Overview

This week’s games included some action-packed best of threes as well as extremely close and hard-fought 2-0s. While the SPL still has a clear top team in Radiance, the ranking of the rest of the league is less obvious. Many squads showed improvement from previous weeks even when taking losses. The meta this week prioritized Odin for the support role (or occasionally solo) while Yemoja fell off in a recent nerf; Camazotz and Ullr were also picked or banned in most games. Mid showed a lot of variety, with Agni, Raijin, Aphrodite, Discordia, Scylla, He Bo, Hel, and Merlin all making appearances.

Friday, April 17

Pittsburgh Knights PK 1-2 Spacestation Gaming SSG

Game 1: PK had some early struggles in Game 1, with Neilmah falling three times in the first seven minutes of the game to pressure from Vote and early rotations, culminating in a Gold Fury taken at the 10-minute mark by SSG. PK recovered in the mid-game, however, winning some skirmishes and taking the second Fury of the game in addition to the Pyromancer and heading into the late game slightly ahead. An engagement around the Fire Giant at the 42-minute mark saw both of PK’s carries fall to excellent pressure from Cherryo and Nika, however, resulting in a game 1 win for SSG.

Game 2: This game snowballed out of control quickly for SSG, despite an excellent return kill onto Qvofred by Dardez after Fred’s first-blood gank onto Nika in the solo lane. Excellent rotations and consistent pressure resulted in a 4k gold lead for the Knights by 20 minutes despite a successful Gold Fury by SSG. ScaryD stole a mid-game Fire Giant with Lurking in the Waters, and the game ended shortly thereafter. Paul’s signature Hel dominated the mid-game, while Scylla from Dardez looked underwhelming despite decent damage.

Game 3: A dominant performance from Dardez on Aphrodite put this game out of reach for PK by the 20-minute mark, with two Gold Furies and 8 kills on the board for SSG. After a back-and-forth defense by PK at their left phoenix at 27 minutes, Nika and Dardez were the last two standing, and they took down the game and the match. The experience deficit in solo and jungle punished the Knights; Osiris for ScaryD felt ineffective from behind, as did Serqet for Qvofred.

Sanguine SNG 0-2 Team Rival RvL

Game 1: The early game revolved around a favorite strategy for PBM and Rival: pressuring the enemy duo via early red and purple buff invades and ganks. This aggression, assisted by the rare Cupid pickup from Pandacat. resulted in some early spills for Sanguine. Sanguine evened up the scoreline by the mid-game even after Rival secured their second Gold Fury at 19 minutes. Despite Sanguine’s brief resurgence, however, highlighted by an excellent performance from Sheento on Hel and setups from Jarcorr, Rival was able to secure the game’s first Fire Giant and kill Sanguine’s mid and jungle at 24 minutes. Rival did not hesitate to press their advantage and ended the game directly afterward.

Game 2: Rival’s aggressive early-game strategy persisted into the second game, with buffs consistently stripped away by early rotations. Sam4soccer on Susano participated in all of Rival’s 5 kills, culminating in a 10-minute Gold Fury. The game continued to deteriorate for Sanguine until a surprise Fire Giant engagement at 15 minutes, only trading Jarcorr for FG and a pick on Sam4soccer. Sheento picked up a quadra-kill on Hel, enabling Sanguine to secure a second Fire Giant at 24 minutes as well as a gold lead. Despite taking control, however, Sanguine struggled to close the game. Several moments felt as though they could (and probably should) have been the end. At 30 minutes, Sanguine passed up a 4v2 to potentially end the game, despite mid phoenix being down; at 44 minutes, despite taking Fire Giant, Sanguine declined to press a 2v2 phoenix siege; at 54 minutes, Sanguine decided not to press Rival’s base in a 4v2. A clean pick onto Netrioid by Sam at 57 minutes allowed Rival to take the Fire Giant and then the game.

Saturday, April 18

eUnited EUN 2-0 Obey Alliance OBY

Game 1: The first few minutes of Game 1 were full of trades, with both teams finding picks and return kills throughout the first ten minutes starting with Weak3n’s first blood onto Screammm. After that point, however, Obey fell behind quickly, finding themselves more than 4k gold down at 15 minutes after a Gold Fury for eUnited as well as buff invades and some additional kills. Obey was forced to take a Gold Fury while eUnited took Fire Giant. Despite a defense that left two members of eUnited dead at the 30 minute mark, they took a second Fire Giant and began extended siege. Strong defensive ultimates from Inbowned on Yemoja and Weak3n on Hun Batz only delayed the inevitable, and the game ended in eUnited’s favor at 32 minutes.

Game 2: Strong early pressure from Obey centered around the mid lane helped them stay even in Game 2 despite the fact that Eonic got first blood onto Wlfy’s Raijin. Obey stole the first GF of the game but lost the fight afterward in a 1-for-4 exchange. However, they answered back when eUnited took the Fire Giant, killing all members of eUnited but Screammm and taking their right tower, pulling ahead in gold for the first time in the match. Yemoja and Raijin allowed Obey a lot of control in team fights, making it difficult for eUnited to engage cleanly. Further skirmishes around the Fire Giant in which neither team found a clear advantage saw sieges set up on both sides of the map. At 34 minutes, though, EUnited took the FG with minimal casualties and ran it down to end the game.

