Every year eight college meet in the LCS Arena to duke it out and find out who holds the title for best Collegiate League of Legends team in North America. After four days of play, the tournament reached its climax with University of Western Ontario vs Maryville University.
Courtesy of Maryville University
Maryville began the Game 1 in control of the pace and almost every neutral objective. The match kicked off in the top lane with Aiden “Niles” Tidwell tower diving Alex “Gorica” Gorica for the kill. However, University of Western Ontario would quickly turn things around with Winston “Julius” Herold picking up a kill onto Niles. Later, UWO would try to turn their gold deficit around by taking Rift Herald, however, MU managed to make another two picks and widened their already massive gold lead.
It was clear that Maryville were in the drivers seat with all three lanes up in CS at 15 minutes. In fact, Niles proved dominant in the top lane that he took a 40 cs lead at 15 minutes. Furthermore, Maryville took all four drakes giving them incredible scaling ability. Finally, after taking two barons and a 9k gold lead, Maryville finished off UWO in a sub 30 minute game. Maryville University was victorious 10-3.
UWO came into Game 2 ready to play and showed it with Kyle “Shorthop” Raposo taking an early kill onto MU’s Luis “Clyde” Ferrera. However, after that first kill MU took their momentum from Game 1 and had an answer for anything UWO threw at them. Western Ontario attempted to make another play on the bot lane, however, MU turned the gank around into two kills. It seemed that no matter how often UWO tried to make plays with picks or engages, Maryville turned things back around with multiple kills.
It’s clear that Niles path to victory was a 40 cs advantage at 15 minutes, then within just 5 minutes he would take a 70 cs lead at 20 minutes. Furthermore, Maryville had a 6k gold lead at 20 minutes. Maryville took another quick and dominant win, taking victory 18-5 in just 30 minutes.
Courtesy of Maryville University
UWO began the match ready to turn things around again, this time making an pick onto Maryville’s star player Niles, just 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the game. The Canadian team showed their proactivity again by making a pick onto Maryville’s support, Clyde. Western continued to snowball their early game lead by easily taking the infernal drake as soon as it spawned. As the game began to fall out of Maryville’s hands, Michael “Wolfe” Taylor made a crucial kill onto UWO’s midlaner.
Maryville fully took control of the game during a team fight where they not only took out UWO’s jungler and support, but they would also take Rift Herald. Despite their CS deficit in every role, Maryville clawed their way to a mid game baron. With the baron buff still ticking down, Maryville finished the match in under 30 minutes again, completing their dominant sweep.
Courtesy of lol.gamepedia.com
It’s clear that Aiden “Niles” Tidwell is the star player of the tournament and the match. Some argue, including the UWO head coach, that he was the best player of the tournament and he certainly showed it. His incredible outplays and masterful laning proved to be too much for the University of Western Ontario. Keep an eye out on Niles to break out into the Academy circuit or even make an appearance in the LCS in years to come.
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