After a tough Spring Split, OpTic were looking to start off Summer Split on a different note as they took on Clutch Gaming. While their roster had not changed, it looked as though they were determined to have a set lineup this Split. With William “Meteos” Hartman taking the starting Jungle role and Noh “Arrow” Dong-hyeon actually in the United States for the whole Split, OpTic wanted to show what they were built to do. Although the game would go back and forth, OpTic would end up pulling it out.
Draft Phase
Most of OpTic’s draft seemed to be focused around hard CC with a strong frontline for Lee “Crown” Min-ho and Arrow to work behind. This was accomplished by picking Nautilus, Sejuani and Poppy at Support, Jungle and Top respectively. The big surprise was when Crown picked Twister Fate. This pick would end up being a game changer.
As for Clutch their focus was on taking as much away from Crown as possible while also focusing on high poke damage from their Jayce, Varus and Rumble’s ultimate. They used this well to start but in the end they could never seem to setup and use the poke they had drafted for.
Early Game
The start of the game was surprisingly slow. Normally Clutch are trying to make plays right off the bat but it was a roam bot for OpTic by Crown and Meteos that garnered two kills for the Jungler. Clutch would follow up though with a TP from Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon that lead to a double kill and nearly a full team wipe in the end for Clutch.
OpTic would focus on getting good map pressure and grabbing objectives. They grabbed a couple dragons early on and they would come in handy going forward. For most of the game this was thanks to Meteos roaming around the map and setting up the rest of his team. Outside of a couple missed ults, he played a great game and helped to get them advantages in nearly every aspect.
The first tower would not fall until 17 minutes into the game. This was the name of the game though. Both teams were dancing around each other and too afraid to make major plays. This whole time Niship “Dhokla” Doshi had been relatively forgettable, not stepping into the game much at all.
Late(r) Game
After the 20 minute mark, Dhokla and Meteos would start having a major impact. At the 30 minute mark a team fight broke out that looked like it was going the way of Clutch but, Dhokla would knock out the Clutch bot lane with his Poppy ultimate allowing OpTic to get a couple kills and set themselves up for a Baron. Clutch would respond with Infernal and try to take the fight to OpTic.
This would end up working against them as in Clutch fashion they lost a weird teamfight that never seemed the end. The whole time they would be doing this, Crown was backdooring their base. He would do so much damage to it that OpTic would reset and siege their way to victory behind their very beefy frontline.
Conclusion
OpTic seemed to have a purpose and an identity this game. This was something that was lacking almost all of last Split. They would try to put all their eggs in the Crown basket and hope he could carry them. This game they played well as a team with basically every member making important plays at different points. They were a bit sloppy in the mid game though which allowed Clutch to extend the game. They will want to clean this up before they play 100Thieves on Sunday.
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