TL;DW – LTA North: Ambessa Carries in Game 4 of FLY vs C9
Week 3, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. FLY vs C9. FLY is on Blue, C9 is on Red. FLY’s roster is Bwipo (top), Inspired (jungle), Quad (mid), Massu (bot), and Busio (support). C9’s roster is Thanatos (top), Blaber (jungle), Loki (mid), Zven (bot), and Vulcan(support). FLY won Games 1 and 2, C9 won Game 3. For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game means, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Have Seen That in a While
Jayce, Vi, Yone, Neeko, Sejuani, and Sion banned out to start things off.
FLY 1st picks Naafiri. C9 takes Ambessa and Skarner. FLY opts for Shen and Viktor next. C9 ends the 1st set of picks by locking in Sivir.
C9 targets the ADC pool with Jinx and Draven bans. FLY, in response, targets Supports, banning out Lulu and Blitzcrank.
C9 starts up the 2nd set of picks by choosing Sylas. FLY round out their team with Braum and Kog’Maw. C9 finishes things up by locking in Rakan. FLY has a lot of security on their team and a good amount of pick potential. C9’s team is more team fight oriented.
Team comps are: FLY – Shen (top), Naafiri (jungle), Viktor (mid), Kog’Maw (bot), Braum (support) vs C9 – Ambessa (top), Skarner (jungle), Sylas (mid), Sivir (bot), Rakan (support).
Early Game Highlights: Bwipo’s Fancy Footwork For the Win
Nothing happens as the game starts so here’s another interview for you viewing displeasure.
Inspired heads down to Bot Lane to gank. Thanks to Busio’s Passive, Massu is able to kill Zven for 1st Blood. On the other side of the map, Blaber tries to gank Top Lane in retaliation, but Bwipo takes a Turret shot and dies to Thanatos before Blaber can get into lane.
C9 starts up the 1st Drake (Hextech). FLY arrives to try and contest. Blaber is able to secure the Drake before Inspired arrives and Vulcan manages to take down Busio to boot. FLY stick around, looking to get something back. Zven is able to kill Inspired, but Massu takes down Vulcan, Loki, and Blaber. Zven runs for it. Fight goes 3-2 for FLY but C9 secure the objective.
Blaber goes Top again to gank Bwipo with Thanatos. Despite being far up in lane, Bwipo manages to make it back to Turret thanks to some impressive dodging and a delayed Flash. He survives the gank.
Inspired takes the Voidgrubs solo and uncontested.
Early Game ends with FLY ahead in gold by 900 and also ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: It’s Ganking Time in the LTA North
Blaber returns to Top Lane a 3rd time. The gank is successfully this time and Bwipo dies to Thanatos. In response, FLY takes the 2nd Drake (Infernal) uncontested.
In Mid Lane, Thanatos and Blaber arrive to gank. Thanatos hits Quad with Public Execution but Quad drops Arcane Storm to protect himself. Bwipo also Ults him for added security. When Bwipo arrives, he engages on to C9, who were backing off. Blaber hits a 2-man Impale on to Bwipo and Inspired. Bwipo gets taken low and dies to Loki. Everyone backs off afterwards.
Blaber gets caught out in Mid Lane and gets taken extremely low but manages to survive.
Loki, Vulcan, and Thanatos all go Bot Lane and dive Quad under his Outer Turret. Thanatos gets the kill, and they take the Turret for 1st Turret of the game. In response, FLY secures the Rift Herald uncontested.
Bwipo tries to push the wave in Top Lane, but Thanatos arrives and runs him down lane before killing him.
FLY drops Rift Herald in Mid Lane and uses it to take a chunk out of the Outer Turret. While this is happening, Quad gets caught out in his own Red Side Jungle by Loki. They skirmish and Loki initially backs off as FLY converges on their Mid Laner. He returns one his team arrive. A fight breaks out. Despite several players getting low, Loki is the first to die. He falls to Inspired.
Vulcan, spotting how low Massu was, jumps on him and kills him with the Grand Entrance. Thanatos then kills Inspired. Bwipo arrives with Stand United and drops Thanatos. Everyone backs off and the fight ends in a 2-2. Of the back of the fight, C9 secures the 3rd Drake (Mountain) uncontested.
Mid Game ends with C9 now the ones ahead in gold (by 1.3k). The farm is even.
Late Game Highlights: Thanatos, God of Death
C9 starts up the Atakhan. FLY arrives to contest. A fight breaks out. Blabers lands a 3-man Impale on to Bwipo, Massu, and Busio. The objective gets low. Blaber secures it before he and Inspired both die.
Inspired dies first to Thanatos and Blaber dies to Massu. As he goes down, Blaber takes Busio with him. Massu then gets killed by Loki, Quad falls to Thanatos, and Bwipo drops to Zven for the ACE. Fight goes 5-1 for C9, who also secure the objective.
A full team fight breaks out in Bot Lane, started by Blaber. FLY is able to kite back for some time but eventually they start to fall. Loki kills Massu and Busio first, followe by Zven taken out Inspired, Quad, and Bwipo for the ACE. Fight goes 5-0 for C9, who march down Bot Lane and take the Inner and Base Turrets, as well as the Inhibitor.
FLY tries to start a fight in Mid Lane but C9 are able to kite them out and engage on their own terms. Thanatos executes Massu, Loki drops Bwipo, Thanatos takes out Inspired, then Busio, and Quad hightails it out away. Fight goes 4-0 for C9 who march down Mid Lane, who rotate over and take Baron for free.
Using Baron, C9 takes the Inner Mid Turret, Base Mid Turret, Mid Inhibitor, Base Top Turret, Top Inhibitor, Lower Nexus Turret, and Upper Nexus Turret before any kills are had. Thanatos gets the first one, taking down Bwipo. Massu is able to snipe down Zven but he too goes down to Thanatos. Before anyone else can die, the Nexus is destroyed (probably by an over zealot minion).
Post Game Analysis: Top Lane Missteps Lead to Win
C9 ends the game at 27:54 with a 13.7k gold lead. The final score was 25-8 for C9.
It would not be inaccurate to say that Bwipo lost this game for FLY. While trading with Thanatos Top Lane during the Early Game, he took 2 Turret shots. This meant that, despite having the Early Game advantage, he died to Thanatos solo. This gave Thanatos the lead in lane, which Blaber helped to snowball. He then took this lead to the rest of the map and crushed FLY with it.
There’s really not much more to say besides that. Don’t feed the Thanatos.
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.
