Group D

CLG.NA

CLG.EU

LG - IM

MVP Blue CLG.NACLG.EULG - IMMVP Blue

LG - IM vs MVP Blue LG - IM vsMVP Blue

Bans MVP: Ryze, Nocturne, Ahri - IM: Alistar, Urgot, Shen



Picks LG - IM : Malphite, Vladimir, Maokai, Ezreal, Leona



Picks MVP Blue : Graves, Janna, Karthus, Skarner, Singed

Winner: LG - IM

CLG.EU vs CLG.NA CLG.EU vsCLG.NA

Bans CLG.EU: Nautilus, Ryze, Shen - CLG.NA: Anivia, Kog Maw, Alistar



Picks CLG.EU : Urgot, Soraka, Malphite, Maokai, Ahri



Picks CLG.NA : Nunu, Kennen, Cassiopeia, Caitlyn, Lee Sin

Winner: CLG.EU

MVP Blue vs CLG.EU MVP Blue vsCLG.EU

Bans: MVP Blue: Anivia, Irelia, Nocturne – CLG.EU: Shen, Urgot, Alistar



Picks MVP Blue: Malphite, Soraka, Graves, Vladimir, Lee Sin



Picks CLG.EU: Nautilus, Rumble, Ezreal, Leona, Karthus

Winner: CLG.EU

CLG.EU vs LG.IM CLG.EU vsLG.IM

Bans: CLG.EU: Ryze, Vladimir, Shen – LG-IM: Alistar, Urgot, Alistar



Picks CLG.EU: Malphite, Corki, Leona, Nautilus, Karthus



Picks LG.IM: Ahri, Ezreal, Taric, Nocturne, Irealia

Winner: CLG.EU

Current Standing

1st - CLG.EU 3W/0L - Qualified

2nd - LG-IM 1W/1L

3rd - CLG.NA 0W/1L

4th - MVP Blue 0W/2L

Coverage Written by Tamara "VANiLLACORE" H and Grigoris "CaveMan800" Solos

When the draw for the groups was over about a month ago, people called this "the group of death". Turns out they were wrong, because Counter Logic Gaming EU survived without any loss. We will see some deaths in the second place challenge, withLG - IM having the advantage after their win overMVP Blue but Counter Logic Gaming are still in the game if they win againstLG - IM this Friday.The day started with the first match not having a CLG in it. Can MVP go against the odds and beat their fellow Koreans or LG - IM will take the valuable point?We had no surprises in the picks and bans and no early aggresion was shown. Singed went to the bot lane expecting a lane swap since Malphite grabbed teleport as a summoner spell but he quickly returned to the top lane when he realised no swap was going to happen. After the swaps, Maokai went top to gank Singed. He was succesful but Graves managed to steal the first blood by killing Leona and not long after he killed Ezreal in a 1v1 situation.In order to stop Graves from snowballing, Maokai went bot to gank him but Skarner was already there. However, Malphite teleported there and his ultimate allowed them to go 3:1. The first team fight of the game took place at dragon's nest where Blue caught Leona out of position but it took them so long to kill her that her team got in position and took 4 kills.Vladimir managed to pick up a triple kill in a fight on mid lane where IM came on top with a 4 for 2. Vladimir picked up another triple kill later, where IM took the ace after a perfectly timed ulti from Malphite. IM took an easy baron and they were so far ahead in gold that they forced Blue to surrender after another ace.Many people called this match "the clash of the titans". NA vs Europe. CLG vs CLG. Voyboy vs Wickd. This match had everything a match needs to be called a "clash of titans" and it showed the improvement that both teams have made since their last match in MLG Anaheim.NA surprised us all by sending their jungler, HotshotGG, on Nunu with promote as a summoner spell and their support, Chauster, on Lee Sin with smite. A few lane swaps took place early in the game while Nunu and Lee Sin was destroying Maokai's jungle. In an attempt to stop them, Snoopeh got caught and Nunu got the first blood. NA took advantage of their early domination in EU's jungle and took the first dragon of the game.The second dragon of the game went to EU and they got the gold advantage for the first time in this game. Following their dragon capture, EU found Cassiopeia out of position and Urgot landed a perfectly timed ultimate on her. This turned into a small fight where Wickd picked up two kills while NA got zero. 10 mins after this fight NA tried to take EU's mid inhibitor but EU caught them from behind and took 3 kills.In the 41 minute mark, NA did sth competely unexpected. While their minions were pushing bottom with the help of Promote, they took Nashor