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To Stand Above All...

The penultimate week to the EU LCS was a mixed week where none of the teams looked particularly dominant. The top teams played well as they should but there were still plenty of surprising performances from the bottom teams. The biggest story of the week was GIANTS' resurgence after several weeks of disappointing losses. Although they dropped their first game against DragonBorns, GIANTS came charging back on the second day and defeated both EG and aAa. Speaking of aAa, they held their own in an intense 60 minute game against the top ranked Gambit Gaming. Even though they could not take the win, it was truly a testament to how much some of the bottom teams have grown and adapted to the LCS league system.



Looking forward to Week 10, the standings are still relatively volatile due to Riot's strategic schedule. Making every team play five games in the last week ensures that nothing in the standings could be set in stone and that certainly makes every match count for something. The top two positions are ready for Gambit and Fnatic to take with their four game leads over the third place SK. Even though they won't play each other in the final week, their pride is still on the line to see who can stand atop the European LoL scene. On the other end of the standings, DragonBorns are three games behind both aAa and GIANTS. DB has a tough schedule with games against the top three teams of the league so they will have to start using this time to prepare for the promotion/relegation tournament. The teams in the middle all have very similar records and schedule in Week 10. Three spots remain for four teams so everyone will need to hunker down and bring out their best to make the playoffs. All eyes will be on the Copenhagen Wolves to see how they well they spent their bye week to rest and prepare for the taxing Super Week. The penultimate week to the EU LCS was a mixed week where none of the teams looked particularly dominant. The top teams played well as they should but there were still plenty of surprising performances from the bottom teams. The biggest story of the week was GIANTS' resurgence after several weeks of disappointing losses. Although they dropped their first game against DragonBorns, GIANTS came charging back on the second day and defeated both EG and aAa. Speaking of aAa, they held their own in an intense 60 minute game against the top ranked Gambit Gaming. Even though they could not take the win, it was truly a testament to how much some of the bottom teams have grown and adapted to the LCS league system.Looking forward to Week 10, the standings are still relatively volatile due to Riot's strategic schedule. Making every team play five games in the last week ensures that nothing in the standings could be set in stone and that certainly makes every match count for something. The top two positions are ready for Gambit and Fnatic to take with their four game leads over the third place SK. Even though they won't play each other in the final week, their pride is still on the line to see who can stand atop the European LoL scene. On the other end of the standings, DragonBorns are three games behind both aAa and GIANTS. DB has a tough schedule with games against the top three teams of the league so they will have to start using this time to prepare for the promotion/relegation tournament. The teams in the middle all have very similar records and schedule in Week 10. Three spots remain for four teams so everyone will need to hunker down and bring out their best to make the playoffs. All eyes will be on the Copenhagen Wolves to see how they well they spent their bye week to rest and prepare for the taxing Super Week.

Who Has Risen? Overall Standings



Highlighted teams have clinched playoff spots.

Bringing Down the Throne Week 9 Recaps

[Day 1] April 6, 2013

Gambit vs DB

The first match of the weekend between the first and last place teams was a lot closer than everyone expected. DragonBorns got off to a slow start when Shushei got dominated by Alex Ich's new signature champion, Kha'Zix. Alex easily dove Orianna even under the turret for several kills and took a large CS lead. However, DB slowly climbed back into the lead with a few spectacular plays from Hosan and Muvert. Unfortunately for DB, the lead they built from the early game was lost all in one go when the teams fought extended battles at Dragon fights. DB's composition was focused on damage while Gambit had tanky picks (Shen and Volibear) so Gambit was able to take the skirmishes as they dragged longer and longer. As with most games between Gambit and a bottom team, Gambit will take full advantage of any mistakes if they present themselves. One of Gambit's best characteristics that helps them with taking advantage of mistakes is their great coordination in team fights and map objective control. This was perfectly exhibited in the



EG vs Fnatic

Evil Geniuses made the first step to getting their mojo back for the playoffs with a win over Fnatic in Saturday's second match. The Geniuses took the lead with first blood on sOAZ in the first minute and never looked back, playing an aggressive style and coming out ahead on the key early engagements to snowball the match. The first big turning point was when



Fnatic attempted to even the score by pushing down both top towers grouped as five, but a heroic stand from Krepo and Yellowpete traded 2 for 2 and stalled long enough for Wickd to defend and push Fnatic into a retreat. After taking the mid inner tower of Fnatic, Snoopeh and Froggen helped collapse onto the fleeing Fnatic members to pick out an additional kill. From here, EG turned their big gold lead into a ton of map control, and continued to pick off Fnatic members and take objectives.



