CJ Entus takes the lead winning 2-0 against GSG

CJ Entus vs. GSG

Game 1

CJ

Bans: Katarina, Rumble, Evelynn

Picks

• Lee Sin - InSec (jungle)
• Sona - Kkinsh (support)
• Vladimir - LongPanda (top)
• Ashe - Space (adc)
• Ziggs - dade (mid)

GSG

Bans: Twisted Fate, Rengar, Malphite

Picks

• Ezreal - Clear (adc)
• Orianna - Easy (mid)
• Amumu - Solo (jungle)
• Leona - ManDu (support)
• Irelia - Cheonju (top)

The game started out relatively passively with only a few pockets of aggression in which both teams traded kills. As the aggression finally started to pick up, it seemed that GSG had stronger team fighting capabilities and would narrowly pull ahead in team fights. However, CJ, who proved to have better mechanical skills, out farmed GSG and held control over neutral objectives, allowing them to itemize better. Having both teams so evenly matched, it was hard for either team to push advantages and take objectives. GSG managed to take baron, however, despite this, they were unable to push forward due to the creep clearing capabilities displayed primarily from dade on ziggs. This unfortunately led to a rushed initiation and team fight, forcing GSG to retreat, despite simply trading one for one. Once both teams had time to regroup, they danced around each other in the mid lane. Suddenly, the Ziggs and Ashe ult came out for the initiation. Unfortunately, both ults missed, giving GSG the opportunity to counter attack. Luckily for CJ, there seemed to be miscommunication plaguing GSG as the ensuing team fight resulted in a huge win for CJ, allowing them to take an inhibitor, and baron. With baron, CJ boldly pushed down towers while they held the advantage. GSG seemed to be in disarray as CJ continued to bully their way into GSG's base. Finally, CJ was able to catch GSG out of position and quickly mopped them up for the win.

Game 2

CJ

Bans: Katarina, Rumble, Evelynn

Picks

• Olaf - LongPanda (top)
• Lee Sin - InSec (jungle)
• Twisted Fate - dade (mid)
• Kog'Maw - Space (adc)
• Nunu - Kkinsh (support)

GSG

Bans: Sona, Rengar Malphite

Picks

• Vladimir - Cheonju (top)
• Mao'Kai - Solo (jungle)
• Ryze - Easy (mid)
• Varus - Clear (adc)
• Zyra - ManDu (support)

Riding the momentum of game one, CJ started the game with an increased aggression. GSG managed to prevent a successful early invade, however, they were unable to prevent Space picking up a quick first blood on ManDu. Throughout the early game, InSec became a huge thorn for GSG, constantly ganking and invading. With InSec's help, LongPanda was able to shut down Cheonju and grossly snowball his lead. GSG made attempts to return this aggression, however InSec accompanied by occasional teleports from LongPanda, CJ was always able to turn fights in their favor. GSG quickly found themselves in a grim situation. CJ displayed an almost indescribable dominance in this game. With the tankiness from LongPanda on Olaf, some damage from InSec on Lee Sin, and burst from dade on Twisted Fate, they were able to completely overpower GSG in 3v5 team fights. Meanwhile, Space and Kkinsh persistently pushed top, quickly advancing towards GSG's Nexus. Eventually, it was too much for GSG, they lost one last 3v5 team fight in a 4-1 trade and brought out the surrender, giving CJ the complete 2-0 series and the three point lead in their group.

Match Breakdown

Game one was extremely close. Both teams were able to take advantage of each other's missteps, but neither were effectively able to close out the game. It all came down to the smallest differences in ability. It seemed like after GSG failed a tower dive after taking baron, they became increasingly disorganized. The tower dive itself didn't end badly. It was a one for one trade. However, this small case of miscommunication snowballed into a comeback win for CJ Entus. At first, GSG were winning team fights, even if slightly. But by the end of the game, GSG were noticeably out of focus. GSG had a team composition that was extremely reliant on chaining abilities. Unfortunately, after a certain point, they were always unable to do so. It was either abilities were still on cooldown, or miscommunication caused rifts in the timing. Of course, accurate disruption from CJ was also one of the causes.

