Week 4 of the 2019 LCS Summer Split kicked off Saturday, and Counter Logic Gaming matched up versus a struggling FlyQuest. CLG followed a 2-0 week, while FLY finished Week 3 0-2. This game played out pretty much as expected, with CLG taking advantages and FLY not doing much to stop them. CLG remain tied for first with OpTic Gaming and Team Liquid.
Draft
The CLG-FLY draft was a bit strange to begin. CLG banned Leblanc, Sona and Yuumi, while FLY banned Karma, Syndra and Sejuani. The Sona, Yuumi and Karma make sense with the meta pushing more towards enchanter supports, but the Leblanc, Syndra and Sejuani felt more targeted. Nonetheless, CLG drafted Biofrost’s current favorite, Lux, first. FLY responded with Tahm Kench and Irelia. CLG took Renekton, as a counter to Irelia, and Sivir to round out the bottom lane. Santorin got drafted Skarner.
Round two revolved around junglers for FLY, banning Olaf and Elise. CLG opted to remove Azir and Ezreal as carries. FLY settled on Lucian for Wildturtle, while CLG locked in Trundle/Viktor, more comfort picks. Last pick went to FLY, and they took Neeko. CLG’s zoning teamfighting composition would match up against FLY’s rotation-heavy pick composition.
In Game
Although Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage took the Viktor and Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min took the Renekton, the two players swapped lanes to match up against their preferred opponents. Nonetheless, V1per drew First Blood by Teleporting into mid lane to answer CLG’s engagement onto Pobelter. With both teams’ supports, junglers and top laners collapsing mid, V1per landed Neeko’s Tangle-Barbs to knock down PowerOfEvil and Ruin. Unfortunately, Pobelter over-stayed and granted an easy kill to Biofrost.
Both junglers revisited mid lane shortly after, this time with Pobelter going down to Wiggily. Vincent “Biofrost” Wang made a big Flash-Prismatic Barrier-Heal to save Ruin. CLG secured the Infernal Drake afterwards. Around 10 minutes, Ruin roamed to top lane and narrowly killed V1per, who almost got away with Pop Blossom and Flash. FLY responded minutes later by counter-ganking mid to kill Ruin with Santorin’s Impale and V1per’s Pop Blossom. They took their own Infernal Drake afterwards, followed by Rift Herald. By 19 minutes, CLG pulled ahead 1000 gold.
The next major fight happened near dragon pit, and both mid laners fell in the shuffle. Pobelter got rooted and burst by PowerOfEvil, Stixxay and Biofrost, while Ruin got burst by Santorin, V1per and Wildturtle. CLG still secured the Mountain Drake. The teams traded solo laners again, by sending Santorin bottom lane to kill PowerOfEvil alongside V1per, while Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin and Biofrost ran top lane to kill Pobelter with Ruin. FLY dropped Rift Herald mid, trading for a turret top.
At 25 minutes, Santorin Flash-Impaled Biofrost to take him down near mid lane. CLG could not get anything down in response fight-wise, but they did take their second Mountain Drake. They set up and forced down the mid outer turret, then instantly turned onto Pobelter to kill him when he Teleported. CLG moved to Baron and secured it without much contest. They picked off Pobelter yet again, and zoned FLY to the wrong side of the mid lane. Pushing up mid lane, CLG secured the inhibitor, Santorin, V1per, Wadid and the Nexus.
Conclusion
FLY played this game close until 20 minutes in. Despite the Lucian match-up, Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes was able to sit back and scale on Sivir. While FLY tried to make Teleport plays, most of them failed because of poor timing and coordination. CLG was very decisive with what they decided to do, and played a bit more disciplined, opting for objectives over kills at times. Ruin’s Renekton did not necessarily hard counter Irelia in lane as expected, but the rest of CLG’s champions ended up playing out perfectly for them. Their true test for Week 4 comes Sunday, facing Cloud9.
CREDITS
Images from Riot Games’ LCS broadcast
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