After taking Fnatic's middle inhibitor, EG use their vision advantage to bait a fight near Baron. Fnatic nearly escape, but a



GIANTS vs DB

If DragonBorns kept improving and refining their play from the start of LCS, their win against GIANTS would probably be the most standard DragonBorns win you could think of. Throughout the game, HoSan and Muvert forced Jimbz and Babeta out of lane constantly. Utilising heavy zoning and early aggression, the DragonBorns duo avoided ganks while denying Jimbz heavily which was, no exaggeration, the only difference between the two teams. The early gold lead after Malunoo’s first blood was kept steady throughout the game, despite some great kills and



[Day 2] April 7, 2013

GIANTS vs EG

After their dominating victory over Fnatic on Day 1, everyone expected the arrival of EG's second wind. They got off to a great start by predicting that GIANTS would try for a Red invade. A well placed ward and timely collapse by EG's laners helped them secure first blood. However, they got too aggressive and decided to counter-invade GIANTS' Blue. It was a poorly conceived plan and EG fed GIANTS three kills to throw away the lead from the first blood. That did not deter EG from their newly found aggressive style. They continuously dove Twisted Fate under his turret with a combination of Spirit Rush and Stand United. Even the AD/Support duo of Yellowpete and Krepo played very aggressively with their plethora of crowd control on Jimbownz but Kennen was too slippery for them. EG continued to pick off isolated members of GIANTS to take the kill lead but they often committed too many members and left their turrets wide open for GIANTS to take. In contrast to EG's focus on kills, GIANTS concentrated on taking down EG's turrets while protecting their own. This was highlighted by a series of plays in the mid game where GIANTS rammed straight down EG's mid lane to take out two turrets while EG took Dragon and recalled to base. Then, as EG charged down the mid lane for a revenge siege onto their turrets, GIANTS defended with ease after a perfect combo of



It was a close game of back and forth until Shen got caught alone on his journey to split push. GIANTS took him out and attempted to take Baron with the ensuing 5vs4. EG caught on to the attempt very quickly and chose to initiate on GIANTS led by Zenith Blade and Chains of Corruption onto Zyra.



Fnatic vs DB

This game looked very similar to those early on in the season when the top met the bottom – a good start, but eventually the better team runs away with it. Both teams swapped top and bot lane (with YellowStar importantly on Twitch) and at only 3:30 we saw the first of many great 1v1s between xPeke & Shushei, with Shushei barely grabbing first blood. From there, we saw several avoided gank attempts before a real solo queue stealth Twitch gank killed Shushei at mid. In the next five minutes, Malunoo kills sOAZ, another Cyanide secures a kill on Shushei after another brilliant 1v1 and



GIANTS vs aAa

GIANTS looked to get back to their winning ways after defeating EG earlier in the day. They took the aggressive turret pushing from that game and took it to another level against aAa. On the other hand, aAa went with a Protect the Vayne composition that wouldn't shine until much later in the game. GIANTS' aggressive style shut down Vayne early and gave them total map control. GIANTS showcased their excellent team coordination and transitions across the map when they would make the transition from taking Dragon straight into sieging down a turret as a group. It was an impressive display of a control style strategy where aAa felt helpless throughout the game. The worst part about aAa's team was that fredy122 seemed unfamiliar with the Diana-Olaf matchup. He often traded poorly against Olaf and allowed Olaf to walk all over him even under his own turret. It was overall a big disappointment for aAa as the game was over after they



