TL;DW – LTA North Edition: FLY Start Off Strong in Game 1 Against C9
Week 4, Day 2 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. This is the Finals! 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). For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game mean, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Let’s Get Dangerous
This 1st game of the series sees Gwen, Vi, Yone, Casseopia, Taliyah, and Poppy banned away.
FLY uses their first pick to lock in Azir. C9 opts for Varus and Wukong. Kai’Sa and Neeko are the next picks for FLY. C9 grabs Sylas before entering 2nd ban phase.
C9 targets the Jungle roster with Pantheon and Trundle bans. FLY spread their bans out by removing Bard and Jayce.
C9 starts things back up by taking Rell. FLY closes out their team with Renekton and Sejuani. C9 picks Rumble as their last champion. Both teams draft very meta teams (Wukong is a little funky but not by much). FLY has a little more CC/engage than C9, though.
Team comps are: FLY – Renekton (top), Sejuani (jungle), Azir (mid), Kai’Sa (bot), Neeko (support) vs C9 – Rumble (top), Wukong (jungle), Sylas (mid), Varus (bot), Rell (support).
Early Game Highlights: Mostly Dull with a Little Kick on the Backend
Nothing especially noteworthy happens to start the game off.
Inspired and Busio tried to set up a trap in C9’s Blue Side Jungle, but they got spotted out by Zven with a ward over the wall and backed off.
FLY invades C9’s Red Side Jungle to fight for Raptors. Inspired wins the Smite fight and claims the camp. No deaths.
FLY takes the 1st Drake (Chemtech) uncontested.
FLY takes the Voidgrubs uncontested.
Inspired heads down to Bot Lane to gank Thanatos with Bwipo. Bwipo Stuns Thanatos, allowing Inspired an easy hit on Glacial Prison. Despite dropping his Equalizer and getting under Turret, Thanatos still dies to Bwipo for 1st Blood.
Early Game ends with FLY ahead in gold by 1.5k and also ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: The Script is Flipped
Thanatos, after respawning, TPs into Top Lane and pushes the wave to FLY’s Outer Turret. As he arrives, Inspired comes in from the Jungle and engages on him. Bwipo then Teleports in, and together they kill Thanatos again. This time, Inspired gets the kill.
Inspired goes Top and ganks Thanatos with Bwipo for a 3rd time. This time, however, Thanatos has Flash and is able to barely get away. As a result, C9 are able to take the 2nd Drake (Hextech) uncontested. That said, with Thanatos out of lane, Bwipo and Inspired are able to stick around and take the Outer Turret for 1st Turret of the game, so a good trade all around.
C9 starts up the Rift Herald, but FLY is in the area looking for an opportunity to contest. Inspired starts things off by engaging with Vulcan, who responds by trying to gather up FLY with Magnet Storm.
However, C9 ends up being the one who groups up, allowing Quad to hit 3 of them with the Emperor’s Divide. Busio combos this up with Pop Blossom, getting all 3 victims quite low. Bwipo arrives and dives in.
While Zven, who is off to the side, does take down Busio 1st, Bwipo drops Blaber and Vulcan in an instant. Quad then kills Loki, while Zven and Thanatos both run for it. Zven does manage to snipe down Inspired as he flees, though. Fight goes 3-2 for FLY, who turn and take Rift Herald (which was still aggro’d) afterwards.
FLY uses Rift Herald to take the Outer Mid Turret and then rotates down to Dragon Pit and starts up the 3rd Drake (Cloud). C9 arrives and immediately finds an angle to engage with Quad. He tries to Flash away but dies to Thanatos, who Flash onto him.
From some more fighting, Bwipo is finally able to take down Thanatos, but Blaber is, likely wise, able to take down Massu. Bwipo chases after a low Health Loki but gets killed by Zven for his troubles. The rest of FLY leaves, and C9 takes control of the Drake. Fight goes 3-1 for C9, who secures the objective as well.
Mid Game ends with FLY still ahead in gold (now but 2.2k), but C9 now ahead in farm.
