TL;DW – LTA North Edition: C9 Capitalizes on TL Mistake in Game 1
Week 8, Day 2 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. C9 vs TL. C9 is on Blue, TL is on Red. C9’s roster is Thanatos (top), Blaber (jungle), Loki (mid), Zven (bot), and Vulcan (support). TL’s roster is Impact (top), Yuuji (jungle), APA (mid), Yeon (bot), and CoreJJ (support). For more information on what early, mid, and late game means, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Who Wore It Better
Bans see Kalista, Yone, Pantheon, Gwne, Rumble, and Ahri taken out.
C9 picks Vi as their 1st pick. TL grab Taliyah and Naafiri. C9 counter with Azir and Varus. TL lock in Sion before the start of the 2nd ban phase.
Ambessa, Ezreal, Alistar, and Senna were banned away in round 2 of the ban phase.
TL finishes out their turn by taking Jhin. C9 closes out their team with Renekton and Rell. TL has the last pick, and they decide on Rakan. Both teams have excellent engagement and long-range follow-up. It should come down to who can execute their comp better.
Team comps are: C9 – Renekton (top), Vi (jungle), Azir (mid), Varus (bot), Rell (support) vs TL – Sion (top), Naafiri (jungle), Taliyah (mid), Jhin (bot), Rakan (support).
Early Game Highlights: In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle
Yuuji attempts to invade late, and gets caught out and chunked rather low. Blaber, on the other hand, invaded and stole Yuuji’s Red Buff by Flashing over the Baron Pit wall. Yuuji attempts another invasion on Blaber’s Raptors. Blaber is there, but his Smite is on CD, so Yuuji manages to take the Big Raptor.
After Yuuji Steals the Big Raptor, CoreJJ comes over to provide backup. Not wanting to fight, Blaber heads over to his Krugs, which gives Yuuji the ability to Steal his Red Buff.
APA moves to the potential ward, the lower Mid Bush, but Blaber is waiting for him. APA has to Flash to survive the gank.
TL takes the 1st Drake (Ocean) uncontested.
Blaber returns to Mid Lane. Loki dives in and uses the Emperor’s Divide to push APA back down the lane. Blaber then Dash forward to knock him up. Since APA didn’t have Flash, he dies to the gank with Loki getting the kill for 1st Blood.
C9 starts up the Voidgrubs. TL comes in to interfere. Blaber secures 1 Grub and backs off, leaving Yuuji free to take the other 2.
Early Game ends with C9 ahead in gold by 30,0 but TL ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: Lots of Action but No Blood
3 members of TL go Mid. CoreJJ uses Ult and Flash to try and take down Loki, but he manages to slip away.
C9 starts up the 2nd Drake (Infernal) but are pushed off it by Yeon’s Curtain Call. TL then takes control of the objective. Both Top Laners Teleport in. Drake becomes a Smite Fight, which Yuuji wins.
Impact tries to engage on to C9 to start a full-on fight, but he gets pushed back by Emperor’s Divide and then Rooted by the Chains of Corruption. C9 quickly retreats. No kills, but TL secure to objective.
APA roams down to Bot Lane and tries to gank Thanatos with Impact. Thanatos is able to avoid the Seismic Shove with some good footwork and survive.
C9 takes the Rift Herald uncontested. TL trades it for the 1st Turret of the game by taking the Outer Bot Turret. At the same time, Yeon gets caught out by Blaber in Red Side Bot Jungle and has to Flash into the Dragon Pit.
TL postures aggressively against C9 in Mid Lane, forcing Blaber to burn his Flash to get to safety. TL then moves down to the Dragon Pit and starts setting up for the next Drake.
C9 drops Shelly in Mid Lane to distract TL and starts up the 3rd Drake (Mountain). The bulk of C9 is used to keep TL away so Blaber can secure the objective uncontested.
After taking the Drake, TL hover around. Vulcan uses Flash to engage CoreJJ, but there isn’t enough damage to kill him. CoreJJ dashes away. After a little more posture, everyone disengages. No kills again, but this time, C9 takes the objective.
Mid Game ends with C9 still ahead in gold (now by 700) and also ahead in farm.
Late Game Highlights: Well, We’ve Seen This Happen Before
CoreJJ gets caught out in Red Side Bot Jungle and, despite his best efforts, gets chased all the way to Bot Lane and killed by Blaber. Impact, who had tried to help him, also dies (the kill goes over to Loki). Off the back of these 2 kills C9 take Atakhan uncontested and the 4th Drake with only minor poking from TL.
As C9 attempts to retreat after taking these 2 objectives, APA uses Weaver’s Wall to come in and starts going after Vulcan, who can get away fast enough. He dies to Yuuji. This extended team fight (if you want to call it that) goes 2-1 for C9, and they also get the Drake and the Atakhan.
As both teams hover around in Mid Lane as they wait for Baron, C9 jump onto Impact, who was slightly out of position, lock him down, and kill him. After this, Loki catches APA out in Blue Side Top Jungle and kills him 1v1.
C9 starts up Baron and burns it down quickly. Vulcan, who was hiding on the other side of the Red Buff pit (not sure what to call it) comes around and CCs Yuuji to prevent any attempt at a Steal. C9 secure the Baron. Despite 4 members of TL targeting him, Vulcan is tanky enough to survive until his team arrives.
Zven kills CoreJJ off the bat. Blaber then makes a beeline for Yuuji, who manages to survive. As C9 retreats, Yeon opens up the Curtain Call but is unable to get a kill. Fight goes 1-0 for C9, who also gets the objective.
Yuuji and APA try to gank Thanatos in Top Lane as he pushes the wave, but Thanatos jumps straight onto APA, who ends up dying to Thanatos despite CoreJJ intervening. Blaber, who also joined, jumps onto CoreJJ, allowing Thanatos to kill him too. Yuuji gets away. With 2 members of TL down, C9 takes the opportunity to break open TL’s base and take their Mid Inhibitor.
Blaber takes the 5th Drake uncontested. They are now on Soul Point. After a little more sieging, C9 takes the Top Inhibitor as well.
C9 makes their way into the TL Base. After some back and forth, TL uses Weaver’s Wall to try and split up C9. CoreJJ rushing in on to Zven, knocking him up. Yuuji then jumps onto him, but Zven Flashes away. Meanwhile, Blaber, Thanatos, and Vulcan dive onto the rest of TL.
APA is the first to die. He goes down to Vulcan. Impact drops to Zven next. Loki dives forward and catches Yuuji and Yeon with Emperor’s Divide. He then kills them both. CoreJJ survives by leaving his Base. C9 then turns to the Nexus and breaks it.
Post Game Analysis: LTA North Has a Problem
C9 ends the game at 33:22 with a 14.4k gold lead. The final score was 12-1 for C9.
People have really got to stop getting caught out. I feel like I say this almost every game, but it still remains relevant. These are professional players. All they do is play League of Legends. They should be making such common mistakes. At least, they shouldn’t be making them as often.
Both the Early and Mid Game were pretty even. It wasn’t until CoreJJ and Impact got caught out that the balance of the game started to tip in C9s favor. Props to them for capitalizing, but, honestly, they shouldn’t have had the opportunity. TL effectively handed C9 this game.
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.