from outside the pit using Caitlyn, Kennen and Cassiopeia's range. Not long after, EU grouped mid to take NA's mid inhibitor but Caitlyn with her range managed to keep them away enough time for their bot minions to destroy EU's inhibitor. EU took the inhibitor though, and they went back to heal and shop. When they returned, with Baron buff helping them, they won a teamfight and pushed for the win over their NA counterparts.The second match of Group D made MVP Blue face CLG.EU. Quite a bit more pressure could be sound on the side of Blue, as they started into this second game with a loss in the previous Bo1 they played against LG.IM, while CLG.EU managed to defeat CLG.NA before.Even though the teams were in different situations the focus and concentration was equally high on both sides, with each of them eager to win.After a level 1 gank action by MVP Blue that wasn't rewarded with picking up firstblood but still was a very smart play by placing wards in the right spots for Lee Sin to jump to, the team's jungler was heading off to CLG.EU's jungle to kill Wraiths but he was spotted by Nautilus and Karthus and gave first blood to the Europeans.Shortly after firstblood's successfully being drawn, other kills followed quickly. Nautilus managed to disturb the enemy's botlane very early, hit his hook on Graves and Leona was able to keep up with the initiaton, landing her stun on the enemy AD Carry flawlessly. This put CLG.EU in the lead with 2 kills, but MVP Blue didn't let that get their spirit down, ganked with Lee Sin and scored 2:1.During a second gank of Lee Sin, giving Rumble a hard time on top lane scoring a second kill, CLG.EU used this positioning to pick up the dragon of the game around the 9.30 minute mark.MVP.Blue had to watch CLG.EU taking the last dragon without any resistance and they didn't want this situation to happen all over again. It was around 16 minutes in game when both teams started to gather in the dragon area. It was CLG.EU who broke the silence and finally initiated a fight, managing to get 4 kills while MVP.Blue ended up getting only 2. Once the battle was over, both teams were low on health and couldn't take down dragon.Having the same thought in mind, both team's surviving players teleported back to their base to heal up and shop. Then returned to the area surrounding the popular objective. Not long after that another fight occurs, ending in CLG.EU scoring an ace and picked up the dragon right after.After picking up a triple kill in the last fight, Ezreal got a very large advantage in the game. All attempts of MVP.Blue trying to shut him down didn't succeed.About 26:30 in the game another teamfight started. At first it seemed like MVP.Blue might have the upper hand in this fight, but that impression didn't last for too long. After trying to chase down three of CLG.EU's players who were low on health, MVP.Blue suddenly got surprised by Rumble joining the fight. Together with Leona and Ezreal's insane damage, CLG.EU took down four members of the enemy team while only having one loss on their side.The great team sync and gameplay of CLG.EU could be witnessed a second time, when another beautifully performed combination of Leona, Rumble and Ezreal ultimates knocked MVP.Blue, enabling CLG.EU to take down the very wanted baron.Once baron was slain and CLG.EU was now equipped with the buff they made it very clear that MVP.Blue are going to lose this game. After grouping up in mid to make their final push they managed to take down 4 members of MVP.Blue once again. After having to see his teammates die one by one, the last player of MVP Blue got hit by Karthus' ultimate and died even though he was on the fountain. After this CLG.EU ended the game and won with a score of 27:8.The first day of Group D came to an end with CLG.EU and LG-IM facing each other in the last match.Both teams started this game with a very defensive playstyle. The only action to be seen was CLG warding their top lane to protect Malphite from early ganks. LG-IM's response to that was putting a ward up at CLG's Wraiths camp.Even though the beginning of the game was played so