TL;DW – LTA North Edition: DSG Unexpected Battle Against TL
Week 3, Day 3, last day of LTA North Best of One matches, DSG vs TL. TL’s score is 4-2, while DSG is 0-6. DSG is playing on the blue side, TL on the red side. The team roster for DSG is Castle (top), xXyu (jungle), Abbedagge (mid), ScaryJerry (carry), and huhi (support). For TL, the team is Impact (top), UmTi (jungle), APA (mid), Yeon (carry), and CoreJJ (support). For specifics regarding early, mid, and late game, see the Terms at the bottom of the page.
Champion Selection: Explosive Comps on Both Sides
DSG targets Ziggs, Taliyah, and Rumble for their initial bans, while TL decided on Vi, Gwen, and Azir.
Varus is DSG first pick. TL takes Ezreal in response, as well as Naafiri. DSG counter with Sejuani and Yone. TL’s last pick before the second ban phase is Casseopia.
During second ban phase, TL targets top with Jayce and Ambessa bans, while DSG targets support by removing Nautilus and Alistar as options.
Reentering Champion Selection, Renekton finishes out TL’s turn. DSG close out their team with Aatrox and Neeko, while TL last picks Rell. It seems as though DSG are going for a heavy disruption/knock-up team, while TL favors a high engage composition.
Team comps are: DSG – Aatrox (top), Sejuani (jungle), Yone (mid), Varus (carry), Neeko (support) vs. TL – Renekton (top), Naafiri (jungle), Casseopia (mid), Ezreal (carry), Rell (support).
Early Game Highlights: The Back-and-Forth Begins
Laning phase starts out with an early skirmish bot lane. No deaths but huhi’s Heal trades for Core JJ’s Ignite. After reaching level 2, Core JJ Flash engages on to ScaryJerry. DSG’s bot lane is chased almost back to turret but before they get there Yeon manages to kill ScaryJerry for First Blood. At the same time, UmTi pushes eXyu off his Red Buff and steals it.
Despite these setbacks, eXyu manages to successfully gank bot because CoreJJ stays too long. The kill is gifted to ScaryJerry. This is followed up by a gank top lane by eXyu, huhi, and Castle. huhi manages to get close to Impact by shapeshifting into a minion. The gank is successful and Castle gets the kill. After this, DSG top and bot swap lanes.
TL starts the 1st Drake (Mountain) but are stopped by DSG. No deaths. Early game ends during the Drake scuffle as Castles hits level 6. The gold difference is 300in favor of DSG, but TL is up in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: Both Teams Hold Their Own
The mid game starts off with Impact and UmTi engaging on to ScaryJerry and huhi while eXyu takes the 1st Drake. No deaths but it is a very close call for Impact. After the Drake is down, UmTi starts taking the 1st Voidgrubs. While he does this, Yeon and CoreJJ attempt to tower dive ScaryJerry but he survives thanks to Barrier.
After taking Grubs, UmTi tries to steal eXyu’s Blue but eXyu and Castle push him back. After getting Blue Buff, eXyu clears 2 jungle camps and then attempts to gank APA in mid lane. He whiffs his Ult and is unsuccessful.
Two fights under turret break out. The first mid lane against Abbedagge, who survives. The second is top lane against Impact, who dies to ScaryJerry. The game enters a period of farming and map control, which is broken when Castle is caught out trying to back and killed under turret by UmTi.
DSG retaliates by tower diving Impact. Abbedagge gets the kill. eXyu then moves to take 2nd Voidgrubs, giving each team 3 grubs each. While this is happening, TL takes the 2nd Drake (Ocean).
APA pokes down Castle in bot lane before CoreJJ comes down. Together they manage to kill him, with CoreJJ getting the kill. APA then takes the First Turret. Game enters another farming phase. Mid game ends due to time. TL is both up in gold and farm.
Late Game Highlights: Timing is Everything
Abbedagge is caught out in red side bot jungle but manages to escape. Vision war is alive and well. TL starts Herald when it spawns. DSG tries to stop them but loses the fight 2-1 and TL still gets Herald. When the fight broke out, Abbedagge was split-pushing bot lane. He Teleports in late and can’t really help in the fight, but his work on the turret means that the minions are able to finish it off.
Abbedagge attempts to 1v1 Impact in top lane, but UmTi intervenes. Abbedagge is chased back to his turret and outplays the other two to survive. After pushing all lanes, TL attempts to start up the 3rd Drake (Chemtech) twice. They peel off each time. CoreJJ then attempts to engage on to 3 members of DSG but only manages to hit eXyu. The ensuing, extended fight going 4-2 in favor of DSG, but their remaining members are too low to take the Drake.
After everyone revives, DSG starts up the Ruinous Atakhan. TL drops Rift Herald in mid lane as they hover nearby but don’t engage, allowing DSG to take the objective. A fight breaks out. It is highly extended, starting in top river, dipping up into top lane, and then going through red side top jungle. In the end, TL wins the fight 4-2.
After the fight, TL takes the 3rd Drake (Abbedagge attempts to interfere but gets CCed out). Everyone scatters after Drake. APA goes bot and is caught out. Abbedagge gets the kill. Impact takes top turret, and everyone spreads out throughout the map, setting up vision and pushing lanes.
Castle goes bot and is attacked under turret, though he fends off the attack. No deaths but TL lose out on top lane farm. DSG group and push mid while TL split up, clearing out the jungle and pushing top and bot.
DSG starts Baron almost on spawn, fleeing immediately afterward. This allows them to take outer and inner mid turrets, inner top turret, the 4th Drake (Chemtech), and inner bot turret. After all of this comes an extended period of posturing, farming, and lane pushing with the only real act of aggression coming from Abbedagge, who steals Blue Buff.
When Baron spawns, there is a prolonged war of attrition around it. Lots of poke but no deaths. Eventually they trade objectives. DSG starts Baron while APA solos the 5th Drake. Impact is caught out by DSG while they are fighting Baron, and ScaryJerry gets the kill. When the rest of TL tries to intervene, Abbedagge pushes them away and kills CoreJJ, allowing DSG to claim the objective.
Abbedagge then chases UmTi into his base and gets the kill. After this, DSG breaks the base open, taking top base turret, top inhibitor, both Nexus turrets, and then, after waiting for a minion wave, the Nexus itself. The final kill count is 15-12 for DSG.
Post Game Analysis: LTA North Rocked by Unexpected Result
DSG ends the game at 34:38 with a gold lead of 6k. This is the first win for the team. Though it does not change their overall ranking, it is nonetheless a feather in their cap as they are the first lower-ranked team to beat an upper-ranked team.
The majority of the game was very back-and-forth between the 2 teams. A combination of factors led to DSG’s victory over TL, primarily a few missed Ultimates by CoreJJ, slow rotations by TL in general (but Impact specifically), and the attempted tower dive bot lane against Castle, which allowed DSG to be in a better position to take the 1st Baron.
With this loss, TL is now 4-3 and their placement in the tournament will be determined by whether or not 100T wins the next match or not. As stated before, DSG’s ranking does not change but this victory might provide them with the confidence they need to perform better in the future.
Terms
Early Game: Any time before 6 minutes, first outer tower down, or first level 6 (whichever comes first).
Mid Game: Between early game and either 15 minutes, 2 inner towns down, half the players are level 11, or 3rd dragon killed.
Late Game: Any time after mid-game.
