After putting up poor performances on the international stage in the past years, Flash Wolves have come into the 2018 Mid Season Invitational with a point to prove. That point being that they are indeed a top tier team. If the first day of the group stage is anything to go by, that point is very much valid.
Today Flash Wolves faced off against fellow play-in stage survivors, EVOS, and the Kings of the EU LCS, Fnatic to start their run. Flash Wolves triumphed over both of these teams by employing their aggressive, calculated playstyle.
Maple is Godly
Much of today’s wins came down to the phenomenal performance coming out of mid laner Huang “Maple” Yi-Tan. Posting an impressive combined scoreline of 19/0/9, Maple came out and showed the world just what he is made of. In their first game against EVOS, Maple was able to roam to his side lanes consistently. Almost every time he did this he would pick up a kill, allowing him to snowball incredibly hard.
In the second game, Maple was a force to be reckoned with on Vladimir. He would constantly dive onto Fnatic’s back line of Martin “Rekkles” Larsson and Rasmus “Caps” Winther and quickly kill or chunk them out to make sure they had no impact in a team fight. This allowed his team to win team fights consistently by dealing with the remaining players.
EVOS Can’t Clear Raptors
Whilst there is no doubt that Flash Wolves ‘looked’ very dominant today, it is still to be seen whether or not they can hang with the big dogs. Both the teams they faced today were much weaker than them, especially EVOS. In fact the win against EVOS was cemented from the very first kill on jungler Nguyễn “YiJin” Lê Hải Đăng. YiJin was caught dying to raptors by Kim “Moojin” Moo-jinand. This converted into a 4 man roam down bot and a further two kills. If EVOS can’t even clear a raptor camp, can it really be said that Flash Wolves’ win was at all impressive?
The Coming Storm
Flash Wolves move on to face the tournament favourites Royal Never Give Up and Kingzone DragonX in the next two days. Kingzone continued their reign of terror today going 2-0, showing the competition that they are not to be trifled with.
RNG also had an impressive showing posting a 1-1 scoreline. RNG destroyed Fnatic earlier in the day, however they fell to none other than Kingzone themselves later on. With this, RNG will be looking to make up for this loss. Unfortunately for Flash Wolves, they will be taking the full brunt of RNG’s vengeance.
If Flash Wolves want to stand a chance against these powerhouses, they will have to look to continue what they started today. Thus, requiring their carries in Maple and Betty to stay on top form if they hope to even go even with these teams.
CREDITS
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Featured image courtesy of Riot Games