carefully, first blood was given to the early ganking Nautilius.After both teams decided to take it slow and got on a real farming spree, the first few fights started to break out, at 10.30 minutes in the game Nocturne ganked bot lane, managing to pick up a kill on Corki. But once again Nautilus was lurking around, ready to make the day of his teammates by performing an amazing counter-gank. Together with the ultimate of Karthus, CLG picked up three kills in total. Back in midlane, Ahri managed to finish off Karthus but the trade wasn't enough, giving CLG.EU a quick lead.Around 14 minutes in the game, Nautilus was all ready to go for a fight. This time the plan was to catch Ahri, but she was able to get away. LG.IM managed to turn their fate around and it was Nocturne who was close enough to counter-gank, helping his teammate by picking up a kill on Nautilus. The happiness didn't last for too long though, as Malphite came all the way down from top lane to ultimate right into Ahri, allowing Karthus to finish off the kill. Botlane didn't really lack action either - Corki and Leona dived the enemy AD Carry and were also able to poke down the support, allowing Karthus to finish him off with his ultimate and score yet another kill.When Karthus was spotted in the middle of the map trying to steal LG-IM's wraiths, Ahri and Irelia wasted no time and attacked him instantly. They kept dealing damage to him certain of a kill. Everything changed when Malphite reached the battle, using his ultimate to get the enemy off his teammate. Karthus almost made it back to the base alive, but an amazingly precise ultimate by Ezreal managed to strike him down.Another botlane gank by Nautilus gifting his team another kill on Taric, but deciding to dive Ezreal was a bit too much and caused Leona to die. Nocturne eagerly used his ultimate to try and strike Corki down. When the Karthus ultimate hit, Ezreal died and Nocturne failed to kill Corki, not being able to tank all the burst. Again, Karthus died to Ahri after casting his ultimate.All of this action was followed by a fight in middle which went in favor of CLG.EU, enabling them to expand their lead even further.When LG-IM decided to group up in mid to push, Leona initiated and pulled herself into the middle of the enemy team. Karthus followed up and casted his ultimate which dealt an immense amount of damage to the Korean team. Nocturne focused down Corki by casting his ultimate but died right after, Irelia was the next to fall. The battle ended with 4 kills going to CLG.EU and 3 to LG.IM. Ahri was the only one to survive the fight, and CLG was now ahead with an impressive 9k gold advantage.After another farming fest, CLG.EU decided to try for baron. Nocturne managed to flash into the action and stole the buff from them. Even though LG-IM were able to steal baron from CLG, they lost two of their players while backing out of the skirmish.Using their advantage, CLG.EU focused on pushing mid and started to go for LG-IM's inhibitor. Irelia tried everything to save the inhibitor and initiated on CLG. She succeeded in picking up a kill but died right after. Ezreal died not long after due to Karthus's ultimate and Corki's burst. Once again CLG.EU were able to build up their lead, taking 4 kills and also the inhibitor.A hard push on top followed by attacking the inhibitor turret was the next step for CLG.EU. Leona initiated a fight on LG-IM's team and made it back out of turret range when the Koreans committed to the fight using Nocture ultimate. This great play allowed CLG to pick up another two kills and destroy the top inhibitor.After about 43 minutes played, CLG.EU had taken down two inhibitors and were on their way to take down the third. Realizing that this will be their last chance to turn the game around, LG-IM were aware that they had to put up a fight, but they couldn't keep up with them. CLG.EU's advantage was just too much and they scored another four kills and a well earned victory.All the North American fans - don't miss the games on Friday when CLG.NA will try to get two wins and get out of the group like their European friends!