Man, the Asian teams are just dominating.

 

Wow dignitas' shen (I think crumbzz) levels feint at level 2 instead of shadow dash. Is winning the level 2 trades vs karthus THAT important that against one of the most aggressive teams in the tournament you sacrifice your escape in an unwarded lane?
Just wow, that's one of the worst decisions ever.

And the luckiest triforce slow procs I've ever seen. Udyr bear stun half a millisecond away from killing him and he gets the phage proc he needs to get away.

CLG Snoopeh's farm on Karthus...shit.

396 before 30 minutes

 

You mean CLG Froggen. Also yes, he's amazing.

 

Welcome to Dominion on Jayce release. Coats are stored to the right and beers are in the fridge.

But no, seriously. Maknoon runs Dominion Jayce, skill order and build.

 

Does he even play dominion? I think I saw 4not scrimming it as a joke, but I didn't know anyone played dominion.

 

I've found that most of the champs, builds, and tactics used in this tourney day really don't surprise me. Most of the high Elo dom matches used them several months back.

Some concepts are different (Mainly from item differences and snowballing), but the champs and combat methods are the same.

The skirmishes, objective focus, and play styles are the same as what you'd see in a tourney Dom match for the finals.

They've just been adapted into SR for a really crushing curb-stomp, apparently.

 

Well, so much for my prediction for top 2 as M5 face off against iG in the first quarter final tonight.

Only had time to watch the first 2 games yesterday (CLG NA vs iG, AZF vs iG) - Any recommendations on great matches? Or were they all rather Asia > World?

 

I can't really think of any great games. Not because there weren't any, but because when you're sitting down to watch twelve consecutive hours of League, all the matches just kind of blur together. I think I might've gone to sleep for a couple of hours there. Stupid EU time zone.

Apart from that crazy first blood in game one, the only other standout moment I can remember is the end of SK vs CLG.NA. Everyone loves a base race.

Sidenote: I'm pretty impressed with the production and setup, it looks slick as hell. Not exactly surprising considering how much money Riot are throwing at this thing, but they could've half-assed it. The hosts kind of suck though.

 

Maybe because they are the same champs and combat methods? Because it's the same game?

Somehow I doubt they played Dominion to develop strategies for their summoner's rift tournament play. Especially with there being no ranked dominion.
But hey, I learned something new today. Apparently, there are dominion tournaments, even if they are minuscule in comparison to SR tournaments.

 

Kind of expected for the hosts to have not been great. Seltzer is rather airheaded at the best of times & seems to be LoL's version of Anna Prosser. Wheat on the other hand is coming off of food poisoning so I expect he'll pick his game up.

Here we go, and well, I think this could be the best match of the tournament on paper.

 

M5 vs iG. This should be very interesting. Both are crazy strong and innovative teams.

Will edit after match.

Edit: Wow. That was the most entertaining match I have seen in a long time. Both teams went back and forth for a long time, with neither having a clear advantage or gold lead. Perfect plays from both teams, but then M5 won two perfectly executed fights, and iG went gg.

All in all, M5 may be EU/NA's best chance at Championship.

 

By far my favorite match of the tournament so far. Amazing play on both sides then someone gets caught the slightest bit out of position and then they just get routed.

 

Plus, Evelyn. And Xin, I fucking love Xin.

And even in game 2, we get interesting picks like Zilean and Olaf. That's not stuff we usually see, and this is the World Championship.
"Evelyn OP" is the new motto.

Edit: M5 won, 2-0. Really amazing play, all around. I am very satisfied.

 

Well, there are your guaranteed finalists from Russia. iG Started out well in both games but just... had a mixture of mistakes and being caught out by M5 in both games. Time to see if AZF or Najin meet M5 in the finals.

(Well aware I'm assuming M5 win their semi, it's hard to call anyone beating them with them on this form)

Edit - Wow, TPA look unstoppable, so much for that slump. Najin did incredibly, both games were dominant displays from both teams but TPA just edged out Najin in teamfights over and over. Mistake with amazing hooks, eagerly awaiting M5 vs TPA tomorrow.

Now, to see if the TSM fan-hype has been worth it, or whether AFZ can match what their brother team did at the MLG Spring Arena.

 

Fuck Dyrus' pillow.
Although the cheering was surprisingly even between TSM/AZF

 

How do you play a team with no hard initiate?

 

I don't even understand TSM's team comp that game. No CC outside Sona ult & Karth wall, if that even counts. No engage at all unless Regi got lucky and people were in position.

Waited the whole game for AZF to set up the engage teamfight that I figured would come with that comp - Lux's snare into MF ult, Lux ult, Blitz ult & Jayce's phasegate Q shot. Insta-burst 3 of TSM down and well, game.

TSM derped pretty hard that game really. Dyrus counter-picked himself and OddOne chose a jungler with no CC vs a poke comp, on a team with no engage, I dunno. Things like Shy buying a mana manipulator so he & Lux could poke more were great, as was Lux buying Merc treads initially to avoid any ganks from Karth wall landing.

Edit - Well, that was expected. Still, TSM can't complain. Seed earned them a cool $15k each and qualification for Season 3 so back to streaming.

 

And absolutely no one was surprised.

TSM has got to do something. They fold to every Asian team in the world.

 

NA teams going a combined 1/7 is at the very least disappointing.

Still, the games today were quite interesting IMO. M5 looking very strong and Azubu Frost disproving what I said yesterday.

We'll see what happens with World Elite and CLG.EU tomorrow!