This week in OGN, our second quarterfinals match was between reigning Champions Spring winners MVP Ozone facing off against newcomers Chunnam Techno University. After a meticulously planned group stage performance from Ozone, CTU was hoping for their marksman Riris to repeat his spectacular performance during group stages and carry the team to clinch three victories for their semi-finals spot.

Game 1

CTU’s goals during this game: Utilize the growing-in-popularity combo of Nocturne and Ahri to create picks post level-6 so that 4v5 teamfights may tilt in their favor. With enough disruption from Zac and lockdown from Sona’s Crescendo, Twitch would be free enough to Spray and Pray from the backlines without Zed even having touching him.

MVP Ozone’s goals during this game: Avoid teamfighting by using both Shen and Zed to split push. With Caitlyn’s and Lulu punishing laning phase, set back Twitch enough so that when skirmishes do occur, Ozone will have the upper hand in terms of gold and items. To offset Ahri’s and Nocturne’s roaming, ward early and often so they do not have the opportunity to snowball the game in their favor.

What really happened

After a fairly routine start at level 1 with both teams sending their duo lanes top to fight against each other, DanDy decides to deviate from typical jungler purchases on his first back to base. Instead of purchasing boots for increased mobility around the map or a Spirit Stone to help with clear speed and sustain in the jungle, he opted to purchase sight and vision wards. With this early vision, Ozone was able to spot out Racoon’s Nocturne roaming around the map and prepared a counter gank in the middle lane. While Nocturne got into position for a gank onto Dade’s Zed, Dade and DanDy caught out Nocturne coming out from the blue side banana bush which was previously pinked and the skrimish resulted in first blood and double buffs to Zed. After the duo lanes switched back to bottom for dragon control, imp’s Caitlyn ended up with a double kill after he successfully flashed a point-blank Crescendo.

When the next Dragon spawned at 17 minutes, instead of contesting the strong teamfight from CTU, Ozone instead traded two outer turrets for the Dragon head. Since their outer ring of turrets fell, CTU’s chances of having pick opportunities created by Ahri was significantly diminished and would have to rely on teamfighting a richer Ozone. Things weren’t made easier when at 23 minute mark, Riris was caught out by a Jarvan Dragon Lance-Cataclysm combo which led to a 3-0 fight in favor of Ozone. After a few minutes of posturing around the map, at 31 minutes Nocturne blew a Paranoia ultimate on a failed pick, and an immediate teamfight at Dragon resulted in a perfect ace, a Dragon, and an uncontested Baron for MVP Ozone. Eventually, CTU sucuumbed to Ozone’s Baron-fueled siege and surrendered at 37 minutes.

Game 2

CTU’s goals during this game: Try to survive the early game so that Shen can make it to lategame and build enough armor to render Ozone’s double AD composition ineffective. During teamfights, layer in heavy CC from Lissandra’s Frozen Tomb and Zyra’s Stranglethorns so that Twitch can freely Spray and Pray from the backlines.

MVP Ozone goals during this game: Shut down Shen early and often while quickly sieging towers with their two marksmen. Using the Insec combo, create 4v5 picks around the map and utilize the lockup period from Zac’s Let’s Bounce and Sona’s Crescendo to allow both marksmen to freely DPS and assassinate key carries with Ezreal’s and Vayne’s high mobility.

What really happened

All was calm during the laning phase and once again DanDy opted to buy wards on his first base on Lee Sin rather than a Spirit Stone or boots. This decision paid off when around the 4:30 mark as Dade’s Ezreal successfully bullied Mima’s Lissandra and she was forced to recall between her towers in middle lane. Using his just recently purchased ward, DanDy Safeguarded to a sight ward and executed Mima for first blood. At 9:20, CTU attempted to layer down their global ultimates and gank Ozone’s duo lane top but things didn’t go as planned and they wasted Shen’s Stand United and Nocturne’s Paranoia for ultimately nothing.

