TL;DW – LTA North Edition: DSG Improving Despite Lose to C9 in Game 2

Week 4, Day 2, 1^st week of LTA North the best of 3 matches, C9 vs DSG. C9’s score is 0-0, while DSG is 0-0. C9 won the last game C9 is playing on blue side, DSG on red. The team roster for C9 is Thanatos (top), Blaber (jungle), Loki (mid), Zven (carry), and Vulcan (support). For DSG, the team is Castle (top), eXyu (jungle), Abbedagge (mid), ScaryJerry (carry), and huhi (support). For specifics regarding early, mid, and late game, see the Terms at the bottom of the page.

Champion Selection: Control Or Engage, Which Will Win?

• First ban phase removes Jayce, Vi, Taliyah, Rumble Aurora, and Yone.
• DSG chooses Varus first. C9 counter with Ezreal and Naafiri. DSG then take Xin Zhao and Ryze. C9 enter second ban phase by pickin Viktor.
• During second ban phase, Neeko, Bard, Gnar, and Nautilus are taking out, severely lowering the number of potential supports.
• When champion selection starts again C9 picks Renekton. DSG round out their team with Aatrox and Leona. C9 decide to last pick Braum. DSG drafts as strong engage comp while C9 opts more for peel and control.
• Team comps are: DSG – Aatrox (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Ryze (mid), Varus (carry), Leona (support) vs C9 – Renekton (top), Naafiri (jungle), Viktor (mid), Ezreal (carry), Vulcan (support).

Early Game Highlights: Knowledge is Key

• Game starts out with a pause right as the players enter the game. The issue is resolved quicky. The reason for pause was not revealed.
• eXyu checks out red side top jungle and runs into 3 members of C9. He Flashes to try and run away but is chased and, even with Abbedagge comes to help, gives over First Blood to Ezreal.
• After the excitement of First Blood, game settles into a normal farming state. Both bot and top lanes switch lanes.
• Early game ends with Abbedagge hitting level 6. C9 has the gold lead (500) and the farm lead.

Mid Game Highlights: DSG Lack of Experience With the Game is Starting to Show

• Mid game continues the farming state. eXyu starts up the first set of Voidgrubs while Blaber starts up the First Drake (Infernal). Both take their respective objectives mostly uncontested. eXyu ganks top lane. He and Abbedagge, who Realm Warps up, push C9’s bot duo out of lane.
• Abbedagge gets ganked mid by Vulcan. Flashes away to safety. huhi comes up and hides in the lower mid lane bush. He jumps onto Loki and locks him down. Abbedagge and eXyu both arrive to help try and kill Loki, who goes very low, Flashes away, and manages to just barely survive. He might have died if eXyu hadn’t taken the time to kill raptors, delaying his entrance into the fight.
• C9 tries to bait in eXyu in upper mid bush but ends up getting baited themselves. Blaber jumps into the bush but has to Flash back over the wall when DSG converges. The teams throw out a few skills at each other, fishing for a play, but end up disengaging.
• eXyu starts the second set of Voidgrubs but the Baron Pit is warded so C9 head over to contest. DSG gets 2 of the Grubs before being pushed away. C9 gets 1. In retaliation, DSG works together to kill Loki, with Abbedagge getting the kill. 1-0 for DSG and the Voidgrubs score is 5 for DSG, 1 for C9.
• Vulcan and Blaber try to block DSG from going through blue side bot jungle to get to top lane. eXyu, Abbedagge, and huhi work together and manage to kill first Blaber, then Vulcan after a little chase. Abbedagge gets both kills.
• eXyu starts up the second Drake (Mountain) and takes it uncontested. Meanwhile, Blaber ganks Castle, who was too far up in lane. Thanatos gets the kill.
• 4 members of DSG head bot lane to try and gank Loki and Vulcan under turret. They manage to kill him under turret with eXyu getting the kill. Blaber arrives after Loki dies. Vulcan manages to stay alive long enough Ult, knocking up huhi, who has been taking turret shots.
• This knock up prevents huhi from getting away from the turret, and he dies as a result (Loki gets the kill credit). eXyu then kills Vulcan under turret but the combined damage from the turret, Blaber, and Thanatos (who TPed into the fight) means he goes down too, with Blaber getting the credit. Fight ends in a 2-2.
• Mid game ends due to time. The gold is even for both teams but C9 is up in farm.

