TL;DW – LTA North Edition: DIG Claim Game 1 Victory Against LYON
Week 7, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2. LYON vs DIG. LYON is on Blue, DIG is on Red. LYON’s roster is Licorice (top), Oddielan (jungle), Saint (mid), Hena (bot), and Lyonz (support). DIG’s roster is Srtty (top), Sheiden (jungle), Keine (mid), Tomo (bot), and Isles (support). LYON is 1-2, DIG is 1-2. For more information on what early, mid, and late games mean, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other
During the 1st ban phase, Naafiri, Yone, Azir, Vi, Rumble, and Pantheon are removed.
LYON starts by picking Varus. DIG counter with Ezreal and Xin Zhao. LYON then take Gwen and Sejuani. DIG decided on Jax to finish out the 1st champion selection phase.
Jayce, Karma, Corki, and Annie are banned during the 2nd ban phase.
Back to champion selection, DIG goes for Taliyah. LYON rounds out their team with Neeko and Ahri. The final pick goes to DIG, and they choose Alistar. Both teams have drafted comps with good team fighting capabilities, mobility, and roaming potential.
Team comps are: LYON – Gwen (top), Sejuani (jungle), Ahri (mid), Varus (bot), Neeko (support) vs DIG – Jax (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Taliyah (mid), Ezreal (bot), Alistar (support).
Early Game Highlights: Good Start for LYON
Mild skirmishing in lanes and a failed attempt at Stealing Blue Buff by Oddielan. Otherwise, nothing significant to start out the game. Srtty does almost die in Top Lane and has to Flash out.
Isles and Tomo go in very aggressively against Hena and Lyonz in Bot Lane, but they manage to turn it around. Hena ends up killing Tomo for 1st Blood of the game.
Oddielan roams up to Top Lane and ganks Srtty with Licorice, who gets the kill.
There is a trade of objectives as LYON takes the Voidgrubs while DIG takes the 1st Drake (Cloud).
Early game ends with LYON ahead in gold by 1.1k. They also have the farm lead.
Mid Game Highlights: Let There Be Blood
Oddielan ganks Mid Lane with Saint and Lyonz. Keine tries to Flash away but ends up Flashing directly into Saint’s Charm. He dies under Turret to Lyonz.
Sheiden ganks Top Lane with Srtty. They manage to kill Licorice under Turret (Sheiden gets the kill).  Saint Teleports in right after Licorice dies. He gets a kill on to Sheiden. He then chases after Srtty. Keine, who Teleported in after Saint, tries to stop him with a Seismic Shove, but Saint Flashes over it and kills Srtty. Fight goes 3-1 for LYON.
Srtty jumps on to Licorice in Bot Lane. Keine uses Weaver’s Wall to join. Together, they kill Licorice with Keine getting the credit.
LYON manages to take the 2nd Drake (Mountain) uncontested. Meanwhile, Srtty takes LYON’s Outer Top Turret for 1st Turret of the game.
LYON starts up Rift Herald but decides to peel off. DIG then starts up Rift Herald. LYON dances around, but there aren’t enough of them around to engage, so DIG secures the objective.
LYON tries to catch out Isles, but he Headbutts onto Hena, knocking him up and setting up Sheiden to get the kill. This is followed up by Tomo getting a kill on Lyonz. DIG tries to go for more, but LYON are able to disengage. Fight goes 2-0 for DIG.
DIG drops Rift Herald in Mid Lane. It does a large chunk of damage to the Outer Mid Turret of LYON but doesn’t destroy it.  As LYON deals with Shelly in Mid Lane, Sheiden rotates down to Dragon Pit and takes the 3rd Drake (Chemtech).
Mid game ends with LYON still ahead in gold, though only by 800, and also still ahead in farm.
Late Game Highlights: Indecision On Objectives is a Problem in the LTA North
Oddielan attempts to gank Srtty in Bot Lane with Licorice, but Srtty is able to Flash and Jump away.