Sanguine SNG 2-1 Renegades RNG

Game 1: A quick first-blood onto SoloOrTroll by Panitom put Sanguine into an early lead in Game 1; Renegades stayed about 2k gold behind for the first ten minutes despite no other action on the map. A Gold Fury and four kills by Renegades evened up the score by 17 minutes, even after Sheento found a return pick on the back end of the fight. The game slowed down again until both teams began pulling FG around 25 minutes, but a series of trades and low health bars left both unable to take the objective-- Sanguine contented themselves with a 34-minute Pyromancer after killing Venenu on Discordia. A disastrous engagement in the FG pit a few minutes later saw 3 members of Renegades dead and meant that Sanguine didn’t need the buff. They simply ran it down and killed the Titan.

Game 2: It was Renegades with the early pressure in Game 2. Three early kills put them up a thousand gold in the first 10 minutes of the game. A 14-minute GF widened their lead. Excellent plays from Lasbra on Susano made every team fight feel difficult to win for Sanguine, and several other unanswered picks saw Renegades with back-to-back Fire Giants created too much pressure for Sanguine, who lost the game at just shy of 30 minutes.

Game 3: Both teams played the third game of the set carefully, with a 2-2 scoreline and nearly even gold and experience on the board at 15 minutes. Sanguine grabbed the first GF of the game a few minutes later, with the ult from Netrioid’s Freya securing the contested objective. Rough parity continued until Renegades claimed the FG on the back of two kills at 25 minutes, putting them firmly ahead. Venenu’s Agni pickup looked strong in the fight, providing both damage and control. A defense at the left tier 2 tower left three members of Renegades dead for only 2 of Sanguine, however; excellent ultimates from Panitom’s Susano and Ronggyu’s Ganesha tipped the fight. Sanguine took the next FG at 33 minutes and broke the base, but lost two members in the process and regrouped to take a second FG a few minutes later. After cleaning up half the Renegades squad, however, they elected to end the game instead. As in other matches, Odin felt very ineffective from behind despite being a high-priority pick.

Sunday, April 19

Pittsburgh Knights PK 1-2 Team Rival RvL

Game 1: The first game of the 2019 Worlds rematch kicked off with two kills for Rival onto mid and solo. Despite their early lead, PK was able to stay afloat and pick up some kills of their own thanks to ultimates from Qvofred on Hun Batz and an 11-minute GF. After a few more trades back and forth, Paul’s Hel easily outpaced Twig’s Agni even after Rival grabbed the second GF of the game. ScaryD’s Camazotz also proved difficult to handle for the backline of Rival, and PK took the game’s first FG at 24 minutes. The combined CC from the Bacchus and Hun Batz ultimate (both inside the Odin cage) was too much to handle for Rival, who lost their carries and then the game at 35 minutes.

Game 2: Rival started with another 2-0 lead in game 2, putting a lot of pressure onto PK’s duo lane and repeatedly invading their buffs. They continued to outpace PK in map pressure, finding more neutral objectives and ganks into duo before PK finally grabbed their first kills at 13 minutes in a 2-for-2 trade despite losing the GF. Sam4soccer’s Thanatos began to feel unanswerable by the mid-game, and Rival stayed firmly ahead after taking another GF. Tower kills by Rival widened the gold deficit along with a third GF, although PK were able to answer back with some picks. A 30-minute FG for Rival along with two kills allowed them to mop up the remaining towers and begin the Phoenix siege. Despite a questionable blink in from Twig on Raijin that resulted in his death, his team was able to clean up, necessitating a third game.

Game 3: This game saw some interesting switch-ups in mid, with Olorun for Paul and NuWa for CaptainTwig (perhaps the team wanted him on a god that could not dash in). Rival continued their favorite strategy of early pressure; ganks and invades all across the map made 6 kills by 10 minutes, resulting in a 3k gold lead. The lead snowballed into an early GF and disastrous teamfights for PK. Odin felt low-impact from behind in the mid-game for NeilMah, just as it did for PBM in game 1. Two FGs for Rival before 25 minutes ended the game in their favor.

Radiance R 2-0 Spacestation Gaming SSG

Game 1: iRaffer returned to Kuzenbo for this set, and was almost able to first-blood Aror with his aggressive push ability. It was Dardez on Hera, though, who took the first death at the hands of Adapting’s Susano, a pick which would remain high-impact throughout the game. A few more early trades kept the game close in gold and XP through the 20 minute mark, when Radiance pulled firmly ahead after taking a GF and a 4-2 trade. Benji looked nigh-unkillable on Arthur, fearlessly diving the back line to take down Vote. SSG stole the first FG of the game but lost the fight afterwards, with only Nika on Jorm left alive. A slow dance around the FG pit at 30 minutes eventually saw Radiance trade 4-2 yet again and eventually claim the buff, enabling them to take left Phoenix. Interference from Cherryo on Serqet delayed Radiance’s second FG, but they eventually took it at 40 minutes and the game five minutes later. The flawless team coordination from Radiance felt unbeatable throughout most of Game 1.

Game 2: Aror pulled out his signature Hercules for the second game of the match, and it didn’t disappoint, placing heavy pressure on Raffer and Vote in the early stages of duo lane and allowing him to invade purple buff. BMT on Raijin got first blood with the help of Adapting on Camazotz despite falling a few seconds later, and Radiance followed up with two more kills with continued pressure from Camazotz. A steep XP deficit by 15 minutes hampered SSG in their ability to take fights; they were also down in gold despite taking the first GF. The game continued to snowball, with Radiance grabbing the next GF as well as a 21-minute FG. A 2-for-2 trade by the right-side Phoenix only delayed the inevitable; a deicide five minutes later locked up the game for Radiance. Cherryo’s Cabrakan felt low-impact in the early game and never picked up.