Late Game Highlights: C9 Unleash the Renekton

• Another farming phase.
• DSG takes Rift Herald uncontested. They immediately use it mid lane to take the outer mid turret for First Turret of the game. Lane pushing and warding. Abbedagge takes outer top turret but otherwise nothing notable happens.
• DSG head over to the third Drake (Hextech) after it spawns. They clear out wards and start the objective. C9 do not contest, opting to trade for the outer top turret. Both objectives are taken. However, Abbedagge also takes the outer bot turret so the advantage goes to DSG in this trade.
• Loki gets caught out in red side top jungle, manages to escape by using Flash.
• DSG starts up the Ruinous Atakhan shortly after it spawns near top lane. They are spotted out on wards. C9 hovers around but DSG are the ones to engage first. Abbedagge snares Loki and then huhi jumps on to him, locking him up.
• DSG get him low, but he manages to survive long enough to ult before dying to Abbedagge, who dies immediately afterwards to Blaber. Blaber then dives on to a low eXyu, kills a nearby, even lower, huhi, and then kills eXyu.
• Meanwhile, Thanatos blocks ScaryJerry from getting involved in the fight, and then kills him. Castle, the last man standing, tries to kill Vulcan but he gets kited out and dies to Zven. 5-1 for C9, who then take Atakhan.
• After the massive fight, the game sets into a lane pushing, posturing, and warding phase as everyone waits and sets up for the upcoming Drake.
• DSG engage on to C9 with huhi’s and ScaryJerry’s ults. Abbedagge kills Zven right off the bat. Loki dies 4v1, with ScaryJerry getting the credit. DSG chase down Vulcan with Abbedagge eventually getting the kill. Thanatos and Blaber both retreat towards their base. DSG take the fourth Drake (Hextech).
• Immediately after taking the Drake, DSG head over to Baron. C9 gathers around but DSG takes the objective. DSG work together to keep Blaber out of the Pit, opening themselves up to being engaged on. Vulcan tagges Abbedagge, who gets stunned and eventually killed by Zven.
• Meanwhile Thanatos walks into the back line of DSG and takes out eXyu. ScaryJerry gets ripped apart by Blaber. Castle manages to get away but huhi is chased down and killed by Thanatos. DSG got the Baron but after losing the fight 0-4, only Castle retains the buff.
• huhi gets caught out near mid but gets away. Game resets to pushing and warding. DSG take inner mid turret but get engaged on as Thanatos comes around from behind in a pincer move. huhi gets CCed and dies to Zven. The rest of DSG take Abbedagge’s ult to safety.
• More warding and pushing while everyone waits for the next Drake. DSG try to steal Blue Buff but get caught and back off. After taking Blue, Blaber pursues and then gets CCed and killed by ScaryJerry.
• Thanatos tries to catch Abbedagge out, but he gets away. Castle manages to engage on to Loki, who Zhonya’s and then Flashes away. Thanatos comes in from behind DSG, jumping on to ScaryJerry, who dies. Thanatos then kills huhi while Zven kills Castle.
• Abbedagge and eXyu run but Thanatos chases after them over the wall to Dragon Pit. Thanatos dropped but has Guardian Angel so revives as Zven takes out Abbedagge. C9 then take the fifth Drake (Hextech). Fight ends 4-0 for C9.
• A little warding while waiting for Baron to spawn. C9 start up the objective. DSG slow head over. Thanatos acts a distraction, soaks several CC abilities, and dies to Castle. The rest of C9 retaliate with Loki killing eXyu and Zven killing huhi. Fight goes 2-1 for C9, who return to Baron and take it.
• The remaining members of DSG dance around top river as C9 finish off Baron. They then try to retreat but Abbedagge gets caught. He tries to Realm Warp away but gets CCed, preventing the Warp, and then killed by Zven.
• Using Baron, C9 takes mid base turret and inhibitor. Thanatos TPs in after he respawns and dives into DSG, only to get CCed and killed by huhi. DSG manage to push C9 out of their base.
• More lane pushing and warding.
• C9 start and take the sixth Drake (Hextech), while also taking inner bot turret. DSG, meanwhile, send Abbedagge up top to split-push. He takes the inner top turret. Both teams, having taken 3 Drakes each, are now on Soul Point.
• More warding and pushing as everyone sets up for the next Baron. Castle catches Thanatos out of position, chases after him and forces him to burn his Flash.
• Everyone congregates around Baron. Thanatos and Castle off on their own dueling each other in red side top jungle. All of DSG move around and pincer Thanatos, jumping on him and knocking him down into the GA revive. This leaves them open for the rest of C9 to attack.
• Loki takes out ScaryJerry, Blaber kills huhi and then eXyu, and Thanatos rips apart Castle and Abbedagge. The fight goes 5-0 to C9, who then take head straight into DSG’s base and end the game.

Post Game Analysis: Experience Wins the Day in the LTA

• C9 ends the game at 39:26 with a 9.1k gold lead. The final score was 26-12 for C9. DSG play very well and manage to put up more of a fight than was expected. Unfortunately for them, power and good positioning win the day.
• Thanatos on Renekton was too much of a threat. Even when DSG would manage to get good picks against C9, Thanatos would come in from behind and clean up. DSG could do to be more aware of the map, specific of how easy it is for Hextech Gates to get people around the map. More than once, they thought they had more time to get an objective than they actually did. C9’s victory comes down to experience more than anything else.
• After this game, C9 is 1-0 and DSG is 0-1.

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 3^rd dragon killed.

Late Game: Any time after mid game.