LCS Recap: Team Liquid vs Echo Fox

Along with the excitement surrounding it, the LCS is finally back. Day 1 of the Summer Split was filled with competitive action, and the same can be said for Day 2. In one of the more interesting match-ups of the day, Team Liquid faced off against a struggling Echo Fox team. Team Liquid recently won their first game of the split against rival Team SoloMid, whereas Echo Fox fell to the Golden Guardians. Both teams were looking to build momentum this weekend and a win in this match was needed to do so.

Champion Select

This competitive match began in champion select, where both teams maintained similar focuses. Team Liquid chose to ban Top and Jungle champions, like Jayce, Jarvan IV and Camille. These bans specifically targeted the Top side of Echo Fox’s team, and limiting them would give Jake ‘Xmithie’ Puchero free reign over the Jungle.

Echo Fox followed with a similar set of bans, including Irelia, Aatrox, Rumble and Olaf. In fact, their Jungler Lee ‘Rush’ Yoon-jae even picked Skarner, a known favorite of his opponent Xmithie. Both teams seemed to have similar game plans in mind, mainly pertaining to their Junglers.

Team Liquid’s overall team composition of Vladimir, Rek’Sai, Akali, Xayah and Rakan is massively dependent on picks, not team fighting. On top of that, they consist of a high amount of damage output rather than tankiness. This means that if they miscalculate or misjudge an opportunity, they could be easily wiped out. Echo Fox seemed aware of this and picked two tanky engagers in Skarner and Galio to counter.

The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall

Image Courtesy of David Lee from Riot Games.

Despite some tripping in the early stages of the game from Echo Fox, this was a very good match-up. The action started early with a big fight in the Bottom Lane that helped Team Liquid establish an early lead. Teleporting into the fight was Jung ‘Impact’ Eon-yeong, securing first blood for TL. Xmithie was also in the fight, picking up the second of an important pair of kills.

As the match progressed, both teams bent back and forth, but refused to break. There weren’t many chances for either team until after the mid game, where Echo Fox gained traction and ran away with the game.

Ultimately, Echo Fox were crawling their way back into the match until around 27 minutes. At this point, Team Liquid were looking to make something happen to control the Baron Pit, but their plans backfired. As Jo ‘CoreJJ’ Yong-in sought a 50/50 pick onto Echo Fox’s Top Laner, the rest of the team collapsed on him. This put Team Liquid in a bad situation, where there were few opportunities to win the fight or even get out of the mess. Instead, Echo Fox took down every member of Team Liquid and pushed down the Mid Lane to win the game.

Closing Remarks

For Echo Fox, this match was about playing the long game. Initially they were down, but their patience paid off in a big way. Their Ace of Team Liquid to secure the victory was by far their biggest and best play of the game, and it was all thanks to their Top Laner.

Image Courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr

Colin ‘Solo’ Earnest has had his ups and downs for Echo Fox during his tenure, but today he baited the best team in the LCS into an ambush. He also dominated the Top Lane by holding a CS advantage over a former world champion in Impact. Solo ended the match with a scoreline of 6/1/3 and 275 CS to help Echo Fox upset Team Liquid. Now, both teams hold a record of 1-1 after the first week of the Summer Split.

Featured Image Courtesy of LoL Esports.

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