TL;DW – LTA North Edition: LYON vs DIG Goes To Game 3
Week 7, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2. LYON vs DIG. LYON is on Blue, DIG is on Red. LYON’s roster is Licorice (top), Oddielan (jungle), Saint (mid), Hena (bot), and Lyonz (support). DIG’s roster is Srtty (top), Sheiden (jungle), Keine (mid), Tomo (bot), and Isles (support). LYON is 1-2, DIG is 1-2. LYON won the 2nd Game. For more information on what early, mid, and late games mean, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: A Few New Faces
Ban phase sees Azir, Yone, Naafiri, Vi, Kalista, and Nocturne removed from the pool.
LYON gets 1st pick, and they go for Renekton. DIG takes K’Sante and Miss Fortune. LYON responds with Lillia and Nautilus. DIG closes out the 1st set of picks with Braum.
During the 2nd ban phase, Senna, Veigo, Sylas, and Kindred are exiled.
DIG starts up the 2nd round of picks with Ryze. LYON takes Zeri and Annie. DIG takes Olaf as their last pick. LYON has a team with a good mix of poke and all-in. DIG seems more inclined towards split-ushing and roaming.
Team comps are: LYON – Renekton (top), Lillia (jungle), Annie (mid), Zeri (bot), Nautilus (support) vs DIG – K’Sante (top), Olaf (jungle), Ryze (mid), Miss Fortune (bot), Braum (support).
Early Game Highlights: A Trade of Kills and Objectives
Nothing major happens for a good while. There’s a failed attempt to Steal Oddielan’s Raptors. That’s about it.
Lyonz goes Mid and ganks Keine. Though Keine almost kills Saint, the gank succeeds, and Lyonz gets the kill for 1st Blood.
DIG starts the 1st Drake (Cloud).  Oddielan doesn’t bother contesting and goes Mid to try and gank Keine again. Gank succeeds in getting Keine to burn his Flash, but DIG secures the objective uncontested.
LYON manages to sneak Voidgrubs. Down in Red Side Bot Jungle, Saint attempts to catch Keine out as he destroys a Ward in Tri-Brush, only to get caught out himself thanks to Sheiden being present. He tries to Flash away but Sheiden kills him with a well-aimed Undertow.
Early Game ends with DIG ahead in gold by 400. Â They are also ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: Chaos and Catches
As both teams start to gather around Dragon Pit for the upcoming 2nd Drake (Hextech), Saint gets caught out of position andis chased into the Pit, where he dies to Sheiden. Keine then Realm Warps 3 members of his team (himself included) onto the rest of LYON, only for Oddielan to put them all to Sleep.
Licorice Teleports in and deals a large amount of damage to Sheiden, which allows Oddielan’s DoT to kill him.  Srtty, who also Teleported in, kills Oddielan in retaliation. Licorice, now with Dominus popped, then kills Isles. As Licorice tries to get away, Srtty bounces him back.
DIG tries to kill him, but are unable to. While DIG is distracted by Licorice, however, Hena manages to take out Tomo. Before LYON can completely disengage, though, Keine kills Lyonz. The fight ends 3-3.
DIG starts and takes the 2nd Drake uncontested.
DIG starts up Rift Herald. Lyonz tries to catch out Isles but ends up getting jumped on instead. He dies to Tomo. DIG then secures the objective.
4 members of DIG roam together and drop Herald Mid, using it to take LYON’s Outer Mid Turret for 1st Turret of the game.
Isles gets caught out in Mid Lane Lower Bush. Almost escapes but ends up dying to Lillia’s burn. He is swiftly joined by Tomo, who dies to Hena. Off the back of this kill, LYON takes the 3rd Drake uncontested.
Mid Game ends with DIG ahead in gold by 1.6k and, also, ahead in farm.
Late Game Highlights: Drop a Ward for Baron’s Sake
DIG starts up and takes Atakhan. LYON has no vision, so they don’t even notice it being taken until the game tells them so.
Hena pops Lightning Crash and charges at Tomo, who almost gets away but is pulled back slightly by Lyonz’ hook. Hena gets the kill.
Hena almost gets caught out in Bot Side Top Jungle but manages to kite his way out of the fight. Licorice Teleports in to try to help and ends up getting CC Chained and dies to Srtty. DIG turn on to the rest of LYON and, thanks to Tomo’s Bullet Time, Sheiden is able to kill Oddielan. The fight goes 2-0 for DIG.
DIG starts up the 4th Drake. LYON tries to converge, but the Drake does too quickly. DIG secures the objective and is now on Soul Point.
The game enters a state of farming, warding, posturing, and pushing.
Isles gets caught out in Upper Mid Bush but survives. LYON also survived, in spite of Tomo raining down Bullet Time on them.
DIG starts up the 5th Drake. LYON engages to try and stop them. Oddielan is able to take out Srtty before he is killed by Tomo. Saint drops a Tibbers Stun, which allows Hena to kill Sheiden. Tomo immediately responds by killing one of theirs, Lyonz. Licorice manages to kill Keine, and in the end, Tomo and Hena kill each other. The fight goes 4-4.
Licorice tries to take the objective but gets distracted by Isles. He tries to kill him only succeeds in resetting the Drake. He should have just stayed on it and left Isles alone.
Once everyone respawns, DIG heads straight for the Drake and takes it before LYON can stop them. They now have Ocean Soul. After claiming this, they head over to Baron.
LYON attempts to engage. DIG uses Glacial Fissure and Bullet Time to zone LYON away while they finish the objective. LYON attempts to force DIG into a fight, but DIG are able to get away thanks to Keine’s Realm Warp.
Using the Baron Buff, DIG pushes down Top Lane, taking out the Inner Turret. They attempt to siege the Base Top Turret but have to back off a light when Tomo almost dies to Hena. After regrouping, DIG comes back and takes both Base Top Turret and Top Inhibitor.
While this was all happening, Srtty was Mid. He takes the Base Mid Turret. The rest of DIG join him, and they take the Mid Inhibitor. They then use Realm Warp to head to Bot Lane and take the Inner Bot Turret.
As DIG starts to recall, in lane, Licorice dives in to try and stop them. He ends up dying for this.
DIG starts sieging the Base Bot Turret (even though Baron Buff has expired). Hena tries to start a fight but gets Knock-Up. Thanks to layers of CC, LYON are able to get many members of DIG low, but Sheiden starts to rampage. He takes out Hena and Saint while Tomo kills Lyonz. Sheiden dies to Oddielan after he kills Saint.
Licorice, with Dominus pop, dives into the backline of DIG and takes out Keine, only to die to Srtty immediately afterwards. The fight goes 4-2 for DIG, who push into LYON’s base. Bypassing the Base Bot Turret, they head straight for the Nexus Turrets, take them out, and destroy LYON’s Nexus.
Post Game Analysis: LYON Leaves LTA North’s Split 2
DIG ends the game at 36:43 with a 5.8k gold lead. The final score is 16-13 in DIG’s favor.
This game was very back and forth. Either team could have won. That said, part of the reason why DIG was able to win was because they won the vision war. They were able to take several objectives without LYON interfering because LYON didn’t have wards in the right places.
LYON had several misplays, starting with Saint’s attempt to 1v1 Tomo in Bot Jungle, only for Sheiden to show up and ending with Licorice trying to stop DIG’s recalls in Bot Lane. After a game of control and patience, LYON fell back into a pattern of overaggression.  If they had warded more and fought less, they might have won.
With this victory, DIG secures their place in next week’s games. As for LYON, this loss means the end of Split 2 for them.
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.