Gambit vs SK

SK Gaming has probably been the quietest team in the LCS so far. Possibly due to their lack of high-profile wins, it seems that nobody is paying them much attention. Their win-less records against Gambit and Fnatic playing a key role there but behind it all, they’ve been improving incredibly and their game against Gambit was like a real wake up call. Despite a typical Edward first blood, Gambit didn’t have much say in the game after that. At 6:50, Ocelote, CandyPanda & Nyph dive Darien and grab the first tower of the game afterwards. An amusing blue steal courtesy of Hyrqbot’s defensive mastery was about the last thing that went wrong for SK. They took the Dragon, killed Diamond at mid and Kev1n 1v1’d Darien and even when Alex ganked Kev1n at top, SK responded with mid t1. Gambit looked dazed and confused, and a big miss-gank at 12:40 showed that perfectly. Over the next few minutes, SK pick up more kills and if one of them does die, they take a dragon or a turret. By 16:50, SK are 4.5k ahead and in complete control. SK start causing fights and invading, grabbing four more kills and a dragon over the next five minutes. Gambit start stalling well, preventing an SK baron and taking mid t1 but SK are 6k ahead and eventually get Baron at 26:30. A 3 for 0 trade follows and SK take another turret before retreating for a safe Dragon. SK is 14-3 with a 10k lead. A slow siege is held off for a while but a good engage from Gambit at 33:30 is

