LTA North Split 2 League of Legends

TL;DW – LTA North Edition: Game 1 of C9 vs SR is a Slugfest

ByJB Dennis

Week 4, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. C9 vs SR.  C9 is on Blue, SR is on Red.  C9’s roster is Thanatos (top), Blaber (jungle), Loki (mid), Zven (bot), and Vulcan (support).  SR’s roster is Fudge (top), Contractz (jungle), Palafox (mid), Bvoy (bot), and Ceos (support).  For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game mean, see Terms at the bottom of the article.

Champion Selection: Classic vs Slightly Kooky

The 1st set of bans removes Ahri, Vi, Annie, Gwen, Varus, and Sejuani from the equation.

C9 has 1st pick and they decide to use it on Taliyah.  SR opts for Pantheon and Senna.  Poppy and Rell are the next champions taken by C9.  Naulius was grabbed by SR before the 2nd ban phase began.

Ezreal, Azir, Corki, and Rumble are exiled during the 2nd round of bans.

Starting picks back up, SR locks in Oriana.  C9 finishes off their team with Renekton and Ziggs.  SR uses their last pick to pick Cho’Gath.  C9’s comp has heavy engagement and team fight potential.  SR is more geared towards late-game scaling.  They have a few good options for ball delivery, but not necessarily the best ones.

Team comps are: C9 – Renekton (top), Poppy (jungle), Taliyah (mid), Ziggs (bot), Rell (support) vs SR – Cho’Gath (top), Pantheon (jungle), Oriana (mid), Senna (bot), Nautilus (support).

Early Game Highlights: Uno Reverse

Poking and farming during the early parts of the game.

Contractz attempts to gank Thanatos in Top Lane but is spotted out by a ward and has to back off.  He instead invades Blaber’s Blue Side Jungle and, with the help of Fudge and Palafox, is able to push Blaber away and secure the Blue Buff.

SR takes the 1st Drake (Chemtech) uncontested.

C9 takes the Voidgrubs uncontested.

4 members of C9 go Top to gank Fudge and Contractz under Turret.  Despite Ceos arriving and Contractz Flash-Stunning Blaber to interrupt his Ultimate, Zven is able to kill Contractz for 1st Blood.  Palafox and Loki both arrive afterwards.  They both get each other low.  Fudge Flashes on top of Loki and devours him.  He then kills Ceos and Blaber.  The rest of C9 back off.  Fight goes 3-1 for SR.

After it looks like both teams are back off, Zven starts to farm the lane in Top.  Contractz uses Grand Starfall to engage with him and, with the help of Palafox, kills him.

Early Game ends with SR ahead in gold by 1.7k and also ahead in farm.

Mid Game Highlights: Let There Be Blood

As both teams set up around Dragon Pit, Ceos engages with Blaber as he and Ceos enter the Bot River through C9’s Red Side Tri-Brush.  However, Blaber is able to weather the damage, thanks in part to a Senna Ult, and C9 are able to turn the fight around thanks to Thanatos, who was in Bot Lane, roaming up to help.

Ceos ends up dying to Thanatos, while Contractz and Fudge both fall to Loki.  Fight goes 3-0 for C9, who secure the 2nd Drake (Cloud) off the back of it.

Palafox uses TP to head to Bot Lane.  Together with Fudge, SR takes the Outer Turret for the 1st Turret of the game.

The broadcast skips for some reason.  While the setup isn’t shown, Bvoy does somehow manage to kill Loki as part of what looks to be a gank in Mid Lane with Contractz and Ceos.

SR takes the Rift Herald uncontested.  C9 hovers around but decides not to engage.

While both teams farm in Mid, Ceos manages to land a hook onto Zven, who gets immediately jumped by SR.  He ends up dying to Ceos.

SR drops Herald in Mid and uses it to take the Outer Mid Turret.  They then engage with Thanatos, who is alone in the Bot River, but he manages to get away thanks to Flash.

SR starts up the 3rd Drake (Ocean).  C9 arrives to try and contest.  There is some poking before Loki uses his Weaver’s Wall to split SR.  However, he lands next to Fudge and ends up dying to him first.  Contractz is the next to drop, falling to Zven.  Thanatos then takes out Ceos.

After a small break in the conflict, Fudge gets caught out and jumped on.  He dies to Zven as well.  Fight goes 3-1 for C9, who also secure the Drake.

