TL;DW – LTA North Edition: TL Takes the Lead in Game 3 over DIG
Week 2, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. TL vs DIG. TL is on Blue, DIG 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, DIG won Game 2. For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game means, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Let’s See if This Goes Better Than Last Time
1st ban phase sees Yone, Lucian, Ryze, Poppy, Sylas, and Wukong taken away.
TL first pick Vi. DIG opts for Ezreal and Ahri. TL counter with Ziggs and Renekton. DIG locks in K’Sante.
DIG pinch the ADC role with Smolder and Jhin bans, while TL target the Jungle by removing Kindred and Naafiri.
DIG starts things back up by picking Viego. TL close out their team with Senna and Nautilus. DIG last pick Leona. TL’s comp has a good combination of early game power with late game scaling so they should be strong throughout. DIG has excellent mobility and lockdown.
Team comps are: TL – Renekton (top), Vi (jungle), Ziggs (mid), Senna (bot), Nautilus (support) vs DIG – K’Sante (top), Viego (jungle), Ahri (mid), Ezreal (bot), Leona (support).
Early Game Highlights: Kills for TL, Objectives for DIG
Game starts innocuously enough. Farming and poking galore.
DIG take advantage of Yeon recalling in the Bot Lane to take the 1st Drake (Ocean) uncontested.
DIG starts up the Voidgrubs. They manage to take 1 before TL arrives to push them off. Isles gets caught out with CC and left behind, and the rest of DIG roam up and fight Impact. Isles dies to APA for 1st Blood a split second before Impact dies to Keine.
TL back off the Grubs, and DIG starts them back up again. They manage to take a 2nd one, but Keine walks into Yuuji, who was hiding in the bush behind Red in his Jungle. Keine ends up dying to APA. DIG back off the Grubs, and TL takes the last one for themselves.
Early Game ends with TL ahead in gold by 900, and also are ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: Unleash the Crocodile
DIG starts up the 2nd Drake (Mountain). TL considers contesting for a second but decides against it. DIG secure the objective uncontested.
TL sets up to try and Steal away DIG’s Red Buff. As they start up the objective, CoreJJ Flash-engages on to Isles. A fight breaks out. Yuuji goes in deep but doesn’t have back up, so he gets very low. Tomo kills him. CoreJJ responses by killing Sheiden. TL look for more, but Srtty comes in and CoreJJ ends up dying to Tomo. TL retreats. Fight goes 2-1 for DIG.
CoreJJ and Yeon get spotted out by DIG. Isles jumps on to CoreJJ. A fight ensues as both teams converge. Isles is the first to die. He goes down to Impact. Keine chases down and kills Yuuji. Impact gets another kill by dropping Sheiden. Yeon manages to root Srtty, giving him a chance to kill him. Keine tries to get away, but TL chase him down. Impact gets another kill. Fight goes 4-0 for TL. After the fight, TL takes the Outer Top Turret of DIG for 1st Turret of the game.
Once everyone resets, DIG starts up the 3rd Drake (Hextech). TL arrives and pushes them off of it but DIG wraps around their Blue Side Jungle and tries to get back to the objective. They start it up again. Impact comes in from the side and gets into a 1v2 with Srtty and Keine.
Impact kills Keine. Though Yuuji tries to Steal, Sheiden is able to secure the Drake. However, with 1 member down DIG have to run. APA takes down Isles, Impact rips through Srtty, and Yone, after a bit of chasing, drops Sheiden. Fight goes 3-0 for TL but DIG takes the Drake and are now on Soul Point.
TL takes the Rift Herald uncontested. DIG tries to force a fight afterwards, but TL are able to kite them back and get away. TL then drops Rift Herald in Mid and uses it take the Inner Mid Turret.
Mid Game ends with TL still ahead in gold, now by 6.5k. Farm, however, is even.
Late Game Highlights: Demolition Time in LTA North
TL starts up the Atakhan. DIG TP in Keine to contest. Yuuji manages to secure to objective against Sheiden.  TL then turn on to him and, after a bit of chase, Yeon kills him with his Ultimate. The rest of DIG gets away.
As the 4th Drake spawns, TL are in position to take it immediately and uncontested. They then go Bot Lane to take the Inner Turret and siege the Base Turret. With the power of Ziggs, they take the Turret and the Inhibitor.
As TL starts to rotate over to the Mid Lane, Isles jumps on to Impact. TL back off. DIG fish around for a potential pick but Srtty ends up being the one caught out. He gets hooked, Rooted, and then killed by CoreJJ (Yeon did most of the damage). Yeon then kills Sheiden and APA deletes Isles. TL then turn and take the Base Mid Turret and the Mid Inhibitor. Fight goes 2-0 for TL.
After taking the Turret and Inhibitor, TL take both Nexus Turrets, but members of DIG have started to respawn, so they back off. Srtty TP ahead of them to cut them off. CoreJJ ends up giving his life so the rest of his team can get away.
TL regroup and march down Mid. They get into a war of attrition with DIG around the Nexus. Eventually, TL are able to poke DIG down enough to go in. Isles dies to Yeon, Srtty to CoreJJ, and Keine to Impact. Tomo and Sheiden hide in the fountain as TL ends the game.
Post Game Analysis: Raid Boss Plus Late Scaling Equals Win
TL ends the game at 26:05 with a 9.9k gold lead. The final score was 18-5.
DIG shouldn’t have let Ziggs through. It’s not necessarily what lost them the game but it sure as heck didn’t help. The ease at which TL were able to take Turrets definitely hurt DIG’s control of the map.
Impact’s flanks and Yeon scaling were what won the game in the end. Perhaps if DIG had been more aggressive in the Early Game against Yeon, they could have pushed his power spiking to later down the line, thus creating more of a window for themselves. But then they would still have had to deal with the Renekton.
The main crux of the game came down the fight for the 3rd Drake. While DIG was able to get the objective, it was a pyrrhic victory as they got routed afterwards. They probably should have backed off completely instead of circling back around and starting it up again.
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.