The first match of the weekend between the first and last place teams was a lot closer than everyone expected. DragonBorns got off to a slow start when Shushei got dominated by Alex Ich's new signature champion, Kha'Zix. Alex easily dove Orianna even under the turret for several kills and took a large CS lead. However, DB slowly climbed back into the lead with a few spectacular plays from Hosan and Muvert. Unfortunately for DB, the lead they built from the early game was lost all in one go when the teams fought extended battles at Dragon fights. DB's composition was focused on damage while Gambit had tanky picks (Shen and Volibear) so Gambit was able to take the skirmishes as they dragged longer and longer. As with most games between Gambit and a bottom team, Gambit will take full advantage of any mistakes if they present themselves. One of Gambit's best characteristics that helps them with taking advantage of mistakes is their great coordination in team fights and map objective control. This was perfectly exhibited in the Baron fight that sealed the game in Gambit's favor . The first thing that happened was Sona's assassination by Kha'Zix when she tried to ward the Baron pit from behind. Then Gambit engaged DB outside of the pit, but EDward would keep Baron's attention to prevent it from healing up fully so their previous efforts at taking it low were not wasted. Gambit cleaned up the fight and steamrolled their way through the rest of the game.Evil Geniuses made the first step to getting their mojo back for the playoffs with a win over Fnatic in Saturday's second match. The Geniuses took the lead with first blood on sOAZ in the first minute and never looked back, playing an aggressive style and coming out ahead on the key early engagements to snowball the match. The first big turning point was when EG brought the whole team toplane after taking the bottom tower, sneaking Wickd into the top bush behind yellowpete and Krepo. EG got a lone kill, trading Snoopeh for YellOwStaR, until Froggen pulled off one of the best looking plays of the match, flashing over a wall to finish of xPeke.Fnatic attempted to even the score by pushing down both top towers grouped as five, but a heroic stand from Krepo and Yellowpete traded 2 for 2 and stalled long enough for Wickd to defend and push Fnatic into a retreat. After taking the mid inner tower of Fnatic, Snoopeh and Froggen helped collapse onto the fleeing Fnatic members to pick out an additional kill. From here, EG turned their big gold lead into a ton of map control, and continued to pick off Fnatic members and take objectives.After taking Fnatic's middle inhibitor, EG use their vision advantage to bait a fight near Baron. Fnatic nearly escape, but a daring play by Froggen picks up a kill on YellOwStaR and lets EG secure Baron. Fnatic do well to blunt the push from an EG team with a five figure lead, but Froggen's split pushing bottom is more than sOAZ's Shen can handle and EG works down the bottom inhibitor. Fnatic engage in a desperate last stand at their last inhibitor , but Froggen pulls a card xPeke's bag of tricks and backdoors Fnatic's Nexus. The defense rushes in to stop Froggen and despite killing him, Fnatic earn the dubious distinction of being the only LCS team to lose the game during while the opposition is Aced as minions finish off the Nexus.If DragonBorns kept improving and refining their play from the start of LCS, their win against GIANTS would probably be the most standard DragonBorns win you could think of. Throughout the game, HoSan and Muvert forced Jimbz and Babeta out of lane constantly. Utilising heavy zoning and early aggression, the DragonBorns duo avoided ganks while denying Jimbz heavily which was, no exaggeration, the only difference between the two teams. The early gold lead after Malunoo’s first blood was kept steady throughout the game, despite some great kills and ganks set up by Exter and Morden . HoSan & Muvert keep denying Jimbz while DragonBorns take three towers for GIANTS’ 1. More good ganks from GIANTS are negated by a bizarre offering of three kills to HoSan & Shushei’s Kha’zix at botlane when Jimbz re-engages at low health. By 20:40 GIANTS have evened up the turrets but a smart counter push by DragonBorns grabs mid t2 and their fourth turret. At this point, DragonBorns are 2k ahead and all of that difference is between HoSan and Jimbz, showing how devastating the denying was between the two. Despite JImbz being rather weak, great play from the rest of GIANTS, Exter in particular, was keeping the GIANTS firmly in the game. After a real slippery recall from Samux , Jimbz grabs a kill on Yamato and Shushei is caught at blue side top t2 for GIANTS. Exter is was caught all the way over at DB’s blue buff and gets finished after a messed up flash. Wjat seemed like a foolish mistake, was actually a distraction from Baron which GIANTS promptly took with no contention. At 27:40, GIANTS made a huge engage on DragonBorns, but once again, the early denying of JImbz came back to haunt him. Despite his brilliant positioning and a baron buff, his low damage couldn’t take out any of the bursty DragonBorns before three GIANTS were traded for one. DB grab the mid inhib before pulling back. The final fight happened at 29:40 – DragonBorns baited GIANTS to Dragon and won a decisive team-fight thanks to Shushei’s resets and two brilliant ults from Muvert & HoSan. After a 5 for 0 ace, DragonBorns rush the Nexus for tense win and finally break their loss streak. A masterclass on denying from HoSan & Muvert wasn’t stopped and that’s all it took to separate the two teams.After their dominating victory over Fnatic on Day 1, everyone expected the arrival of EG's second wind. They got off to a great start by predicting that GIANTS would try for a Red invade. A well placed ward and timely collapse by EG's laners helped them secure first blood. However, they got too aggressive and decided to counter-invade GIANTS' Blue. It was a poorly conceived plan and EG fed GIANTS three kills to throw away the lead from the first blood. That did not deter EG from their newly found aggressive style. They continuously dove Twisted Fate under his turret with a combination of Spirit Rush and Stand United. Even the AD/Support duo of Yellowpete and Krepo played very aggressively with their plethora of crowd control on Jimbownz but Kennen was too slippery for them. EG continued to pick off isolated members of GIANTS to take the kill lead but they often committed too many members and left their turrets wide open for GIANTS to take. In contrast to EG's focus on kills, GIANTS concentrated on taking down EG's turrets while protecting their own. This was highlighted by a series of plays in the mid game where GIANTS rammed straight down EG's mid lane to take out two turrets while EG took Dragon and recalled to base. Then, as EG charged down the mid lane for a revenge siege onto their turrets, GIANTS defended with ease after a perfect combo of Cataclysm, Stranglethorns, and The Equalizer It was a close game of back and forth until Shen got caught alone on his journey to split push. GIANTS took him out and attempted to take Baron with the ensuing 5vs4. EG caught on to the attempt very quickly and chose to initiate on GIANTS led by Zenith Blade and Chains of Corruption onto Zyra. EG managed to instagib Zyra but GIANTS used that time to take out Baron. GIANTS' buffed Carries cleaned up the fight with ease and Jimbownz reminded EG that it was a mistake not to ban Kennen. The finishing touch for GIANTS was a series of miscommunication from EG during their defense and they ran to engage GIANTS one by one.This game looked very similar to those early on in the season when the top met the bottom – a good start, but eventually the better team runs away with it. Both teams swapped top and bot lane (with YellowStar importantly on Twitch) and at only 3:30 we saw the first of many great 1v1s between xPeke & Shushei, with Shushei barely grabbing first blood. From there, we saw several avoided gank attempts before a real solo queue stealth Twitch gank killed Shushei at mid. In the next five minutes, Malunoo kills sOAZ, another Cyanide secures a kill on Shushei after another brilliant 1v1 and Muvert barely saves HoSan at top . What made this game exciting was the pace at which things happened, once Fnatic took the top t1 at 14:50, DB countergank Cyanide at botlane, YellowStar 1v1s HoSan, xPeke solos mid t1 and DB take Dragon. The game is close at this point but there’s a problem: YellowStar is getting hungry. Netting himself a double kill at 19 minutes, Fnatic take the bot T1 before Cyanide sacrifices himself to save Peke. Another 1v1 kill on HoSan for YellowStar puts him at 5-0-0 and after some more pushing, Fnatic echo that in the turret score. Despite losing their first turret at mid, Fnatic are far ahead and suddenly DB have no map control. At 28:10, some Baron posturing ends with Peke dragging DB all across the map until Fnatic close in and crush DB with their high AD lineup. A quadra kill for sOAZ and Fnatic push through to the nexus for their 18th win, only two away from a guaranteed play-off seed.GIANTS looked to get back to their winning ways after defeating EG earlier in the day. They took the aggressive turret pushing from that game and took it to another level against aAa. On the other hand, aAa went with a Protect the Vayne composition that wouldn't shine until much later in the game. GIANTS' aggressive style shut down Vayne early and gave them total map control. GIANTS showcased their excellent team coordination and transitions across the map when they would make the transition from taking Dragon straight into sieging down a turret as a group. It was an impressive display of a control style strategy where aAa felt helpless throughout the game. The worst part about aAa's team was that fredy122 seemed unfamiliar with the Diana-Olaf matchup. He often traded poorly against Olaf and allowed Olaf to walk all over him even under his own turret. It was overall a big disappointment for aAa as the game was over after they facechecked into a brush where GIANTS showed themselves seconds before SK Gaming has probably been the quietest team in the LCS so far. Possibly due to their lack of high-profile wins, it seems that nobody is paying them much attention. Their win-less records against Gambit and Fnatic playing a key role there but behind it all, they’ve been improving incredibly and their game against Gambit was like a real wake up call. Despite a typical Edward first blood, Gambit didn’t have much say in the game after that. At 6:50, Ocelote, CandyPanda & Nyph dive Darien and grab the first tower of the game afterwards. An amusing blue steal courtesy of Hyrqbot’s defensive mastery was about the last thing that went wrong for SK. They took the Dragon, killed Diamond at mid and Kev1n 1v1’d Darien and even when Alex ganked Kev1n at top, SK responded with mid t1. Gambit looked dazed and confused, and a big miss-gank at 12:40 showed that perfectly. Over the next few minutes, SK pick up more kills and if one of them does die, they take a dragon or a turret. By 16:50, SK are 4.5k ahead and in complete control. SK start causing fights and invading, grabbing four more kills and a dragon over the next five minutes. Gambit start stalling well, preventing an SK baron and taking mid t1 but SK are 6k ahead and eventually get Baron at 26:30. A 3 for 0 trade follows and SK take another turret before retreating for a safe Dragon. SK is 14-3 with a 10k lead. A slow siege is held off for a while but a good engage from Gambit at 33:30 is foiled by Zhonya’s and SK clean up the fight . With a 15k gold lead, SK take another Baron and push through botlane to the nexus, picking up a couple more kills to send Ocelote legendary and a message to the other teams in the LCS.