Mid Game ends with SR’s gold lead shrinking down to only 100, and C9 taking over the lead in farm.

Late Game Highlights: Raid Boss Thanatos

Both teams meet in the Top River, and a fight breaks out when Ceos lands a hook onto Vulcan.  Everyone converges.  C9 manages to deal more damage to SR, and they have to retreat.  No one dies.

Contractz tries to recall in his Red Side Jungle but gets interrupted and has to Flash over a wall to get away.

Vulcan walks into 3 members of SR and gets CCed into oblivion.  Fudge gets the kill.  Both teams converge after the kill.  Loki manages to hit multiple people with his Seismic Shove but gets caught, CCed, and then killed by Contractz.  Fight goes 2-0 for SR, who rotates up to Atakhan afterwards.

The rest of C9 follows SR up to Atakhan.  SR starts the objective but peels off of it once Ceos gets caught out and killed.  C9 takes over Atakhan and secures it.

Both teams head down to the Dragon Pit.  C9 engages on to SR in their Blue Side Jungle.  Thanks to a well-placed Seismic Shove, Vulcan is able to kill Ceos, and Zven is able to kill Contractz.  Thanatos then chases down Palafox for another kill.  Fudge and Bvoy flee.  The fight goes 3-0 for C9, who turn and take the 4th Drake uncontested.  They are now on Soul Point.

Bvoy, while farming just slightly in front of his Inner Mid Turret, gets dove on by Blaber.  He almost dies but manages to get away thanks to Flash and the Shield from his Ultimate.

Contractz was caught out while taking his Wolves.  He might have been able to escape, but he decided to jump onto Blaber with his Stun, and this led to him getting too close to Loki and Zven and dying to Loki.

Most of C9 roam down to the Bot Lane to take the Inner Turret.  While they do get the Turret, Blaber gets taken low and ends up getting eaten by Fudge.

As both teams start to slowly rotate over towards the Dragon Pit, Thanatos TPs in behind SR and engages with them.  All of C9 follow suit, and Bvoy is immediately deleted by Blaber.  Palafox is the next to drop.  He dies to Vulcan.  After a little running and fighting, Ceos falls to Zven, and Contractz dies to Blaber.  Fight goes 4-0 for C9, who secure the 5th Drake for Ocean Soul.

After taking the Drake, C9 head up to Baron and secure it as well.

With Baron Buff, C9 head Top and take down the Inner Turret.  They then start to rotate to the Mid Lane.  Thanatos gets too far ahead of his team and ends up getting locked down and killed by Contractz.  In response, after some fighting, Blaber drops Fudge.  That’s the Jungler killing the opposing Top Laner on both sides.  How’s that for poetic justice?

After the fight, C9 rotates back up to Top and takes the Base Turret and the Inhibitor.  They then back off to reset their vision control over the map.

Vulcan gets caught out in SR’s Blue Side Jungle.  He survives the damage as C9 jumps to his defense.  They deal a chunk of damage to Contractz, who has to shuffle very quickly away.  Bvoy ends up being the one to die.  He falls to Loki.  The rest of SR head for the hills as C9 marches into their base, taking the Base Mid Turret and the Mid Inhibitor as they go.

C9 moves to start sieging the Nexus Turrets, but Vulcan sees an opportunity to jump onto and Ult 3 members of SR.  This leads to Palafox dying to Thanatos, though Vulcan also ends up dying (Contractz gets the kill).

With SR’s remaining players low on Health, C9 are able to take out both Nexus Turrets without issue.  SR tries to make a last stand, but Fudge, Ceos, and Bvoy (who respawned) all die to Zven while Contractz falls to Loki.  Only after all those kills does C9 destroy SR’s Nexus.  Fight goes 5-1 for C9.

Post Game Analysis: LTA North Continues to Have a Problem

C9 ends the game at 34:48 with an 11.4k gold lead.  The final score was 23-12.

Over-aggression and bad positioning rule the day again.  SR had a good early game, but they fell into bad habits, biting off more than they could chew and getting caught out one too many times.  They had the potential to win several of the team fights in the Late Game, but they handicapped themselves by giving C9 a numbers advantage.

Yet again, I’ll say that SR has great potential, but they aren’t quite ready yet.  They still need to work on their positioning and aggression.  That said, C9 wasn’t perfect and could stand to make sure they didn’t overstep themselves.

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.

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