one was a long game. It went 51 minutes. The score for this type of match seemed a bit one sided as well with 100 Thieves winning kills 22-11. This was thanks to a 3-0 team fight in the Clutch base that procured the win for 100. Yet as I said it was bit one sided for such a long game.

Golden Guardians and Flyquest were next on the rift. GG scored the opening kill, but Flyquest started a furious comeback after that. Flyquest held an 8-3 led at 15 minutes and snowballed it from there. Kenne played a great Galio going 6/0/6 and scoring a clutch triple kill that helped Flyquest take the base and win the game.

Optic and CLG ended day one’s action. This was a back and forth battle as 13 minutes in Optic held a 4-3 kill led, yet was down one thousand gold. At 24:30 the match took a turn in CLG’s favor as they scored a 4-1 team fight win. Hey then we able to work with the led and take the win about 37 minutes into the game. Huhi played Lissandra and finished with seven kills to pace CLG, while Stixxay chipped in four kills of his own in the victory.

Day two started with TSM and Golden Guardians. Golden Guardians struck first blood for the second match in a row. However the advantage wasn’t to last. Grig scored two kills for TSM and the rally was on. TSM rolled to easy victory in this one. Zven had six kills, including a big triple kill at 24 minutes, Bjergson had four kills with one death using Darius. The win caps off a 2-0 weekend for TSM. I would keep an eye on Grig, he seems to be making a name for himself with his strong play throughout the first three weeks of the split.

Team Liquid and Clutch were up next. It was a back and forth game for 12 minutes, then Clutch was able to start distancing themselves from Liquid. Team fights led to a gold led snowball, highlighted by a 4-0 team fight in front of baron leading to a massive Clutch advantage and ultimately the win. Apollo netted half of Clutches kills with six to carry the team.

100 Thieves and Optic played next. This was a one-sided game from the start. 100 Thieves just racked up kills and gold and won easily. Cody Sun was top player for 100 n this game with five kills and four assists.

Cloud 9 and Echo Fox had the next to last match for the week. This one lasted a while, but was full of action. Kills and gold trade hands consistently throughout the match. Each team also had a successful base defense to further escalate the action. Yet in the end Echo Fox pushed past C9. Also of note was a Penta kill by Altec on Lucian for Echo Fox that served as a turning point in the match.

CLG and Flyquest ended the week. CLG held the god lead while Flyquest was up in kills. Yet eventually Flyquest was able to gain a led they would never give up and take a victory. Santorin had a 10 kill game for Flyquest and Keane added five more to pace Flyquest.

Lots of excitement this week. Can’t wait to see what happens during week four, after a week off for Rift Rivals.