Today brought us hybrid Kennen, top lane Quinn, and what appeared to be a brand new Royal Club on the 2nd day of the LPL.

If you're simply interested in spoiler-free VOD links, as requested:

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iG vs. EP

The players hailing from Hong Kong would start the game out very aggressively, warding up Invictus Gaming's blue side, but quickly retreating as they notice iG going for their blue in attempts to defend the location. Invictus Gaming backed off and attempted to counter engage. EP would then utilize their solo lane nunu to play aggressive on iG's jungle and steal things as a duo, being as annoying as possible in Illusion's realm. Meanwhile, 1v1 duels between ZZ1tai's Karthus and Supercat's Zed would almost end with a double kill for both sides.

In a brave tower dive bottom, XiaoXiao would tank turret shots to give Kid's Vayne an early first blood advantage against the generally much more lane dominant Caitlyn; a huge blow to EP. The assault would not end there and PDD would find a kill on Jayce top, teaching LaoPi a lesson and forcing him to lane swap into a 2v1 against the 1 kill up Kid + Xiaoxiao lane. Pdd would grab yet another kill with the help of Illusion's Nautilus and extend the advantage for iG to a 3-0.



This never ends well... ​

The game was going nowhere but down hill for Energy Pacemaker with the Kid and Xiaoxiao duo picking up yet another kill with an excellent hook from Xiaoxiao onto Nami. Energy Pacemaker would find their first two kills while Invictus Gaming attempted a dragon. Nami landed an excellent ult and they were able to trade a 2 kill exchange suffering no casualities. Despite the kills, iG were still able to drive EP away from dragon.

Even with the beam of light shining through after the two picks at dragon, EP would still end up feeling a bit hopeless due to iG's vision on their jungle as well as the massive tower advantage iG was holding early on into the game. When full fledged teamfights began is when iG really showed how far ahead they were though, crushing through the opposition. iG also had strong Poke from a very fed Jayce controlled by PDD who would chunk them before fights even began. At this point, IG seized full control and ran over EP to take the game.

VOD (click for full-screen)

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PE vs. YG

Though we haven't seen much success with it over at the LCS, Young Glory would try their luck with the Quinn pick in the LPL playing him top lane. In this game, he would find first blood against Kennen in the top lane, effectively countering Kennen's infamously strong laning phase. However, Positive Energy quickly found revenge by utilizing the early ganking power of Xin Xhao. He whould then begin his ruthless endeavors bottom, starting the game 3-0 with his starting double doran's blade build. Positive Energy was quick to take a tower following the previous slaughter.

Desperate to get back into the lead after several kills in favor of Positive Energy, Quinn attempts to push an advantage top by diving onto Kennen, but is ignorant about the stunning capabilities and ends up allowing Kennen to narrowly escape while Quinn dies under turret. In just 10 minutes, there were already 7 kills across the board for both teams, an unusual feat for the LPL. Though Young Glory was almost able to secure a turret top, Jing was swift to come defend the lane with his top laner, not only allowing the pressure to divert to middle where PE picked up yet another kill, but defending the turret and picking up kills top as well.



That deep this early in the game is no good for YG... ​

Knowing their disadvantage, Young Glory grouped up across the map looking for picks but to no avail. Their vision was severely lacking which allowed Positive Energy to gather a free dragon, pushing their advantage even further. Despite the deficit, Young Glory did a good job at stopping Positive Energy's 5-man sieges and were even able to repell them and take a turret of their own. Still, around 20 minutes the turret score was 5 to 2 with a rather hefty gold lead going in the favor of Positive Energy. A couple minutes later, the teams would fight for baron control with Sicca's oracle and pink wards providing more than enough control to have an advantage at baron.

Chasing into Young Glory's jungle, PE were found being kited surprisingly hard by Young Glory, but they were simply too much weaker. Although Quinn showed some strong success, Namei's Twitch was an absolute monster. Not to mention the very unique Hybrid Kennen with Berzerker's Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, and Hourglass with more AP on the way. Keeping Young Glory entirely blind on the map and seizing several advantages with a hyper-fed Twitch allowed Positive Energy to close out the game.

