TL;DW – LTA North Edition: Shock Outcoming for FLY vs SR Game 2
Week 8, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. FLY vs SR. SR is on Blue, FLY is on Red. FLY’s roster is Bwipo (top), Inspired (jungle), Quad (mid), Massu (bot), and Busio (support). SR roster is Fudge (top), Contractz (jungle), Palafox (mid), Bvoy (bot), and Ceos (support). FLY won Game 1. For more information on what early, mid, and late game means, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Ghouls vs Souls
1st ban phase sees Neeko, Yone, Gwen, Vi, Casseopia, and Renekton taken off the table.
SR starts things off by taking Azir. FLY grabs Taliyah and Xin Zhao. SR then pick Skarner and Ezreal. FLY closes out the 1st set of picks with Senna.
The Support roster takes a hit in the 2nd ban phase as Bard, Nautilus, Karma, and Olaf are exiled.
Coming back into champion selection, FLY choose Rell off the bat. Leona and Yorick locked by SR to finish out their team. FLY, in response, decide on Mordekaiser. Both teams draft strong team fighting comps. SR has more split-pushing with Yorick, while FLY can single out a target with Mordekaiser.
Team comps are: SR – Yorick (top), Skarner (jungle), Azir (mid), Ezreal (bot), Leona (support) vs FLY – Mordekaiser (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Taliyah (mid), Senna (bot), Rell (support).
Early Game Highlights: FLY Takes an Early Lead
FLY wins the vision war at the start of the game as they invade and ward both SR’s Blue and Red.
Contractz goes Top and ganks Bwipo, who looked to be heading into the Top River to ward. Bwipo gets knocked into the wall and has to Flash out of Fudge cage to survive. Seeing this, the remaining members of FLY tower dive Bvoy and Ceos Bot Lane. Ceos dies to Quad for 1st Blood of the Game.
FLY starts up the 1st Drake (Hextech) but back off as SR come in. in the ensuing fight/chase Quad and Bsuio both get very low but manage to disengage. SR don’t get any kills but are able to stop FLY from taking the objective.
SR start up and take the Voidgrubs uncontested.
FLY starts up the Drake again. SR comes in. A fight breaks out. Contractz manages to Impale 2 members of FLY. There isn’t much damage though. Eventually Quad dies to Contractz, who dies immediately afterwards to Inspired.
Ceos dies to Massu as he attempts to retreat. Palafox and Bvoy get away and FLY return to the Drake and take it. Fight goes 2-1 for FLY. While this is all happening, Fudge and Bwipo both remain in Top Lane, duking it out with each other.
Early game ends with FLY ahead in gold by 1.3k and also ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: SR Fight Back
In Top Lane, Bwipo drags Fudge into the Death Realm. Fudge manages to survive long enough for the ability to expire and for Contractz to arrive. Together they kill Bwipo, with Contractz getting the kill.
Contractz goes Top again, ganking Bwipo under Turret. Bwipo survives thanks to the Shield from Massu’s Dawning Shadow. SR initially back off but then reengage as Palafox and Ceos arrive. The dive Bwipo under Turret and with nothing left to save him, he dies to Palafox. Of this kill, SR take the 1st Turret of the game.
Fudge goes Bot and manages to catch Quad in his cage and kills him 1v1.
FLY take the 2nd Drake (Ocean) uncontested, with SR opting to trade it for Rift Herald. While this is happening Bwipo goes Top and chases Palafox (who was attacking the Inner Top Turret) down the lane. Palafox manages to survive for a significant amount of time but FLY are able to get themselves to the lane after than SR. Palafox dies to Inspired.
SR arrives and Contractz goes in and Impales 2. Contractz kills Bwipo but takes too much damage and dies to Massu. Fight goes 2-1 for FLY. Meanwhile Fudge is in the Bot Lane beating up the Inner Turret.
SR drop Rift Herald in Mid and deal a massive chunk of damage to the Outer Mid Turret. Contractz doesn’t hit anyone with his Ultimate so SR have to back off.
Mid Game ends with SR now ahead in gold by 1.3k but FLY still ahead in farm.
Late Game Highlights: An Amazing Come Back in LTA North
SR takes the 3rd Drake (Cloud) uncontested and then move over and take Atakhan, also uncontested. FLY had no vision of the area to warn them.
As Bwipo and Fudge get into a 1v1 fight in Top Lane, a team fight breaks out in Blue Side Bot Jungle. Ceos gets very low but manages to escape. Inspired also gets low but doesn’t manage to get away, dying to Palafox. Contractz then kills Massu.
Meanwhile, Quad rides his Weaver’s Wall up top and helps Bwipo take down Fudge. They then head to join the other fight, which has now spilled into Top River. Before they get there, Busio dies to Contractz. Quad and Bwipo change their mind and try to retreat but are chased down. Bvoy kills both of them. Fight goes 5-1 for SR.
SR start up Baron but immediately back off once FLY throw a ward into the Pit. SR head Mid instead and set up and ambush in the Upper Mid Bush. They catch Massu and delete him (Palafox gets the kill). SR attempts to chase to get more kills but Contractz gets too far ahead and dies to Quad.
