LPL Week 3 Day 1: Battle of old kings

If you're simply interested in spoiler-free VODs:

EDG vs. EP Game 1

EDG vs. EP Game 2

WE vs. OMG Game 1

WE vs. OMG Game 2

VODs are also available on Twitch, albeit at lower quality.



MVP Scores, Builds, and CS



MVP Score / Kills / Assists / Deaths / KDA / Gold / CS



Coverage

The first thing easy to notice in this game was EDG's superior warding to Energy Pacemaker. Early deepwards in the red-size wraith camp allowed for safely aggressing, while Clearlove's Evelynn looked to be a much more potent threat. However, even without jungle interference, EDG's mid laner was able to take out BuPing in the jungle for an early first blood. EDG's bottom lane aggressed to take a free dragon.

After essentially giving up the bottom lane for an early dragon, Fzzf actually managed to save Namei and make an even exchange on top of the dragon. Energy Pacemaker's vision continued to be abused and EDG were able to group and flank onto the bottom lane, taking the first tower while also making for an extremely fed Gragas and Evelynn. Energy Pacemaker did manage to steal a dragon at around 16 minutes, but EDG still had a substantial lead.



EP's lack of wards were greatly abused with plenty of flanks incoming from EDG.

Energy Pacemaker struggled to keep control of their own jungle territory the more expansive EDG was with their map domination. EDG were able to comfortably shove lanes as a group and then rotate half of their group in order to apply pressure to at least two lanes on a consistent basis. On top of that, the junglers were in completely different realms in terms of income.

Eventually, EDG's lead was just too overwhelming for Energy Pacemaker to keep up with. They didn't have enough waveclear to wait and hope for a miracle, and were ran over shortly after by the very powerful EDG.

VOD (Click for Full-Screen)

In game 2, Energy Pacemaker allowed Kassadin to go through to a team they just got slaugthered by. Perhaps the pick got to EDG's head when they committed overzealously to a dive in the top lane, which resulted in some fancy plays from BuPing to make up for his abysmal play in the previous game, giving EP the initial lead. Due to EDG's superior individual play, they were able to get back on their feet and even the odds.

ClearLove spent a lot of time trying to snowball Koro in the top lane, but this resulted in jungle pressure being reieved bottom and for Energy Pacemaker to take it for free. Due to Namei's prior threat on Twitch in previous seasons, the bottom lane was a big focus for Energy Pacemaker in hopes of shutting down a hyper carry attempt. In the midgame, EDG's superior rotations started really coming into fruition, and ClearLove once again was performing incredibly well.





EDG getting sick of EP's stalling -- here they just decide to dive with their advantage.

Since Energy Pacemaker were behind, they tried to group mid, but with the side lanes pushing so much in EDG's favor, it was all but worthless. After the middle inhibitor went down, it was just one building after another going down. Edward Gaming swung bottom and took the second inhibitor, backing off their relentless assault only to take the baron.

Energy Pacemaker managed to get back in time for baron with BuPing pulling off a steal, but it was too little too late. EDG continued to rampage top lane against the baron'd up Energy Pacemaker, pressuring them down and rolling them over 2-0.

VOD (Click for Full-Screen)

World Elite has been a monster up to this point and had a lot to prove against OMG in this matchup. OMG definitely ran the more unique of compositions with Allen, formerly LoveLin, playing LeBlanc support and Pomelo running jungle Nunu. OMG started out with an immediate advantage, chunking suk1M down mid after stealing Ruo's blue buff. OMG were the first to make aggressive moves and the game was full of action, with 8 kills built up by 7 minutes.

At 9 minutes, OMG were up by about 1,000 gold, much of it on San's Sivir, who was 3-0-1 and had a loaded up Bloodthirster already at this point. World Elite were a little too eager in their endeavors to pressure top, which left Weixiao at a huge farm deficit due to having to 2v1 champions that were capable of instantly bursting him.



Oh, you know...just typical Chinese proxying teamwork.

While the performance of World Elite was generally lackluster due to their teamplay this game, suk1M continued again and again to prove himself as MVP, still maintaining a high CS score and participating in all 5 of the kills World Elite had at around 18 minutes. World Elite's siege attempts were constantly halted by the waveclear of Ziggs. Excluding a very minor gold lead at this point, the team's were dead even minus a vision advantage for World Elite.

World Elite were able to get an essential pick onto Allen, grabbing a baron afterwords. However, OMG had a fantastic picking composition, and with Sivir ult plus the haste from Pomelo's Nunu, OMG were able to plot a fantastic comeback and take down World Elite after grabbing the respawning baron and driving it down World Elite's middle.

VOD (Click for Full-Screen)

OMG were confident in their Nunu pick and ran nearly the same competition for a second game straight, while World Elite did the same. The game would prove equally as action packed as the last, with kills going out everywhere and towers being shoved in for both sides. OMG were able to take the tower down first, with OMG managing to stall out their tower much longer.

This time around, OMG had the advantage in the mid lane, with Xiyang applying more overall pressure with Pomelo taking part in nearly every kill while also doing his typical counter-jungling duties. OMG were heavily warded with their dedicated ward removal as they were able to take a dragon and further advatange of the map, grasping a fairly substantial gold lead in the midgame.



OMG were able to set up flanks, grabbing picks and allowing them to shove towers as 5.



OMG were able to keep map control in a fashion far more dominant than they had in the previous game. They continued to shove lanes in two lanes and 5-man pressure a single lane to keep up their tower advantage and fight World Elite for objectives when they knew they were stronger. OMG looked to solidify their lead with baron, but World Elite were able to acquire instead, temporarily making up for their massive deficit.

A second Baron fight took place around 34 minutes, but after a disengage and acquisition of baron for OMG, they were able to take full control of the game. While World Elite looked unstoppable in the first two weeks, OMG have exposed a vulnerability from within the team. OMG were able to coordinate their final dives at the doorsteps of World Elite extreme well and drive home the series to a 2-0.

VOD (Click for Full-Screen)



STANDINGS

Team M W D L P OMG-LoL 14 11 3 0 36 EDG.LoL 14 9 3 2 30 WE 14 7 4 3 25 iG 14 3 8 3 17 LGD.LoL 14 4 4 6 16 RC-LoL 14 3 3 8 12 Energy PM 14 1 5 8 8 PE 14 1 4 9 7 Matches and results