With Overwhelming Force Featured Match of the Week

aAa vs Gambit

Bans: 27 against All authority 82.2K

vs.

29 Gambit Gaming 98.1K Bans:

Against All Authority gave Gambit Gaming a run for their money in an epic 55 minute match, but ultimately fell short of taking a win off of the league leaders. Diamond turned in a performance with some highlight reel Elise escapes, and Alex Ich's Karthus was a giant presence as the game wore on. Dioud's Thresh continued to impress for aAa and will doubtless impact the strategy or draw a ban for teams facing the French squad in the last week.



The match started much as the rest of it would play out, slowly but with moments of amazing tension. Dioud snagged Darien causing his jungler to get involved and luring aAa's jungler ViRtU4l to try and clean the mess up.



Making it 30 minutes into a match dead even with Gambit is impressive for any team in the European LCS, but as much as aAa can be commended for getting great opportunities against the Russians, they also failed to make the most of them. Bullet Time and Command: Shockwave frequently were only landed on single targets or not at the most opportune times. In the 29th minute,



Having failed to make the most of several chances, it was almost inevitable that the Russians would get their go, and they didn't squander the initiative. With ViRtU4l taking Gambit's top tower,



The match stalls for a while as Gambit take Baron but are aced in a 5-4 teamfight, with fredy122 as the last Croc standing unable to capitalize with only a sliver of health remaining. aAa sieze the next chance when Dioud snags Darien with a Death Sentence, and the resulting kill leads aAa to pick up Gambit's middle inhibitor with a minute to go before the next Baron spawn.



