TL;DW – LTA North Edition: DIG Wait Out TL in Game 2
Week 2, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. TL vs DIG. DIG is on Blue, TL is on Red. TL’s roster is Impact (top), Yuuji (jungle), APA (mid), Yeon (bot), and CoreJJ (support). DIG’s roster is Srtty (top), Sheiden (jungle), Keine (mid), Tomo (bot), and Isles (support). TL won Game 1. For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game mean, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: It Comes Down To Execution in LTA North
The 1st set of bans sees Poppy, Yone, Lucian, Vi, Ziggs, and Naafiri taken off the board.
DIG starts things off with Neeko. TL responds with Pantheon and Kai’Sa. DIG counters with Maokai and Jayce. TL takes Sion.
Corki, Ahri, Camille, and Nautilus are exiled during the 2nd ban phase.
TL starts up the 2nd pick phase by locking in Rakan. DIG finishes their team with Sivir and Aatrox. TL last pick Viktor. Both teams have good engagement options and team fight potential, but TL’s is the easier of the 2 to execute on. They also have more map mobility, allowing them to respond to plays more easily.
Team comps are: DIG – Aatrox (top), Maokai (jungle), Jayce (mid), Sivir (bot), Neeko (support) vs TL – Sion (top), Pantheon (jungle), Viktor (mid), Kai’Sa (bot), Rakan (support).
Early Game Highlights: Aggression But No Blood
Tomo and Yeon get into a very aggressive fight in Bot Lane. Yeon has to use Cleanse and Flash to get away. Tomo chases after him with his Flash.  Yeon gets very low and would have died if CoreJJ hadn’t Flash on top of him with his Q heal.
In Mid Lane, Keine hides just out of lane and waits for APA to walk nearby. He then Shock Blasts him and jumps on him with To The Skies. APA gets extremely low and has to Flash away. Keine might have been able to Flash-Auto to kill APA, but elects not to.
DIG takes the 1st Drake (Chemtech) uncontested.
DIG takes the Voidgrubs uncontested.
Early Game ends with DIG ahead in gold by 800 and also ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: TL Draws First Blood
Keine almost dies to APA and Yuuji in Mid Lane, but he’s saved by Sheiden’s Nature’s Grasp. Despite this, DIG is able to take the 2nd Drake (Infernal) uncontested.
As Isles roams up to TL’s Blue Side Jungle Tri-Brush (probably to ward), he gets jumped on by CoreJJ, who was waiting in the bush for him. Yeon and Yuuji also jump on him and despite Tomo’s attempts to help, Isles dies to Yeon for 1st Blood of the game.
A fight breaks out in Top Lane. It starts with back and forth between both. First TL goes in, then DIG. As TL starts to back off, Srtty, who TPed deep into lane, jumps on to APA, who has to Flash away. Srtty gets Stunned by the APA Gravity Field and is chunked to about half Heath. He still pushes forward with the rest of his team though as they chase after TL.
Isles comes in and lands a 2-man Pop Blossom on to Impact and Yuuji (the tankiest members of TL). They tank the damage and walk away. Lots of damage deals all around but no kills.
TL doesn’t completely retreat after the fight and manages to catch Srtty out in the Top River. He dies to CoreJJ. The remaining members of DIG attempt to get a kill back but Impact manages to survive with a sliver of Health and walks away. While this is all happening, Yeon takes the Outer Mid Turret of DIG for 1st Turret of the game.
After all this fighting, TL takes the Rift Herald uncontested as DIG tries to regain control of the map.
TL drops the Rift Herald in Top Lane, using it to take the Outer and Inner Turrets. While this is happening, DIG take the 3rd Drake (Cloud) uncontested. They are now on Soul Point.
3 members of TL attempt a gank on Keine in Bot Lane. They don’t get the kill but they do burn Keine’s Flash.
Early Game ends with TL now the ones ahead in gold, by 1.1k. DIG still retains their lead in farm.
Late Game Highlights: Late Game Come Back
Both teams hover around Dragon Pit for several minutes, waiting for the the 4th Drake to spawn. Time to go get some coffee or something.
Sion charges forward with his Ultimate in Bot Lane, pushing DIG and allowing TL to take the Turret. They then immediately start up the Atakhan. They take it uncontested as DIG decides to focus on trying to take towers (they get the Outer Top).
Srtty gets caught out in Bot Lane. He survives but he has to burn his Flash and recall. TL starts up the 4th Drake. DIG hovers around until the Drake gets low. When they do go in, however, Sheiden gets Stunned by the very edge of APA’s Gravity Field (he should have given it a wider berth). Yuuji, therefor, is able to secure the objective.