Game two was a complete stomp. CJ continued to snowball their momentum in game one, as GSG continued to be disorganized. For instance, while InSec was roaming around the map making plays, Solo wasted a lot of time performing unsuccessful ganks. This could have been caused by miscommunication, but it was also, in part, due to Solo's inability to read situations and constantly made mistakes. While I cannot say for sure, it seemed like the loss in game one noticeably affected GSG's mindset in game two. If this is indeed the case, then as pro players, they must work on resetting their mindsets before each game to not allow losses to negatively affect their game play.

MVP

The MVP is InSec hands down. Especially in his performance in game two, he was able to make plays happen, giving his team advantages. It was not necessarily the amount of successful ganks that made the difference, but his presence as the jungler continuously made GSG wary of his position, allowing CJ to gain an advantage.

Source : ign[dot]com

Blaze take out Dignitas in a very close set

Picks Blaze Singed, Skarner, Orianna, Vayne, Lulu Dignitas Rumble, Rengar, Diana, Ezreal, Nunu

Due to some issues connecting to the stream we joined the game some 6 minutes in, Blaze had a small lead.

Dignitas made their move to equalise the score and picked up a double kill but Rengar got caught-out afterwards and gave Blaze a kill back, keeping their lead safe. Smelling blood after their last successful team-fight, Dig immediately went for another engage. They took Dragon and four kills for only two losses, putting them ahead in gold. They seemed to be capable of shutting down Vayne and the momentum had swung slightly into their favour.

Bloodlust was too strong for Dig though. They went too aggressive and ran into the entirety of Blaze, losing two for zero and both kills went  to Vayne. Feeding a Vayne kills is always a disaster and Blaze had succeeded in stemming the blood flow, bringing them right back to even.

There was another large teamfight but sadly the stream failed so no one actually got to see it. When the streams came back, the score was 12-13 in kills and pretty much even on gold. Dignitas kept the pressure up; killing Skarner allowed them to take the second mid tower. Blaze appeared to be on the back-foot but the game was still exceptionally close at the 30 minute mark. Dignitas took the next Dragon uncontested, showing that Blaze felt they were behind and didn’t want to fight.

The shields for Blaze really started to come into their own. This caused Diana to over-dive to try and kill Lulu, who had Oracles, and died for with no gain. Meanwhile Vayne completed her GA and became so much harder to take out of team-fights. The next fight was of massive importance. Skarner flash-ulted Diana but she managed to barely get out alive and Dig turned hard on Blaze. Singed wasn’t tanky enough and died quite fast which allowed them to switch onto Skarner who fell almost immediately after. Vayne almost escaped but a beautiful Mystic Shot from Ezreal clipped her on the way out. The DOT from his red buff burned her GA and she died immediately after it brought her back. Dig followed this up with a Baron, a Dragon and extended their lead to almost 6000g.

Dig made a rather large mistake and used the Malphite ult on Nunu alone to secure a kill. Blaze, knowing that one of the most important ults for Dig was down chose this moment to engage. Rengar was barely caught out by Lulu and this led to Rumble and Ezreal going down and Blaze taking out the first inhib of the game. More kills followed and Blaze had quickly shrunk Dig’s lead, with Vayne neared her end-game hypercarry status. The next and last fight was a slaughter. and Blaze went 4-0 and took game one with a nice comeback.

Bans

Dig Maokai, Malphite, Jayce Blaze Evelyn, Sona, Ezreal

Picks:

Dig Rengar (jungle), Nunu (support), Katarina(top), Corki (AD), Orianna (mid). Blaze Jaxx (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Diana (mid), Lulu (support, Vayne (AD). .

A quiet start to game two, with no invades or aggression. An early attempt to gank Kat in toplane found Rengar instead and Blaze picked up the firstblood gold. Blaze went for the fast-push and took out the top tower before the 6 minute mark. After that they swapped their AD/support back down to botlane. This gave Vayne tower gold and a small CS lead over Corki, in addition to having just bought and thusly having an item advantage.

A failed 1v1 attempt in toplane ended with Jaxx getting the kill and extending his CS lead to over 200% of Kat’s. Before the game had reached 10 minutes, Blaze had a three kills to zero and were more than 2000g ahead. Kat did manage a really nice double kill in toplane but Vayne answered back immediately with a kill onto Nunu and took Blaze’s second tower and first Dragon of the game.

