TL;DW – LTA North Edition: TL Walks All Over DIG in Game 1
Week 2, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. TL vs DIG. TL is on Blue, DIG is on Red. TL’s roster is Impact (top), Yuuji (jungle), APA (mid), Yeon (bot), and CoreJJ (support). DIG’s roster is Srtty (top), Sheiden (jungle), Keine (mid), Tomo (bot), and Isles (support). For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game mean, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Curveball in Game 1
The champions removed during the 1st ban phase were Yone, Neeko, Jayce, Pantheon, Naafiri, and Vi.
TL grabs Taliyah first. DIG decides on Varus and Rumble. Xin Zhao and Ornn are the next picks for TL. DIG takes Azir as their pick before the 2nd ban phase.
DIG targets the ADC role with Jhin and Ezreal bans, while TL spreads out theirs by taking out Braum and Trundle.
The 2nd pick phase starts with DIG locking in Skarner. TL closes out their team with Kalista and Renata. DIG opts for Gwen as their last pick. Both teams have very standard team fight build, in general, but DIG did throw out a curveball with the Rumble Support. This gives more potential damage, but at the cost of potential CC options.
Team comps are: TL – Ornn (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Taliyah (mid), Kalista (bot), Renata (support) vs DIG – Gwen (top), Skarner (jungle), Azir (mid), Varus (bot), Rumble (support).
Early Game Highlights: TL Strikes First
The game starts out without incident. Just farming and poking.
TL’s Bot Duo gets very aggressive against DIG’s. CoreJJ uses Flash and Heal to get him and Yeon closer to Tomo, who has to burn his Ghost, as well as Isles’ Heal, to survive.
TL takes the 1st Drakes (Ocean) uncontested.
Yuuji ganks Keine in Mid with APA. Keine takes a decent amount of damage but uses his Emperor’s Divide to push Yuuji under the Turret. As he does this, however, Impact, who roamed up from Bot Lane, uses his Ultimate to knock up Keine. APA then kills him with a Threaded Volley for 1st Blood of the game. Yuuji manages to survive the Turret.
TL takes the Voidgrubs uncontested.
Sheiden attempts to gank Impact in the Bot Lane, but he Flashes away to avoid it.
Early Game ends with TL ahead in gold by 1k, and also ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: TL Rule the Rift
TL takes the 2nd Drake (Chemtech) uncontested
Keine gets caught out by Yuuji in DIG’s Red Side Jungle and has to use both Emperor’s Divide and Flash to get away. Srtty, Sheiden, and Isles all arrive after Keine gets away, hoping to get a kill.
Srtty jumps onto Yuuji, who, even with the help of CoreJJ, APA, and Impact (who TPed in), dies to Srtty. Srtty tries to escape through the Blue Side Jungle of TL but ends up getting chased back to Top River and dies to APA.
Yuuji takes the Rift Herald solo and uncontested.
APA tries to use the Weaver’s Wall to separate DIG in the Mid Lane. He isolates Isles, but there is no follow-up damage, so he gets away. TL drops Rift Herald in Mid Lane afterwards and uses it to take the Outer Mid Turret of DIG for the 1st Turret of the game. Shelly also deals a massive amount of damage to the Inner Mid Turret.
Both teams gather around the Dragon Pit. Tomo uses Chains of Corruption, but it whiffs. As TL starts up the 3rd Drake (Hextech), APA manages to land a Seismic Shove onto Sheiden. TL turns to attack him and gets him low, but doesn’t have the damage to kill him. However, he is unable to get close to the Drake, so TL are able to secure the objective. They are now on Soul Point.
Mid Game ends with TL still ahead in farm and gold (now by 2.2k).
Late Game Highlights: Yeon Shows Off
APA uses Weaver’s Wall to cut Tomo off from his team. Yuuji jumps on him and takes a chunk out of his Health before the rest of his team can come in to try and save him. They manage to push Yuuji off, but APA wraps around and Knocks him Up with a Seismic Shove, allowing Impact the opportunity to kill him.
APA uses Weaver’s Wall again, this time separating Keine and Isles. Both Flash to try and get away, but Keine ends up getting hit by Impacts Ultimate and dies to APA. Off the back of this pick, TL takes the 4th Drake and claims the Hextech Soul.
APA gets caught in Top River and is chased down and killed by Sheiden. DIG then turns onto CoreJJ, who was with APA, and chases him down the River to the rest of his team. A full fight breaks out. Yuuji kills Sheiden, while Yeon kills Tomo and Isles. TL then turns to Baron and takes it uncontested. Fight goes 3-2 for TL. After Baron, they move over and take Atakhan as well.
Using Baron Buff, TL siege both Mid and Bot Lane. They are able to take both the Base Bot and Mid Turrets, as well as the Bot and Mid Inhibitors. While they are taking the Mid Inhibitor, Yeon solos down Isles before anyone can do anything to stop him.
After Yeon’s kill and the destruction of the Mid Inhibitor, Impact and Yuuji engage on to DIG. Yuuji gets pushed into the Fountain with Emperor’s Divide and dies to the laser (Keine gets credit). This, however, does not stop TL from killing Srtty (credit to Impact), taking both Nexus Turrets, and destroying the Nexus.
Post Game Analysis: Quick First Game in Week 2 of LTA North Split 2 Playoffs
TL ends the game at 28:41 with a 9.5k gold lead. The final score was 9-3.
This was a very quick game, and there’s really not a lot to break down. TL just outplayed DIG. Yuuji was more efficient in the jungle, leading him to be able to get to objectives first. APA had some great plays. Yeon just bullied everyone. Just good gameplay all around from TL.
While TL was ahead at the time, had DIG backed off after killing APA in Top River, instead of chasing after CoreJJ, they might have been able to prolong the game and find an opening.
I can understand why they thought they could chase, but once the rest of TL was in the area, they should have just backed off. That call didn’t specifically lose them the game, but it sure didn’t help either.
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.
