Review of Split 2 Week 1

Week one of split two was like no other weekend of Vainglory we have seen. Saw was a legitimate counter on the Fold and WON A GAME. We saw CP Alpha return and it was absolutely terrifying especially if VONC was running it. We also get to see the return of other notable heroes like Flicker and Ozo. The players had some absolutely insane triple Acrobounces. I know Humanist was especially excited to see his buddy being played again competitively. I believe Humanist is Ozo’s only real friend. He has been with him through thick and thin! In NA, we see Hammers being back along with their star laner, StartingAllOver. In EU, we finally saw SK gaming lose a series to an interesting Mouse team. Let’s check in on EU real fast.

So I may or may not of thought L3oN was absolutely insane for this tweet. I actually stand by it because he has not been able to prove this on a live stage. Players unfortunately need at least one championship under their belt before they become legends in my opinion (*note ShinKaigan). That being said, L3oN really surprised me this weekend. He joined up with old teammates Justman00 and Imthedoom on Mousesports, to have a pretty solid first outing. I’m still not sold on how they get along behind the scenes. I hope they can start meshing as a team. The less pointing of fingers that happens the better. Do I truly care about this team in the grand scheme of things? No. If L3oN isn’t traveling to worlds then no team with L3oN on it deserves to be at worlds. That is extremely unfortunate, but we have seen in the past when a team dominates with L3oN and then struggles with a sub on the live stage. Of course, the troll master himself has to do what he does best, a nice kappa GGs towards his teammates.

If I am on the subject of trolls, then I guess I need to discuss NA’s version of L3oN, with StartingAllOver(SAO) from Hollywood Hammers. He of course, received a 14 day ban from Vainglory due to violating their Terms of Service. That hasn’t really deterred him on doing questionable things. Starting has been streaming once again on Twitch, which does have some high quality game play at times. That being said, he needs to be aware that people are watching his streams. Not just people, but maybe someone such as the head developer, CEO of Vainglory, Kristian aka EdTheShred. Ed wanted to leave Starting a little personal note in game to remind him to be a friendly member of the community.

Now, if this isn’t the greatest thing from the CEO then I do not know what is. Ed literally was just like “hey, I was in your stream for 10 minutes and you dodged six matches what the hell are you doing!? Please stop tx” (I paraphrased that, not a direct quote). I am still not convinced Starting clicked the “OK. I Promise to be Good” button. While Starting can be questionable with his decisions off the Fold, he does make some crazy plays on the Fold.

He returned this past weekend for the start of split two. With his team down points and in need of some big wins, he was back in big ways. He was able to take down Tempo Storm, Nova, and fall in the finals to TSM. It wasn’t even that SAO completely dominated, we saw his teammates step up and make some big plays. Status finished this past weekend with a Kill/Death/Assist of 40/25/22, while SAO finished 25/34/31. Having Status become more of a threat in the jungle is huge for Hammers. If teams have to start focusing on Status instead of Starting, then that will open up the door for the triple kills we have seen in the past from SAO. If we can see Starting clean up his positioning a bit, I believe we may have another team in the running of being a top three team.

As for the rest of the weekend, we see Cloud9 fall to Tribe during day one. Cloud9 seems to be in a slump since Mobile Masters and after losing in week 3 of split one. I think we will see this changing with the return of the draft queen, PhysiX, who was with them when they won the Unified Spring Finals. Then again, it may be best for them to be taking it easy leading up to worlds. They have no reason to get burnt out over a season that will get them nothing but a bit of pocket change.

Nova has fallen short week after week against Rogue. They have been looking for revenge and this weekend we would not see that beloved match up. Nova will fall to Hammers as mentioned above. Nova will have to have some strong last three weekends to get a place at worlds. Rogue went up against TSM and this was the match to watch for the weekend. Rogue took game one against TSM, but TSM was able to get the reverse sweep and move on to day two. For the rest of the weekend, TSM played flawless. They take down Tribe and handle Hammers in the finals.

Looking ahead to weekend two of split two, we have a lot of interesting match ups. My match to watch of the weekend would have to be Cloud9 verse Nova eSports. If Nova wants to stay in the running we are going to need a big win during day one. I think Nova does fall to C9 in a close match up. The rematch of last weeks finals is another match to look out for. TSM is looking to make it into day two, which could set up a C9 vs TSM. My player to watch is going to be Oldskool for this week. He struggled last week and I look for him to bounce back with his team. TSM is playing on another level right now, so I have them returning to the finals once again. Who will they play from the other side of the bracket? Gankstars and Tempo do not seem to be making any major moves yet, so they lose in their day one match ups. I look to see a great match up in day two between Tribe verse Rogue. Rogue fell short against TSM last week, so they are going to push past Tribe to have a rematch against TSM in the finals. TSM still prevails with their win streak continuing.

I will leave you with the final points. If you would like more in depth details then check out our recaps and predictions on TFResports podcast. -endless