After a small break from action Blaze took an uncontested Dragon and moved to mid for another easy kill. But then they overcommitted to a dive and Corki picked up a kill, followed up with two more kills as Corki and Kat cleaned up. A bloodbath in botlane ended with Jaxx surviving by less than a hair and Blaze almost taking the Inhib tower. Dig won the next fight by almost killing Diana and taking out Lee Sin. However, Lulu destroyed  their botlane inhib tower and Jaxx 1v1’d Kat to take the toplane inhib. They followed up by taking Baron but Jaxx went too deep and gave Dig a kill. This started a chase across the map that ended with Dig getting three kills for free, on Baron buffed champions. They couldn’t press into Blaze’s base safely, so they backed off to buy and heal up. Dig were doing ok in teamfights, still trading even, but the super minions started pressing into their base and they had to pull back to clean them out or start losing Nexus towers. A nice call from Dig ended with them picking up a free Baron and engaging on the back of Blaze. A brutal four-man stun from Jaxx allowed Blaze to nearly wipe Dig out with only a couple of losses.

Dig caught out Lee Sin and Diana in the midlane and then pressed into the Blaze base 5v3. They took one Nexus tower but Vayne managed to escape with almost no health once again and Dig were unable to end the game. Slugfest after slugfest goes slightly in Dig’s favour but only just and a last-second inhib respawn saved Blaze once again from losing. The time it took for Dig to try and end the game meant Blaze took themselves a free Baron afterwards. The Baron buff was too much and Blaze won the next teamfight. Nunu and Rengar tried to rush the Nexus and got it down to ¼ but just didn’t have the damage. The Nexus attempt delayed Blaze enough that Corki respawned and stopped Blaze from ending the game. Dig five-man pushed mid but a nice engage from Diana allowed Blaze to take the next teamfight and the win. An amazingly close game, world-class play from both teams. The best game in the event so far.

MVP: Lustboy will be taking this golden crown. Sure, it was Vayne who did the killing, but the big play that took Blaze back into the driving seat was a Glitterlance from Lulu onto Rengar. It pulled Dig into a fight they didn’t want and allowed Blaze to clean up and take back control. In addition to that he managed to cancel several Corki valk’s and this was pivotal in their victory. World class support play, both games.

A much closer set than the 2-0 score would suggest both teams put on a good show. Blaze proved the stronger team however and secured their spot in the top three.

- Jaszon ‘Lightblind’ Alexzander

Source : ign[dot]com

Dignitas wins one of longest games in LoL history to earn spot in final

Game 1

CLG Bans - Skarner, Rumble, Twisted Fate

CLG Picks

• HotshotGG - Shen - Jungle
• Doublelift - Kog-Maw - AD
• Voyboy - Vladimir - Top
• Chauster - Sona - Support
• Bigfatlp - Anivaia - Mid

Dignitas Bans - Olaf, Sivir, Alistar

Dignitas Picks

• IWillDominate - Udyr - Jungle
• Patoy - Nunu - Support
• Crumbzz - Irelia - Top
• ImaQTPie - Ezreal - AD
• Scarra - Gragas - Mid

Bigfatlp picked up first blood, this was followed by a one-for-one trade in botlane after a nice gank by Dignitas and good counter-gank from CLG. This was a very low-kill game, just three at 30 minutes. Dignitas managed to pull a 5k gold lead from farm and Dragons alone. A fantastic fight at Baron, after several minutes of dancing, lead Dignitas to get four of CLG down in exchange for a mere two, allowing them to pick up Baron. With a huge burst of momentum after taking Baron Dignitas pick up two very quick kills and an Inhib. Shen did do his split-pushing thing, but while he took a tower, he got caught and died for it. CLG did a good job defending their base, but Dig slowly chipped away at the remaining Inhib towers, taking a short break to grab the second Baron of the game and then opened up a second Inhib. Dignitas' lead was too much, and after a fantastic fight in CLG's base they took the Nexus and the first game.

The Big Play: The first Baron changed the game from being quite to close, to Dig charging into the lead. With a great engage, Dig forced Anivia to split off from the rest of his team. This was followed by a fantastic Nunu ult which kept the rest of CLG locked down and allowed Dig to clean up and take Baron.

