TL;DW – LTA North Edition: TL Pull It Out In the End Against SR in Game 2
Week 7, Day 2 of the LTA North Split 2. TL vs SR. SR is on Blue, TL is on Red. TL’s roster is Impact (top), Yuuji (jungle), APA (mid), Yeon (bot), and CoreJJ (support). SR’s roster is Fudge (top), Contractz (jungle), Palafox (mid), Bvoy (bot), and Ceos (support). TL is 2-1, SR is 1-2. TL won the 1st game. For more information on what early, mid, and late game means, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Hmm, Interesting
Kalista, Vi, Azir, Yone, Yorick, and Naafiri are banned right off the bat.
SR takes Varus as their first pick. TL grab Ezreal and Neeko. SR responds with Jayce and Nautilus. TL counter with Sion.
During the 2nd ban phase, Gwen, Braum, Sejuani, and Nocturne are taken off the table.
TL starts up the 2nd pick phase by grabbing Viego. SR lock in Galio and Kha’Zix. TL rounds out their team with Rell. SR has a lot of poke and pick potential with their team, while TL is more team fight oriented with a little bit of split-pushing on the side.
Team comps are: SR – Jayce (top), Kha’Zix (jungle), Galio (mid), Varus (bot), Nautilus (support) vs TL – Sion (top), Viego (jungle), Neeko (mid), Ezreal (bot), Rell (support).
Early Game Highlights: SR gets the Objectives, but TL Gets the Kills
Unlikes game 1, this game starts off without any major incidents. Just farming.
APA almost kills Palafox in Mid Lane. He gets knocked down to 4 HP and only survives because of his Potion. While APA didn’t get the kill, he did make Palafox burn his Flash.
Contractz starts up the 1st Drake (Cloud) with Ceos. TL have no direct vision of this, but Yuuji does move over to the banana bush to clear out a Control Ward. He gets hooked by Ceos and jumped on by Contractz. Yuuji Flashes away and survives but has to retreat. SR returns to the objective and take it.
Yuuji gets caught out by Contractz in Blue Side Top Jungle. He manages to get away before Palafox can Knock him up with Hero’s Entrance. APA comes over and Snares Palafox. Fudge walks up from Bot Lane and deals a large amount of damage to APA.
SR try to take him out but Impact barrels in with Unstoppable Onslaught, dealing a large amount of damage to both Palafox and Contractz. This allows APA to take out Contractz for 1st Blood of the game. He then uses Pop Blossom to knock up Fudge, which gives Yuuji the chance to kill him. Impact and Yuuji chase after Palafox, but he gets away. The fight goes 2-0 for TL.
Bvoy and Ceos try to bait Yeon and CoreJJ in Top Lane, but Ceos misses his almost point-blank hook, and nothing comes of it.
Contractz takes Voidgrubs uncontested.
Early game ends with TL leading in gold by 1.1k and also leading in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: The Age Old Question, Turrets or Kills?
Impact barrels down Bot Lane with his Unstoppable Onslaught, forcing Fudge to Flash. He then has to walk back up lane, with Fudge shooting at him the entire time. He manages to get back under his own Turret and survive (barely).
APA Teleports to Bot Lane, Tri-Bush, and towers dives Fudge. He gets the kill.
TL start up the 2nd Drake (Ocean). SR hover around. As the Drake gets low, TL starts to break off, giving Contractz the opportunity to jumps in and Steal it. With most of TL away from the pit, Contractz is able to get away. Ceos, however, gets caught out by TL and gets chased down and killed by Rell.
Down in Bot Lane, Impact and Yuuji dive onto Fudge. They chase him pass the Outer Turret and halfway to the Inner Turret before Yuuji finally secures the kill.
Contractz starts up Rift Herald on spawn. Ceos and Bvoy hover around to provide protection. CoreJJ moves in to check what’s happening. This time Ceos lands his hook. All 3 members of SR jump on CoreJJ, with Bvoy getting the kill. SR also secures the Rift Herald, though Yeon almost Steals it. TL meanwhile claims First Turret of the game in Bot Lane.
As the 3rd Drake (Infernal) spawns, TL, who were hiding in the Lower Mid Bush, jump onto Ceos and destroy him (Impact gets the credit). They then turn and take the 3rd Drake. Meanwhile, in Top Lane, Fudge takes his team’s first Turret. SR also drops Rift Herald in Top Lane and uses it to take the Inner Top Turret.
Mid-game ends with TL still retaining leads in both farm and gold. They are now 1.5k up.
