TL;DW – LTA North: C9 Walks All Over FLY in Game 3
Week 3, Day 1 of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. FLY vs C9. C9 is on Blue, FLY is on Red. FLY’s roster is Bwipo (top), Inspired (jungle), Quad (mid), Massu (bot), and Busio (support). C9’s roster is Thanatos (top), Blaber (jungle), Loki (mid), Zven (bot), and Vulcan(support). FLY won Games 1 and 2. For more information on what Early, Mid, and Late Game means, see Terms at the bottom of the article.
Champion Selection: Engage vs Poke
A few champions release from ban jail as Neeko, Vi, Rumble, Yone, Ahri, and Miss Fortune are taken off the board.
Fittingly, C9 grabs Azir 1st pick while FLY takes Taliyah and Ezreal. Trundle and Renekton locked in by C9. The 1st set of picks ends with FLY choosing Nidalee.
FLY targets the ADC pool with Sivir and Jhin bans. C9, on the other hand, target Support with Karma and Braum removed from the game.
FLY picks Poppy as they start up champion selection again. C9 closes out their team with Kai’Sa and Nautilus. FLY opts for Bard to finish things up. C9 has a much more all in comp, while FLY’s team prefers to poke.
Team comps are: C9 – Renekton (top), Trundle (jungle), Azir (mid), Kai’Sa (bot), Nautilus (support) vs FLY – Nidalee (top), Poppy (jungle), Taliyah (mid), Ezreal (bot), Bard (support).
Early Game Highlights: Mostly Uneventful
Another boring start of game and another interview to distract from that fact.
Inspired takes the 1st Drake (Ocean) uncontested. About time a team took it early this series…
Blaber starts up the Voidgrubs. Inspired shows up and Smites away the 1st Grub and then backs off. Blaber continues to fight the objective, only for Inspired to come back in and Smite away the 2nd Grub. The last Grub is secured by Blaber.
Early Game ends with FLY ahead in gold by 300 and ahead in farm.
Mid Game Highlights: LTA North Loves Their Uncontested Objectives
C9 takes the 2nd Drake (Hextech) uncontested as Busio heads up to Top Lane to try and gank Thanatos with Bwipo. After getting caught on a ward and taken to half Health, Busio uses a Portal to escape, joins up with Bwipo, and then they both attack the Turret while looking for an angle. Finding none, they back off.
Thanatos recalls and Loki TPs in to cover for him. After some minor poking, Loki dives forward on to Busio and Knocks him Back with the Emperor’s Divide. Busio uses a portal to get away but he ends up running into Blaber. Bwipo dies to Quad, who takes him down with the help of Vulcan (who had roamed up) for 1st Blood and Busio dies to Blaber. Fight goes 2-0 for C9.
FLY takes the Outer Bot Turret of C9 for 1st Turret of the game.
C9 takes the Rift Herald uncontested. FLY was hovering around but decided not to try and interfere.
FLY takes the 3rd Drake (Infernal) uncontested.
Mid Game ends with C9 now the ones ahead in gold (by 700) and farm.
Late Game Highlights: Beware the Depths
C9 drops the Rift Herald in Bot Lane. They try to use it to take down FLY’s Outer Turret but Busio saves the Turret with Tempered Fate. FLY kill Shelly and the Turret remains standing.
In Top Lane, Bwipo and Thanatos get into a fight, but Bwipo starts to lose and tries to run. Thanatos chases him down and kills him.
A fight starts up at FLY’s Red Buff. Blaber Steals the buff with Smite from Inspired and apparently, he took it personally. FLY collapses on to Blaber and he dies to Massu. Bwipo comes in from behind, targets Vulcan, and kills him. Loki and Zven try to run away but FLY chases after them, with Bwipo and Massu going through C9’s Blue Jungle to cut them off.
Sven fight Massu and Bwipo 1v2 and dies to Massu while Loki gets ganged up on by the other 3 and dies to Inspired. Fight goes 4-0 for FLY, who take Atakhan off the back of it.
Both teams gather up around Dragon Pit. They poke at each other. Bwipo gets hooked by Vulcan and has to Flash back to his team to survive. FLY is able to keep him safe but they lose priority on the Drake.
C9 split up, with Thanatos and Blaber trying to warp around and come behind FLY but they get caught and pushed away. FLY regains priority over the Drake and takes it without further issue. They are now on Soul Point.
A fight breaks out in Mid Lane. It’s started by Quad coming in with the Weaver’s Wall. Loki dives forward and tries to Knock him Back with the Emperor’s Divide but only gets Busio. Despite using Tempered Fate on himself, Busio dies to Sven.
Thanatos TPs in from Bot Lane and jumps on to Quad. He dies to Blaber. FLY scatters and C9 heads down to the Dragon Pits and starts up the Drake. Massu and Bwipo hover around, poking at the remaining members of C9 as they slowly whittle down the objective.
As the Drake gets low, Massu backs off because he’s low on mana and C9 pounce on him. Get dies to Zven, who also kills Bwipo. Blaber stays on the Drake and secures it. Fight goes 4-0 for C9.
While FLY respawns, C9 takes control of the area around Baron Pit. As FLY arrives to try and set up their on control, Vulcan Flashes forward and hooks Inspired, leading to him getting killed by Blaber. The carries of FLY try to poke down Thanatos, but he pops the Dominus, goes in, and gets Quad low enough for Zven to finish him off. C9 rotates over to Baron and secures it uncontested.
Bwipo goes Top to try and push the lane and poke Thanatos, but Thanatos just engages on him and kills him 1v1.
Vulcan lands a hook on the Inspired in the Mid Lane. Both teams converge but Inspired manages to get away. FLY backs off. Thanatos TPs into the Bot Lane to push the wave while the rest of C9 head down to the Dragon Pit. They take the 6th Drake uncontested. Now both teams are on Soul Point.
Vulcan Flash-Ults on to Massu to start up another team fight. Both teams converge. Though Busio tries to buy time with the Tempered Fate, it only delays things. Thanatos takes down both Massu and Quad, Zven drops Inspired and Bwipo, and Busio gets away. C9 break down the Mid Inhibitor, then the Nexus Turrets, and the Nexus to end the game, with Zven grabbing another kill on to Busio.
Post Game Analysis: Those Early Mistakes Can Bite You in the Butt
C9 ends the game at 36:34 with a gold lead of 11.4k. The final score was 15-4.
This was just a clinic by C9. With the exception of the 1 team fight that they won, FLY got no other kills this entire game. C9 was able to outplay them at almost every turn.
The main problem for FLY started with the failed gank in Top Lane that they traded for the 2nd Drake. They put themselves behind severely with that play. Either they shouldn’t have tried it and contested for the Drake or they should have called if off once Busio was spotted out. After that, it was just a downhill battle for them.
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.