DIG tries to start up a fight, but the only ones they really manage to CC with Nature’s Grasp are Impact and Yuuji. DIG does some damage to Impact but decides against continuing the conflict and backs off.
Srtty gets dived on and killed under Turret by 4 members of TL in Bot Lane. APA gets the kill.
Keine gets caught out by Yuuji just outside of Map Lane, next to his Raptors. Both teams converge. CoreJJ gets Knocked Back into the bulk of DIG and dies to Tomo a split second before Keine dies to Yeon. After some more poking, both teams back off.
As the 5th Drake is about to spawn, TL push forward in Mid Lane and take a massive chunk out of Tomo. He doesn’t die, but he has to recall so TL are able to take the Drake uncontested.
Srtty, yet again, gets caught out in his Red Side Jungle. After a short chase, he dies to Yeon, who snipes him down with a Void Seeker. Meanwhile, in Mid Lane, DIG catch out Impact and APA. They both die to Keine before anyone else from TL can arrive.  Separated fight goes 2-1 for DIG.
DIG immediately roams up to Baron. They start it up and get it low before slowing things down. Yuuji jumps in to try and Steal, but the objective isn’t low enough, and he dies to Tomo, who also kills Yeon right after. Sheiden secures the objective. Fight, as it were, goes 2-0 for DIG.
As DIG takes the Inner Mid Turret of TL, CoreJJ tries to come in from behind them. They spot him and start backing off.  As they do, Impact Flash engages, hitting 3 of them. This is followed up by Yuuji’s Grand Starfall. Tomo dies to Impact and Keine drops to Yeon.  The rest of DIG backs off. Fight goes 2-0 for TL.
TL march down Mid and take the Base Turret and Inhibitor. They then roam over to the Dragon Pit to set up for the 6th Drake.
DIG manages to catch Impact a little out of position in Mid Lane and chunk him down low enough that he has to recall. They also catch APA, but he just goes golden and is fine. Immediately after this interaction, DIG moves down and starts up the Drake. TL consider fighting for the objective but decide against it. DIG takes the Drake uncontested. They now have Cloud Soul.
Both teams gathering in Mid Lane, pushing the wave back and forth. Each one is looking for an angle to start a potentially game winning fight. This goes on for quite some time.
Yuuji finally engages by Flashing over the Raptor’s wall. Both teams converge. Yeon kills Sheiden first, but he manages to take Yuuji with him. Srtty gets locked down as his team backs off, and he dies to Yeon. Fight goes 2-1 for TL, who immediately move up and take the 2nd Baron.
Both teams start to position around the Elder Dragon. TL originally has the best set up but they cede it to DIG after an attempt to take out Tomo fails. DIG starts up the objective, but they don’t focus on it. TL pull back and start pushing the wave in Mid Lane. DIG leaves the Dragon and goes after them.
TL push them back towards the Dragon and, as Keine wraps around through his Red Side Jungle, he gets jumped on and chunked by Yuuji. He backs off as Srtty goes in. Yuuji gets chased down and, though he tries to escape with a Blash Cone, he gets interrupted mid-air by the sweet spot of the 2nd cast of The Darkin Blade and dies to Srtty.
DIG then turns their attention not Impact. While he it too tanky to kill with great speed, they do manage to deal a large amount of damage to him and to Yeon thanks to Tomo’s Ricochets. No one from TL dies but they do get very low and have to recall. This allows DIG to take the Elder Dragon uncontested.
DIG take the Base Top Turret and the Top Inhibitor. They then regroup and head up Mid Lane. They spot APA out away from his team and Tomo pops his Ultimate. DIG runs down APA and the rest of TL and start taking them out.
Tomo kills APA, Keine takes down Yeon, Srtty drops Yuuji, Tomo ends Impact, and Keine deletes CoreJJ for the ACE. Yuuji did manage to kill Isles before he died, but this doesn’t help anything as DIG just marches down Mid and ends the game.
Post Game Analysis: DIG and the Pick of Destiny
DIG ends the game at 44:24 with a 6.3k gold lead. The final score was 12-10.
TL were ahead for a good chunk of the game but they 2 members got caught out in Mid Lane and everything just snowball from there. The issue was that, while TL was ahead, it wasn’t by much, and those 2 kills were enough to push DIG ahead and give them enough control to start taking Drakes again.
TL relinquished to much control of the map during the early game. When they got control back, they were effectively just holding a lid over a boiling pot. The second their hand slipped, the pot overflowed and scalded them. Good show of patience by DIG to wait things out and make their comeback.
Terms
Early Game: Any time before 10 minutes, first Outer Turret down, or first level 10 (whichever comes first).
Mid Game: Between Early Game and either 20 minutes, 2 Inner Turrets down, half the players are level 16, or 3rd dragon killed.
Late Game: Any time after Mid Game.