Both teams end up going Bot Lane. LYON tries to start something, but Srtty and Tomo are able to back off. Oddielan, still looking for a fight, engages on Isles as he tries to recall in Tri-Brush. This turns into a fight. Saint tries to come in from behind DIG, but they turn on him and chain CC him. He Flashes to try and get away, but still dies to Sheiden.
DIG tries to set up for a dive on the remaining members of LYON, but thanks to Hena’s poke, they manage to push them away. After recalling and resetting, LYON starts up Atakhan. Because Sheiden has to come up from the Dragon Pit, DIG doesn’t engage until after Oddielan secures the objective.
They seem indecisive, which LYON capitalizes on. Lyonz knocks up Tomo and Keine, giving Hena the opportunity to kill Isles safely. Saint then takes out Srtty. In retaliation Tomo brings down Licorice.
As LYON retreats, Sheiden (who has finally arrived) tries to go for more. He dives forward but is immediately CCed and blown up, with Saint getting the kill. Fight goes 3-1 for LYON, and they secure Atakhan.
Off the back of this fight, since so many of DIG’s players are down, LYON takes the 4th Drake. Since all Sheiden did was give over another kill to LYON, he probably should have just stayed on Drake and taken it.
LYON catches Sheiden out in Red Side Top Jungle. He and Srtty but take a good amount of damage, but they both manage to survive.
Lost of posturing as both team ward around Baron.
LYON starts up Baron, while Srtty starts up the 5th Drake. When Baron gets to Half Health, Srtty peels off the Drake. As he runs up to his team, Lyonz engages with Pop Blossom, catching Tomo with it. Saint, who just Teleported in, backs him up and kills Tomo. Licorice then manages to take out Sheiden.
Keine and Isles escape by going down, while Srtty goes up. He gets chased down by LYON. He manages to kill Lyonz before dying to Saint. The fight goes 3-1 for LYON who, after taking out Srtty, take Baron.
LYON rotates down and starts up the 5th Drake. They take it without contest and are now on Soul Point.
Using the Baron Buff, LYON takes the Inner Bot and Mid Turrets of DIG. As they start sieging the Inner Top Turret, DIG jumps on to Saint, who was slightly out of position. They blow him up with Tomo getting the kill.
Lyonz attempts to counter engage with Pop Blossom but only manages to Knock-Up Isles and Sheiden. Sheiden dives on to Lyonz and kills him while Srtty jumps on Licorice and, with Tomo’s help, kills him. DIG chase after the rest of LYON as they flee. Oddielan manages to make it out, but Hena gets corner and killed by Sheiden. Fight goes 4-0 to DIG.
Licorice gets caught out in Top River. Even though he survives, both teams end up burning several important Ultimates. Everyone starts to gather around Dragon Pit.
Isles gets caught out and taken down by Hena. Lyonz uses Pop Blossom and Knocks-Up 2 but gets almost instantly deleted by Keine. Srtty goes Golden to survive a large burst of damage, and then start wrecking havoc.
Thanks to his efforts, Sheiden is able to kill Saint, while he (Srtty) is able to kill Oddielan and Licorice before dying to Hena. Hena is then killed by Shieden. The fight goes 5-2 for DIG, who try to end the game. Despite their low Health Bars, they manage to end the game, though Keine does die for it.
Post Game Analysis: One False Step Leads to Disaster for LYON
DIG ends the game at 40:50 with a 3.8k gold lead. The final score is 16-14 for DIG. Despite some, less than stellar calls, DIG manages to win due to capitalizing on a single misstep from LYON. Had Saint not be so far forward while LYON was sieging the DIG’s Inner Top Turret, they could have won.
While this play is worth of praise, and though LYON did not play an exception game in their own right, DIG still had some major errors that need to be addressed. Namely, they need to be more decisive on objectives. Either trade them or fight. Trying to split the difference did not serve them well.
For their part, LYON continues to need to work on their aggression. They were slightly better this game, but Saint would not have been so far forward if his team had been more patient while they were sieging and hadn’t blown so many Ultimates.
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.