Late Game Highlights: Persistence Prevails
C9 starts up the Atakhan. The members of FLY are too far away to respond in time. C9 secures the objective. FLY arrives at the end, looking for a fight. Inspired lands a Glacial Prison onto Loki. It initially looks like he will get away, but Massu Ults on top of him and kills him. Meanwhile, the rest of C9 work together to kill Bwipo.
FLY comes in from behind C9. There is some dancing before Blaber dives onto a disguised Busio. The fight breaks out anew. Vulcan gets taken low and has to back off. Quad also gets low, but he instead slides forwards and uses Emperor’s Divide to take out Blaber and severely damage Thanatos. He then dies to Blaber (looks like a buffered Smite).
Massu comes in and starts cleaning up, taking out both Thanatos and Zven. Vulcan manages to escape, despite being chased down by Busio, thanks to his Shield. Loki, who has respawned, arrives, forcing FLY to retreat. Fight goes 4-2 for FLY, but C9 secures the Atakhan.
FLY secures the 4th Drake uncontested.
Quad attempts to dive onto Vulcan in C9’s Red Jungle, but Vulcan is able to avoid being sent flying by the Emperor’s Divide. Both teams converge. There is a bit of poke, and then everyone separates. As they do, however, Zven manages to snipe down Busio with a sudden burst of damage.
C9 starts up the 5th Drake. FLY hovers around looking for an angle. When the Drake gets low, they pull the trigger. Busio goes in with Pop Blossom but only hits Zven. Bwipo comes in from the side and dives onto the back line of C9.
Quad pushes Blaber away from the Drake with Emperor’s Divide and then kills Zven. With Blaber relocated, Inspired is able to secure the Drake for FLY. They are now on Soul Point. C9 immediately starts backing off. Fight goes 1-0 for FLY, who also secures the Drake.
FLY rotates over to Baron and starts it up. The remnants of C9 hover around, but Bwipo engages with them. He gets low but manages to draw them close enough to Baron Pit for the rest of FLY to engage.
Bwipo takes out Blaber, though he dies to himself, to Thanatos for it. While Loki and Vulcan are able to get away, Thanatos gets chased down the rest of FLY and killed by Massu. Fight goes 2-1 for FLY, but they aren’t able to continue, Baron.
FLY starts up Baron again, but C9 are all up and are able to push them off it.
Bwipo engages on Thanatos in Bot Lane. Massu uses his Ultimate to join and gets the kill.
FLY starts the Baron, yet again. They it low but then peel off to avoid a potential Steal and instead head to Mid Lane where Thanatos is TPing in. As they rotate over, Blaber dives onto Massu, who not only survives the initial engagement but also kills Blaber. Meanwhile, Vulcan is able to take down Busio.
In the Mid Lane, FLY work together to kill Loki (Quad gets the credit). Thanatos and Vulcan back off. Zven tries to take out Inspired but isn’t able to. He backs off as well. Fight goes 2-1 for FLY.
FLY finally secures the Baron on their 4th attempt. C9 are unable to arrive in time to contest. Persistence is the name of the game, apparently.
As both teams set up for the 6th Drake, Inspired gets caught out and collapsed on by C9. He dies to Zven. Busio arrives and tries to counter-engage but only manages to hit 2 with the Pop Blossom before dying to Zven as well.
Bwipo, Massu, and Quad now join the fight. Bwipo takes out Zven, Massu goes golden and then kills Vulcan and Blaber, Quad drops Loki, and Thanatos books it. Fight goes 3-2 for FLY.
Off the back of the fight, FLY march down Mid, taking structures as they go, and lay siege to C9’s Nexus. Thanatos attempts to defend but dies to Quad for the ACE. With him down, there is nothing to stop FLY from ending the game.
Post Game Analysis: LTA North Split 2 Finals Start Off with a Bang
FLY ends the game 35:46 with a 9.8k gold lead. The final score was 21-12.
That was a relatively close game. While FLY did have more gold, in the Late Game, C9 had around the same number of completed items, so, power-wise, they were about even. Victory came down to control and execution. FLY had better map control and were able to play better in fights.
It also helped that Inspired and Bwipo were able to get a large lead over Thanatos during the Early and Mid-game. He probably should have played a little safer. He’s 2 deaths and 1 retreat gave FLY the 1st Turret, which they quickly snowballed and used to strangle C9’s vision.
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.