Fudge TPs in and joins the fight. Bwipo uses his Ultimate on Palafox. He does a good amount of damage to him, but Palafox does more. Palafox kills Bwipo while Bvoy kills Inspired.
Fudge attempts to take down Busio and Quad under Turret but Busio is able to CC long enough for Fudge to die to the Turret (Quad gets credit). The rest of SR back off. Fight goes 3-2 for SR.
Bvoy attempts to snipe down a very low Busio with Trueshot Barrage but misses. Meanwhile, Palafox solos the 4th Drake.
As both teams set up for Baron, Bvoy manages to get a few good skill shots in on Massu, getting him very low. Massu retreats to his team, but Contractz and Fudge go in to try and kill him. With Contractz acting as distraction, Fudge is able to kill Massu.
Most of FLY retreat but Bwipo is trapped on the wrong side of SR. He dies to Bvoy as well. Fight goes 2-0 for SR, who turn and take Baron uncontested.
As SR starts sieging the Base Bot Turret, Busio dives in to start up a fight. Even though SR get a few members of FLY very low, it’s Palafox who dies first to Quad thanks to a well-placed/well-timed Seismic Shove.  SR has to back off. They had to the Dragon Pit and take the 5th Drake. They are now on Soul Point.
SR start up and take the 2nd Baron before FLY can get over to them. FLY look for a kill but only manage to geta Fudge low and burn a few of SR’s Summoner Spells.
Using Baron Buff, SR take the Base Mid Turret and then start heading down to Dragon Pit. FLY don’t bother trying to contest and SR take the Drake. They now have Cloud Soul.
SR go Bot and take the Base Bot Turret. Bwipo drags Fudge into the Death Realm and manages to kill him. While this is happening, minions take the Mid Inhibitor. Minions also end up taking the Base Bot Turret.
Inspired gets caught out by Inspired in Top Lane. Both teams converge. Bvoy is able to get out, but Palafox dies to Bwipo thanks to a Massu disrupting his engage with a Snare.
Inspired, who had been chasing after Bvoy, dies to Contractz. But they manage to buy enough time for the rest of FLY to arrive. As a result, Contractz dies to Quad. Massu then uses Dawning Shadow to kill Bvoy. Fight goes 3-1 for FLY. While this is all happening, minions are knocking on FLY’s Nexus Turrets.
As both teams set up around Baron, a fight breaks out. Contractz is the first to die. He goes down to Massu. Immediately afterwards, Palafox takes out Inspired and Bwipo. Bvoy then deletes Busio. Quad gets trapped in Fudge’s cage but kills him before anything can happen. Both teams disengage. Fight goes 3-2 for SR.
With more of their members up than FLY, SR starts up and takes the 3rd Baron. Using the buff they take the respawned Mid Inhibitor. Though a team fight does break out, no one dies, and SR gets the Inhib.
SR starts up the Elder Dragon. A 4v4 fight breaks out (Bwipo and Fudge are Top). Quad hits a massive Seismic Shove, leading to Bvoy dying to Massu, Palafox dying to Busio, and Ceos dying to Quad. Before he died, Palafox was about to burn down Inspired, who dies as well. The fight goes 3-1 for FLY and they also take the Elder Dragon.
As FLY start to march on SR’s Base, Massu uses Dawning Shadow in conjunction with the Elder Dragon Buff to Execute Contractz. Fudge is able to run down Quad and kill him. With him down, FLY retreat after taking the Inner Bot Turret.
As Fudge and Palafox engage on to Bwipo in Bot Lane, the rest of FLY try to run down the rest of SR in Mid Lane. Most SR is able to successfully disengage but Bwipo, despite his best efforts, dies to Fudge. Contractz, meanwhile, was on the wrong side of the engage Mid and ends up getting chase through Blue Side Top Jungle and killed by Inspired.
2 fights break out in Bot Lane. Busio vs Fudge and Palafox vs Massu. Fudge deals massive amounts of damage to Busio, but he survives. Palafox also deals a massive amount of damage to Massu but Massu ends up killing him.
FLY starts up and takes the 4th Baron uncontested. They then move over to Mid Lane where they catch out Contractz, who just respawned. Massu sends him straight back to the fountain. With Contractz down, FLY take Elder Dragon uncontested as well.
Using the power of Baron and Elder, FLY pushing straight for SR’s Nexus. Fudge attempts a Base Race solo, but he isn’t fast enough. FLY take the Nexus.
Post Game Analysis: Infinite Scaling is Broken
FLY ends the game at 51:05 with a 6.1k gold lead. The final score was 23-22 for FLY.
SR did very well this game. They got caught out at very inopportune times, yes, but overall, they did a good job. The problem was, they let the game go on for too long. Which, to be fair to them, was entirely their fault.
FLY was able to defend against SR’s sieges very well. So well, in fact, that they bought enough time for Massu to reach 193 Soul Stacks, giving her more range than a fully leveled Tristana. Had they been able to finish the game a little faster, SR could have won this.
With the champion pool dwindling thanks to Fearless, they may be able to pull of a win in Game 3, so long as they keep their heads about them.
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.