VOD (click for full-screen)

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OMG vs. LMQ

Both sides would kick off the level 1 jungle by stealing each other's red buffs away and returning to a standard 2v1 sidelane setup with the AP heroes going in the mid lane. LoveLin would bring some extremely aggressive counter jungling to the table by stopping Wayoff at his double golems and then proceeding to 3-man dive him at top tower. Lee Sin melting allowed OGM to pick up yet another kill early and an easy first tower, making the game look extremely grim for LMQ. Meanwhile, Cool and San were both outfarming their counterparts, the former by a large margin.

The aggressive sieging and play would not stop there as OMG would take the top inner turret at an embarassing 4:40, bringing them pretty close to a double gold lead on LMQ. Even after the kill onto the top inhibitor, San found yet another kill behind LMQ's inhibitor turret. Them having to defend so far back allowed OMG to quickly pick up another kill and a turret mid lane; the game was turning into a very one-sided slaughter.



Zoned from inner turret in under 5 minutes...hmm... ​

Pressuring turret after turret, OMG was absolutely relentless. LMQ would face torture simply attempting to defend their buffs only 8 minutes into the game. Just to be fancy, Cool would encounter a two-man gank, juking both the Draven ultimate and the bodyslam of Gragas. He did eat the ultimate, but with a well placed ball, he was able to escape an otherwise nearly inescapable death. While LMQ did find a pick onto ogoing's Malphite, it would be a "too little too late" moment for the team with a 4-0 Twitch to worry about still plus a 7k gold deficit.

LMQ would look helplessly as OMG split push and assaulted their turrets, shoving their lanes from every direction. LMQ was not safe at any part of their map including behind their inhibitors. Being pressed into their inhibitors at 13 minutes meant easier farm for the team, but not much could help them from being so hopelessly behind. To stop LMQ from stalling, OMG went ahead and tried to take baron, but Draven actually stole it with a very well timed ultimate. It wasn't long until OMG just walked in the front dor of LMQ and took them out in one of their easiest games we've witnessed.

VOD (click for full-screen)

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WE vs. RC

The final game of the night would be two teams that have been performing extraordinarily well this split. For some reason, Weixiao started off his Ashe with no items. Both teams resided in the outward bush extending from their red buff, likely waiting for a pick or simply playing it safe. The level 1 for both teams looked be extremely passive, but Royal Club went ahead with a delayed invade about 2 minutes into tsteal away World Elite's blue buff. World Elite would find their revenge on Lucky with Misaya coming to assist from the mid lane, chasing and flashing after Lucky for the First Blood, refreshing double buffs onto Lee Sin.

Following the aggressive call, they would attempt to dive Royal Club's bottom lane, but simply backed off and took the easy dragon instead. Weixiao would then be ganked in the bottom lane, but kite them well enough to make time for World Elite to initiate a counter-gank, something they've been very prominent for this season. Lucky was not having a lucky day today as the invasion into his jungle was relentless from World Elite. In a very similar fashion to the style of play from the Chinese in the first split, WE would shove waves, invade jungle as a team, back off, and pressure a turret. This evened the turret score to one for one.



World Elite with their trademarked counterganks. ​

Royal Club would find their revenge botlane, punishing Weixiao's Ashe and causing him to be 2 of the 3 deaths for World Elite, with the 3rd being his lane partner Fzzf. Royal Club was able to turn that double kill into an easy dragon, swinging them into the lead. The pace of the game would constantly swing back and forth with the majority of the action being found in bottom lane. Weixiao would get caught once again in a crucial moment, allowing yet another double kill pickup for Royal Club, extending their lead further. The punishment was further amplified with Godlike's Kennen narrowly pulling a kill in a 1v1 against Misaya, who had 2 kills at the time.

Teamfights were a rarity this game, as Royal Club would continue to catch out members of World Elite individually, advancing their lead and allowing them to grab free objectives such as dragon. The demolishment would continue and Royal Club would leave no space for World Elite to comeback. Weixiao would have won of his worst games yet with a 0/6/1 score near the end of the game. Royal Club would put the final thrust of the spear into the heart of World Elite and take their Nexus in an extremely convincing victory to close out the LPL.

VOD (click for full-screen)

RESULTS