Late Game Highlights: LTA North is Scrappy
Contractz gets caught out and exploded by APA in Red Side Bot Jungle. Palafox dives in to try and save him, but is too late. He does Knock-Up several members of TL, allowing Bvoy to move in and kill CoreJJ. Ceos hits a hook onto APA, which leads to his death (Ceos gets credit). Everyone backs off. Fight goes 2-1 for SR.
TL starts up the Atakhan. SR tried to intervene. They skirmish. Palafox takes too much damage and dies to APA. SR starts to retreat, and TL chases after them. Impact gets killed by Bvoy during the chase.
TL, however, still manages to come out ahead with Yeon killing Fudge, APA killing Contractz (before he dies to Bvoy), and Yuuji killing Bvoy and Ceos for the ACE. Fight goes 5-2 for TL, who return to the Atakhan and secure it.
Palafox is caught out in the Red Side Bot Jungle and killed by Yuuji.
As Yuuji starts up the 4th Drake, SR tries to pick off a member of TL. Unfortunately for them, they engage with Impact, who just uses his Ultimate to get away. With SR distracted by the rest of TL in Mid Lane, Yuuji takes the Drake uncontested.
Contractz attempts to jump onto Yeon but fails miserably and is pushed away. Palafox gets caught out of position and is chased down by TL. He and Ceos bot get Knocked-Up by CoreJJ, which allows Yuuji to kill him. Contractz tries to come in from behind but gets pushed away again.
APA and Yuuji continue to chase after SR. APA Flashes on top of Ceos and Bvoy and Knocks them both up with Pop Blossom. Yuuji rushes in too. APA ends up killing Ceos, while Yuuji takes out Bvoy. Both Fudge and Contractz get away, so the fight goes 3-0 for TL. They immediately head over to Baron and take the objective.
While TL attacks the 5th Drake, CoreJJ gets caught out in Red Side Bot Lane and killed by Ceos. TL peel of the Drake to chase after SR. Yuuji manages to kill Fudge, but not before Fudge inflicts enough damage to Yeon that he dies afterwards.
TL continues to look for kills, with Yuuji taking down Ceos and then Bvoy. He and Impact then go back and take the 5th Drake. Fight goes 3-2 for TL.
Contractz, with Palafox as backup, jumps onto APA. Palafox kills APA , but APA kills Contractz.
As TL sieges SR’s Base Top Turret, Ceos lands a hook onto CoreJJ but almost dies because of it. He gets away initially, but as he runs back to the fountain, Yeon kills him with Trueshot Barrage.
TL switch over to Base Mid Turret. After some skirmishing, they take it and Mid Inhibitor. TL tries to get a few kills but are unsuccessful, so they leave.
As TL pushes SR back down Mid Lane, Impact comes in from behind them with Unstoppable Onslaught. Despite the massive amount of CC they are hit with, however, SR weather the storm and retaliate. Fudge kills Yuuji, and Contractz takes down CoreJJ.
And then APA comes in and hits a 4-man Pop Blossom. Bvoy, Fudge, and Palafox all get low, while Ceos is killed outright. APA then immediately takes down Bvoy before he even lands. Yeon, meanwhile, duels and takes out Palafox before Arcane Shifting forward and killing Contractz as well. Fight goes 4-2 for TL.
TL immediately heads straight for SR’s Nexus Turrets. Fudge, who survived and backed, tries to defend, but he gets knocked up by Impact and evaporated by Yeon. With no one up from SR, TL closes out the game.
Post Game Analysis: A Glimmer of Hope Quickly Dashed
TL ends the game at 34:28 with a gold lead of 8.3k. The final score was 26-10 in TL’s favor.
Let’s be blunt, the Kha’Zix didn’t work. This is not a commentary on using the champion overall, merely an observation that, in this specific game, the elements did not come together. Contractz was unable to assassinate anyone. What’s worse, one of the times he tried, not only did he get pushed away, but his team got routed as well.
The lockout of Kha’Zix was not the only issue that SR had. There were several misplays, such as Ceos missing a hook in Top Lane, multiple members of SR getting caught out several times, and quite a few bad engages.
While both teams will be moving on, this game and the one before it highlights the gap in skill and experience between them. If SR are going to try niche or unconventional picks, they need to invest the resources to make sure it’s actually successful. Getting objectives is great, but if you have an assassin Jungler, you need to feed them some kills.
Terms
Early Game: Any time before 10 minutes, first outer tower down, or first level 10 (whichever comes first).
Mid Game: Between early game and either 20 minutes, 2 inner towns down, half the players are level 16, or 3rd dragon killed.
Late Game: Any time after mid-game.
