TL;DW – LTA North Edition: FLY Run Over DIG
Week 3, Day 3, last day of Best of One matches at LTA North, FLY vs DIG. FLY’s score is 5-1, while DIG is 1-5. FLY is playing on the blue side, DIG on the red side. The team roster for FLY is Bwipo (top), Inspire (jungle), Quad (mid), Massu (carry), and Busio (support). For DIG, the team is Srtty (top), Sheiden (jungle), Keine (mid), Tomo (carry), and Isles (support). For specifics regarding early, mid, and late game, see the Terms at the bottom of the page.
Champion Selection: Strong Offense vs. Slipper Defense
In the first round of bans, FLY removes Yone, Gwen, and Rumble, while DIG takes out Casseopia, Ryze, and Varus. First pick goes FLY, who chose Vi. DIG responds by securing Azir and Sejuani. FLY then picks Kalista and Renata, cementing their bot lane. The last pick before the second ban phase is Karma for DIG.
During the second ban phase, DIG continues to target the mid lane by taking out Taliyah and Ahri. In response, FLY tries to limit Tomo’s options by removing Ezreal and Caitlyn from the equation.
Returning to champion selection, DIG takes Ashe for Tomo. FLY chose Sylas and blind pick Sion. To answer the Sion, DIG decides on Aatrox. Based on the picks, FLY has opted for a heavy dive comp, designed to barrel in and start fights. DIG, on the other hand, seems to favor a peel comp with high mobility, CC, and protection.
Team comps are: FLY – Sion (top), Vi (jungle), Sylas (mid), Kalista (carry), Renata (support) vs. DIG – Aatrox (top), Sejuani (jungle), Azir (mid), Ashe (carry), Karma (support)
Early Game Highlights: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
The early game is primarily farming. No real major conflicts or kills. The most prominent event is that FLY decided to lane swap their top and bot, while DIG remains in their starting lanes.
When he changes lanes, Bwipo teleports deep into the lane and is chased back to his turret, but survives and does not suffer any negative consequences for his aggression.
The early game ends with Keine hitting level 6 first. No major conflicts started, or objectives taken. Gold is even and FLY is up in farm by a grand total of 1.
Mid Game Highlights: FLY Starting to Slow Pick Up Steam
Bwipo, in an attempt to interfere with the tempo of DIG’s bot lane, delays their recalls. This causes them to lose CS and puts them in a bad position later down the road.
Inspired takes the 1st Voidgrubs while Sheiden takes the 1st Drake (Ocean). After this, there is a significant period of inaction. Everyone just farms and postures. There is an attempted gank by Inspired against Tomo in bot lane, but he manages to Flash away in time to avoid it.
The first major fight occurs in top river. Three members of FLY (Inspired, Massu, and Busio) lay a trap for DIG. Unfortunately for him, Isles walks into it and gives over First Blood.
DIG attempts to take the 2nd Voidgrubs. They manage to get 1 before FLY interrupts them. In the ensuing fight, mid game enters late game due to time and FLY wins the fight 4-1. FLY is ahead in gold and farm at this point.
Late Game Highlights: An Avalanche Barrels Through LTA North
After the fight around Baron Pit, Inspired returns and takes the remaining 2 Voidgrubs. The score for Grubs is now 1 for DIG, 5 for FLY. Later, a scuffle over bot Scuttle Crab leads to a 2-1 fight in favor of DIG. After the fight, Sheiden takes the 2nd Drake (Mountain).
Bwipo takes the first turret in top lane. A little later, Inspired ganks Srtty with Quad. Despite a valiant effort and impressive Life Steal, Srtty dies, and Quad takes a second turret. In an attempt to start and fight to secure mid turret, Bwipo charges Tomo, who evades.
Several objectives are claimed by FLY in short order. Though Keine takes DIG’s first turret; Inspired takes Rift Herald, Massu, mostly, solos the 3rd Drake (FLY), FLY uses Herald to take both the outer and inner mid turrets (and kills Keine in the process), FLY then immediately go and take the Ruinous Atakhan, and, finally, Massu and Inspired take the 4th Drake (Cloud) while Bwipo blocks off DIG from interfering.
After all these objectives, and only 1 death, Srtty dies when he is caught out in red side top jungle and is chased down. After this, Tomo attempts to kill Quad in mid lane, hitting him with a point-blank Ashe Ult, but Quad survives, and FLY retaliates. Quad manages to kill Tomo, and then Isles, with the help of his team.
With Tomo and Isles down, FLY moves over and takes Baron. After this, DIG attempts to catch out Bwipo, but he survives, and FLY converges upon him to help. The ensuing fight goes 3-0 for FLY who, off the back of it, break open DIG’s base and end the game. The final kill count is 14-3 for FLY.
Post Game Analysis: The Rolling Snowball Buries All
FLY ends that game at 27:45 with a gold lead of 12.1k. This means that FLY is now 6-1 and DIG is 1-6 (how’s that for mirrored scoring). Both teams spent the majority of the early and mid-game farming and gathering steam. Unfortunately for DIG, FLY was far better at capitalizing on openings, and once they started rolling, they just didn’t stop.
FLY’s map control was far superior during the late game, as demonstrated by the number of objects they were able to take in quick succession. Once they cemented their grip on the game, they held on fast and refused to let go until they were victorious.
Neither team’s positions in the ranks change after this match. While ahead of C9 in wins, for the moment, if C9 manages to win their next game, they will still be the number 1 team because of their win over FLY. As for DIG, even if DSG wins their game, they would have a tied score, but DIG will still be ahead for the same reason as C9.
Terms
Early Game: Any time before 6 minutes, first outer tower down, or first level 6 (whichever comes first)
Mid Game: Between early game and either 15 minutes, 2 inner towns down, half the players are level 11, or 3rd dragon killed.
Late Game: Any time after mid-game.