As the game progressed, Homme’s Zac kept Shen in check once they returned to duel in top lane which forced CTU to be more wary about creating skirmishes to allow Shen to port in without map pressure in top lane. Thus, with DanDy roaming around the map and feeding Dade early kills and helping Homme snowball top these tiny skirmishes led to full teamfights never occurring, which was CTU’s best chance at winning the game. To counter Shen’s armor stacking in an attempt to nullify Ozone’s double AD composition, Homme was able to build more damage items such as Sorcerer’s Shoes and a Liandry’s Torment and became an unstoppable, diving force for turret sieges. At the 26 minute mark, CTU attempted a Baron which led to disastrous results as Homme was able to freely to Elastic Slingshot in and just obliterate CTU with Let’s Bounce and it led to a quadrakill for Zac and a delayed ace for Ozone as a whole. At 30 minutes, Ozone dove CTU at their inhibitor turret resulting in an ace, the inhibitor, and vision control around the Baron for it to be left uncontested. After imp gets caught out in a siege at the top inhibitor turret, Ozone managed to just steamroll the engagement due to Baron buff and their immense gold lead and CTU surrendered at 33 minutes.

Game 3

CTU’s goals during this game: Survive the early game and eventually outscale MVP Ozone’s champions with lategame hypercarries Jax and Vayne. Using high CC champions Lissandra and Zyra, be enough of a nuisance so that Riris can kill without fear of Shen and Lee Sin inititations.

MVP Ozone’s goals during this game: Using the double global ultimates from Shen and Twisted Fate in conjunction with Lee Sin, create enough early skirmishes to snowball the game. After laning phase, use Twisted Fate and Shen to split push lanes to keep up global pressure with the ability to port in at will.

What really happened

Unfortunately for DanDy, his first base to buy wards did not result in any early kills or specific advantages for Ozone. Thus, first blood came not from a gank but rather a gathering for a dragon fight at 10 minutes into the game. As Shen Stand United in from top lane to save imp from a Lissandra gank in the middle lane, Raccoon found himself out of position and was caught out by a Shen taunt and instantly melted. Facing worse odds since NoNameD was top, CTU had to forfeit the first Dragon to MVP Ozone. At 12 minutes, CTU orchestrated a 3-man dive on Dade in bottom lane but DanDy was able to pickup the pieces from the all the turret damage and picked himself up a triple kill.

After becoming victims of impatience from about 15 minutes of farming on the map, at 27 minutes Ozone attempted to sneak a Baron but the plan fell apart terribly. Since neither Jax or Vayne were CC’d in the fight, they were able to run amok and in the end CTU traded 1 kill for an ace and a Baron. Following this, Ozone was able to turtle successfully until the next spawn and then they could try their hand at finishing the game. At 34 minutes, due to Ozone’s vision control they were able to create a pick off Raccoon and it resulted in an uncontested Baron and the necessary momentum to siege all 3 lanes at the same time with Shen in the top, Twisted Fate in the middle, and the rest of the team at bottom. While sieging, NoNameD made the questionable move of engaging on a Baron’d team with Jax and Mata’s excellent Crescendo locked up enough of CTU so that Shen and TF could port down to save imp and take down the rest of the turrets without contest resulting in a win at 40 minutes.

Ending thoughts

Thus far in Champions Summer, MVP Ozone hasn’t had to face what many spectators believe to be any of the top teams in Korea yet. Their toughest opponent in the group stages was Reapered’s Jin Air Greenwings Falcons and they dispatched of them easily without any particular strategies in mind. And in the games against CTU, they approached the games the same way: just manage to reactively play better against challengers. For their first two games against CTU, their team compositions were something left to be desired for and didn’t have any clear purpose but since the skill gap between them and CTU was so large, they did not have to worry about overcoming any hurdles. And although they played meticulously throughout the group stages, their 3rd game in particular in this series was sloppy as their early Baron attempt failed miserably and delayed a game that could have ended 15 minutes earlier.

With their semifinals match against SK Telecom T1 this upcoming Friday, MVP Ozone knows that they can’t afford to simply play solo queue against them since Faker is most likely the most punishing of all players in Champions this season. As their first real challenge in the season, we’ll have to see whether Ozone can get back into the groove of pristine and clean play with specially crafted strategies to dismantle their opponents or if they’ll just crumble beneath themselves.

Signing off with the hottest dances in Korea, here’s your Oberyn-approved K-pop video of the week.