MVP: This is almost arbitrary as all of Dignitas played fantastically well. However, the one fight that Dig won, which decided the rest of the game, was facilitated by Patoy and his fantastic zoning. MVP goes to him.

Game 2

Dignitas Bans - Olaf, Sivir, Malphite

Dignitas Picks

• IWillDominate - Alistar - Jungle
• Patoy - Janna - Support
• Scarra - Gragas - Mid
• Crumbzz - Nidalee - Top
• ImAQTPie - Caitlyn - AD

CLG Bans - Shen, Skarner, Twisted Fate

CLG Picks

• Doublelift - Kog'Maw - AD
• Voyboy - Rumble - Top
• Bigfatlp - Orianna - Mid
• HotshotGG - Cho'Gath - Jungle
• Chauster - Sona - Support

Dignitas chose a poke-comp for game two, which is not seen very often in high level play. With Gragas, AP Nidalee and Caitlyn, they had some of the best pokers available. First blood went to CLG after a nice tower dive on crumbzz but Dig picked up a kill onto Bigfatlp less than 10 seconds later. Dignitas took the first tower in botlane and followed up with the first Dragon, giving them a small lead. Hotshotgg got caught ward-clearing by Scarra and Dominate, losing Oracles and allowing Dig to push down their second tower of the game. Dig gave a blue buff to Nidalee and with her javelins they started to push out. Dig took the second tower in midlane but a nice play from CLG allowed them to kill Patoy and pick up their first Dragon. CLG tried for a Baron but Dig managed to stop them, but did lose three people for two in the fight. Dig's poke and some crazy burst from Gragas allowed them to take the first Inhib of the game. CLG stalled the game out until their Inhib eventually re-spawned, though they had lost another inhib turret in the meantime and Dig had stretched their lead to nearly 10,000g. Nevertheless CLG was making a great show of defending... until HotshotGG got caught by Scarra again and died. CLG won a 4v5 at Baron however, which allowed them to pick up Baron and a few more kills. This brought them right back into the game. CLG laid siege to Dig's towers, but it was very slow going as Dig had good wave-clear. Doublelift's amazing mechanical skill allowed CLG to win a fight in midlane and take another Baron. However, while they were doing Baron qtpie went in and took out 2 of CLG's Inhibs.

Dig seiged down another CLG Inhib tower, despite the Baron buff, but CLG had a great engage immediately after. They killed most of Dignitas and took their first inhib of the game. As the longest game of the tournament so far ground on, Dig managed to take one Nexus tower and all three Inhibs down. The gold gap at 70 minutes was a mere 2000, both teams breaking 100,000g. The game was on a knife edge, Dignitas had the most structures down and were somewhat ahead due to this, but even the smallest mistake would allow Doublelift to cut through the whole team like a hot knife through butter. A crazy extended fight inside CLG's base allowed Dig to slowly, painfully, poke down the remaining Nexus turret and eventually take the win. This was one of the longest games in competitive League history and Dignitas won it.

The Big Play: If you wrote about every amazing play that CLG and Dignitas made in this game it would be longer than this entire article- the skill shown by both teams was truly mind-blowing. However, if one action was to be singled out, it would qtpie going for CLG's Inhibs after they had won a team fight and were getting Baron. Without the problems this caused for CLG it was quite possible that they would have been able to push for a win.

MVP: Everyone. On both teams. Every single player stepped up and did at least one amazing thing, most did more amazing things than would happen in five normal games. While that is the truest answer, it is also somewhat of a cop-out. Therefore, I will give this MVP to qtpie; Partly for taking those two vital Inhibs, but mostly for his positioning. Facing off in team fights vs a Kog'Maw and as much CC as CLG had, he played out of his skin to stay alive and keep firing. But I will reiterate- every player in this match was a star.

What a great set of games. Including arguably the closest game of the year- and unquestionably one of the longest- this set is the stand-out of the Regionals so far. While Dignitas did manage a 2-0 victory, which might make it look one sided, nothing could be further from the truth. These teams play on the same level, and that level is insane.

Written by Jaszon 'Lightblind' Alexzander

Source : ign[dot]com