The next Baron fight is the last. Against All Authority gave Gambit Gaming a run for their money in an epic 55 minute match, but ultimately fell short of taking a win off of the league leaders. Diamond turned in a performance with some highlight reel Elise escapes, and Alex Ich's Karthus was a giant presence as the game wore on. Dioud's Thresh continued to impress for aAa and will doubtless impact the strategy or draw a ban for teams facing the French squad in the last week.The match started much as the rest of it would play out, slowly but with moments of amazing tension. Dioud snagged Darien causing his jungler to get involved and luring aAa's jungler ViRtU4l to try and clean the mess up. While it looked like a routine pickup for first blood , Diamond managed to Rappel away at the absolute last moment and the game would continue without a kill until the 10th minute. With the lanes swapped to the standard configuration after both teams took towers in the 2v1 lanes, Dioud landed another Death Sentence, this time on EDward to feed first blood over to Nono. Despite this advantage, Gambit struck back by taking Dragon and following it with a kill on Nono despite the man disadvantage from Edward's death. Darien puts in another fantastic escape after stealing aAa's Blue buff, and the game transitions into the midgame relatively even.Making it 30 minutes into a match dead even with Gambit is impressive for any team in the European LCS, but as much as aAa can be commended for getting great opportunities against the Russians, they also failed to make the most of them. Bullet Time and Command: Shockwave frequently were only landed on single targets or not at the most opportune times. In the 29th minute, aAa caught out Alex Ich in his jungle, picking up a kill on Edward's Lulu as well. However, the French team was unable to secure any major objectives off of the play, with Diamond sacrificing himself at Baron to send aAa back to base while Darien took aAa's top inner turret.Having failed to make the most of several chances, it was almost inevitable that the Russians would get their go, and they didn't squander the initiative. With ViRtU4l taking Gambit's top tower, Darien snuck behind enemy lines to cut off the escape of Nono and ShLaYa , as the rest of Gambit closed in. The Russians pick up a 4-1 exchange and take Baron off the back of it, capitalizing on their advantage the way aAa failed to for the first half hour. aAa got another opportunity after the Baron buff wore off as Darien was caught out trying to lure aAa away from Baron as he respawned. The French side were a little overzealous trying to press the edge and got into a reckless fight near Gambit's inner middle turret. Gambit wore aAa down as EDward split them and harassed from behind, and by the time Alex Ich was dropped he was able to use his 791 AP to collect a Triple Kill with Karthus' ultimate. The rest of the team followed up for an Ace, and Genja took aAa's middle inhibitor turret before aAa could respawn.The match stalls for a while as Gambit take Baron but are aced in a 5-4 teamfight, with fredy122 as the last Croc standing unable to capitalize with only a sliver of health remaining. aAa sieze the next chance when Dioud snags Darien with a Death Sentence, and the resulting kill leads aAa to pick up Gambit's middle inhibitor with a minute to go before the next Baron spawn. Gambit take the Baron with amazing speed before aAa can react, and the ensuing fight looks to end the game as Gambit goes 3-1 with only Nono and fredy escaping with perilously low HP. Despite the dire situation, Nono and Fredy manage to hold Gambit off and buy their teammates a respite until the next Baron respawn.The next Baron fight is the last. The fight begins as Gambit start Baron , and spreads into a long skirmish all over the river area. Gambit get the long, extended engage they want, avoiding a tight quarters fight that would maximize the ultimates of Miss Fortune and Orianna. After ViRtU4l falls, the dominos keep collapsing as the fight turns into a 4-0 rout. With only the support left, the Russians have an easy time finishing off the base of aAa and bringing an end to the nearly hour-long match. Against All Authority have shown markedly better after the addition of Dioud, but tied with GIANTS for the last playoff spot, the time for moral victories may have passed. Gambit dodge an upset and move into the final week tied for first place with Fnatic, virtually guaranteed to receive a first round bye and immunity to relegation.