TL;DW – LTA North Edition: C9 Womps SR in Game 2
Week 4, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. C9 vs SR. SR is on Blue, C9 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). C9 won Game 1. For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game means, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Slow and Steady or Fast and Volatile
Gwen, Vi, Ambessa, Yorick, Yone, and Ahri were banned out during the 1st ban phase.
SR 1st picks Azir. C9 opts to go for Varus and Wukong. SR’s next champions selected are Kai’Sa and Neeko. C9 grabs Sylas before the 2nd set of bans begins.
C9 targets the jungle pool by banning out Jarvan IV and Trundle. SR spreads out their bans by removing Rakan and Rumble.
Returning to champion selection, C9 takes Sion for themselves. SR closes out their team with Aatrox and Skarner. C9 has the last pick and they decide on Bard. SR has good engagement and persistent damage. C9 is slightly more burst-oriented but also has a decent amount of lockdown.
Team comps are: SR – Aatrox (top), Skarner (jungle), Azir (mid), Kai’Sa (bot), Neeko (support) vs C9 – Sion (top), Wukong (jungle), Sylas (mid), Varus (bot), Bard (support).
Early Game Highlights: Minor Lead of C9
Small scuffle in SR’s Blue Side Jungle to get a ward down. Apart from that, nothing interesting happens to start things off.
C9 takes the 1st Drake (Mountain) uncontested. Afterwards, Blaber heads to the Bot Lane to gank Fudge under Turret with Vulcan and Thanatos. The dive succeeds, and Thanatos dies to Blaber for 1st Blood.
SR takes all 3 Voidgrubs without issue.
Early Game ends with C9 ahead in gold by 300 and the farm about even.
Mid Game Highlights: The Lead Extends
As both teams start setting up around the Dragon Pit, Loki TPs in behind Palafox in Bot Lane.  Thanks to excellent skill timing, Loki manages to immune the Knock Back of Emperor’s Divide and gets Palafox low. Blaber comes in to help and ends up Stealing the kill. C9 then rotates over to the 2nd Drake (Cloud), which they take uncontested.
Both teams set up around Baron Pit for the Rift Herald. Contractz Flash engages with Blaber, hoping to take him out of the equation. Vulcan, however, uses Tempered Fate to lock them both in Stasis, which allows C9 to get a better position and prevents Contractz from dragging Blaber into SR’s waiting arms.
Once they come out of Stasis, Contractz gets immediately Knocked Up by Thanatos, and Blaber is able to reposition and activate his Ultimate. Ceos arrives and hits multiple members of C9 with Pop Blossom but there is no damage to follow up.  He then dies to Loki, who also kills Contractz right after. The rest of SR scatter. Fight goes 2-0 for C9, who takes Rift Herald without issue.
The coms for C9 were shown after the play. It turns out the Blaber baited Contractz into engaging with him. The strategy worked out perfectly.
Loki and Vulcan go Bot and gank Palafox. Despite Ceos’ help, Palafox dies to Loki, who takes the Outer Turret afterwards for the 1st Turret of the game.
C9 drop Shelly in the Mid Lane and use it to take the Outer Turret.
C9 takes the 3rd Drake (Infernal) uncontested. They are now on Soul Point.
Mid Game ends with C9 now ahead in gold by 3.2k and also ahead in farm.
Late Game Highlights: It’s Loki’s World and We’re Just Living in it
Thanatos Teleports into SR’s Red Side Jungle and gets immediately jumped on by all the SR members in the area. He tanks a good chunk of damage before using Unstoppable Onslaught to get out. C9 then group and fish for a re-engage on to SR. Though they get Contractz low, they aren’t able to find a decent angle to jump in on him, so the fight peters out.
SR starts up the Atakhan. C9 doesn’t initially go in, but they do poke. Contractz gets low and starts to back off, but he gets hit with the Tempered Fate, allowing C9 to get a better position on him. The moment he comes out of the Stasis, he gets Knocked Up by Blaber and is eventually dropped by Zven. SR back off, and C9 gain control over the Atakhan and secure it.
After taking the objective, Blaber and Thanatos both stick around a little too long. Blaber gets away, but Thanatos ends up dying to Bvoy, giving SR their 1st kill of the game.
Both teams start setting up around the Dragon Pit. Blaber is the first to pull the trigger, diving for the wall of Dragon Pit onto Bvoy, who has to Flash away. Ceos uses Pop Blossom, but it only hits Blaber. He then gets killed by Zven right after.
Loki slips in behind SR, Steals the Emperor’s Divide from Palafox, and then uses it to push in Palafox, Bvoy, and Contractz. Palafox drops to Blaber, Bvoy to Zven, Contractz to Blaber too, and Fudge falls to Thanatos for the ACE. Fight goes 5-0 for C9, who take the 4th Drake and claim the Infernal Soul.
Loki catches out Ceos in SR’s Blue Side Jungle and kills him 1v1.
Loki chases down and solos Palafox in Bot Lane 1v1 for another kill.
C9 starts up the Baron. SR’s vision is so limited that they don’t notice until the objective is at about 3/4th Health. Contractz tries to make his way over but can’t find an angle, so he tries to fight Thanatos instead. Unfortunately for him, Thanatos is too tanky and barely even notices.
Meanwhile, Loki is in SR’s Blue Side Jungle fighting Fudge, whom he kills solo. This is becoming a trend. Just before Loki lands if the final blow, Blaber secures the Baron uncontested.
Contractz stayed too long in Mid Lane after his failed attempt to take Thanatos down. He ends up dying to Zven. Ceos hits a Pop Blossom onto Zven afterwards, allowing Bvoy to come in and kill him. Loki then TPs in. he kills Bvoy but can’t get over to Ceos in time to kill him. Blaber gets the kill instead. Palafox books it in the other direction. Fight goes 4-1 for C9.
Palafox wasn’t fast enough. Loki is able to catch up to him and kills him under the Base Top Turret of SR with his own Stolen Ultimate for the ACE.
With all members of SR down and Baron Buff active, C9 takes the Base Top and Mid Turrets, as well as the Top and Mid Inhibitors, before backing off.
Thanatos Teleports Bot Lane. He is soon joined by Loki. Together they find Ceos in his Red Jungle. While Loki does the bulk of the damage, Thanatos gets the kill. Possible Loki gifted it to him.
C9 takes the Base Bot Turret and Bot Inhibitor. Vulcan then drops a Tempered Fate onto the Lower Nexus Turret.  As C9 rotates up to start working on the Upper Turret, Contractz engages onto Vulcan. C9 immediately converge, with Loki heading straight into the backline.
Bvoy dies to Thanatos first. Contractz follows immediately after, thanks to Loki. Blaber takes out Palafox, who manages to Knock him into the Fountain before he dies. Blaber survives, however. Meanwhile, Zven takes down Fudge. The respawned Ceos offer a token bit of resistance, but it amounts to nothing as C9 destroys the Nexus.
Post Game Analysis: LTA North Just Witnessed a Spanking
C9 ends the game at 28:57 with a 17k gold lead. The final score is 23-2.
I’m not sure what SR could have actually done in this game. C9 just seemed to be everywhere. Maybe SR could have been more proactive, but then again, the one time they were proactive ,C9 knew it was coming and countered it beautifully. This was just C9’s game, pure and simple.
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.
