Team Liquid vs OpTic Gaming

The first game of the day was a crazy back-and-forth, but in the end, Team Liquid ("TL") emerged victorious over OpTic Gaming ("OPT"). Their victory mostly came through Impact's Aatrox, who amassed a large gold lead through farm and the First Tower bonus from the Rift Herald. But on the other side of the map, Arrow's Draven and Crown's Corki made a lot of plays around the bot lane and picked up a bunch of kills themselves. It was a battle between bot and top, but at this point, OPT was definitely ahead.

A 24-minute team fight erupted from a great Dhokla engage, and as a result, OPT clean Ace'd TL and took the Baron. They tried to push mid, but Impact destroyed two top lane towers and stalled OPT's siege. When OPT returned mid, they overcommitted on an engage and TL killed three. After this, both teams reset and met around the bottom river again. This time, Impact's Aatrox was a raid boss and carried TL to a team fight victory. From here, TL secured their own Baron buff, smashed OPT in another team fight and went straight through OPT's base to claim their Nexus.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 34:00

Kills: 16-16

Turrets: 7-5

Gold: 66.0k-63.3k

Dragons: 2-2

Barons: 1-1

Cloud9 vs FlyQuest

FlyQuest ("FLY") kindled their post-season hopes with a huge win over Cloud9 ("C9"). Santorin kicked it all off with a level two gank on the bottom lane, where he killed Deftly for First Blood. C9 did manage to find a successful dive onto V1per and use Rift Herald to take the First Tower bonus in the bottom lane. FLY pulled ahead in team fights though. One at 10 minutes went in FLY's favor three-for-one and another at 14 minutes went three-for-one too. With these victories, FLY accumulated a large gold lead moving past the 20-minute mark.

After this mark, C9 looked as though they might come back. They picked off V1per first, then caught out Wadid and Santorin two minutes later. But this went to their heads. Emboldened, C9 engaged onto FLY near the Baron at 25 minutes. It backfired horrifically and FLY clean Ace'd C9 before taking the Baron. Now empowered with the Baron buff, FLY sieged C9's base and easily destroyed their middle Inhibitor. C9 tried to defend their bottom lane Inhibitor Tower, but FLY dove them and slaughtered four from C9. It didn't take them long from here to destroy C9's Nexus.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 29:50

Kills: 7-18

Turrets: 2-9

Gold: 47.4k-58.6k

Dragons: 0-4

Barons: 0-1

Golden Guardians vs 100 Thieves

The Golden Guardians ("GGS") began their weekend by using a creative composition to take down 100 Thieves ("100T"). The early game was relatively quiet, though Amazing did gank and kill Hauntzer for First Blood at four minutes. The next few minutes were slow but sped back up at 11 minutes, when GGS caught Aphromoo and won a team fight at the Herald two-for-one in kills. Two minutes later, GGS returned to the Herald to claim the Eye and used it to take the First Tower bonus in the bottom lane.

After this, a few objectives fell to each team, but they hesitated to fight. There was a brief fight at 21 minutes, where GGS killed one from 100T, but at 23 minutes the action started up again. Here, GGS caught out Amazing and instantly turned to Baron. They secured the buff before killing two from 100T. Now empowered with the Baron buff, GGS pushed down a few towers and the middle Inhibitor. They then rotated to the bottom lane, where the took two more towers and engaged onto 100T. GGS easily cut down all five of their opponents before pushing into their base and destroying their Nexus.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 28:50

Kills: 12-5

Turrets: 9-3

Gold: 55.1k-47.2k

Dragons: 3-1

Barons: 1-0

Team SoloMid vs Echo Fox

This fourth game of the day was super exciting, with Team SoloMid ("TSM") beating Echo Fox in a very close match. Surprisingly, FOX commanded the early game by abusing the TSM bottom lane and with some great plays from Mike Yueng. They snowballed their lead through objective takes and even secured the first Baron at 24 minutes. With it, FOX brought down an Inhibitor tower but was routed by TSM and lost four members. TSM won another team fight three-for-zero at 29 minutes to put themselves in the commanding position with an Inhibitor and Baron Nashor take.

Soon after, TSM took the top lane Inhibitor too. TSM's Baron faded away and FOX managed to defend. At 36 minutes, FOX decided to rush the Baron, and though they did claim the buff, TSM opened up all three Inhibitors. Once this happened, the game turned hectic. TSM tried rushing the base a couple of time, but FOX, specifically Apollo, played well to push them back. But Bjergsen did take the two Nexus Towers to expose the Nexus itself. At 44 minutes, FOX found two kills and turned towards the Baron. They secured it and won a fight in the bottom lane at the same time, which prompted them to rush TSM's base. But TSM wouldn't be outdone and used Smoothie's Tahm Kench ultimate to bring him and Akaadian right to FOX's Nexus, where they finished the game with a backdoor.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 45:05

Kills: 16-19

Turrets: 11-8

Gold: 81.2k-86.9k

Dragons: 4-3

Barons: 1-3

Clutch Gaming vs Counter Logic Gaming

The last game of the day featured Counter Logic Gaming ("CLG") taking down Clutch Gaming ("CG"). This match was relatively low action, but CLG played well to outplay their opponents in the mid and late game. CG did control the early game though by killing Wiggily for First Blood and destroying two outer towers. They then won a team fight two-for-zero at 19 minutes to establish more control over the map, which helped them find more picks in the mid-game.

CG maintained their lead with another team fight victory at 25 minutes. But CLG turned it all around at 27 minutes. Here, Damonte was caught out and killed, which resulted in Huni dying afterward too. Since they gained river vision control from this, CLG was able to sneak the Baron at 28 minutes and secure it. CG tried to trade towers while CLG sieged with this Baron buff, but CLG ended up taking a bottom lane Inhibitor to win the trade. The second Baron spawned, and at 34 minutes, CLG started it up. CG showed up to fight for it but it ended in disaster for them, as three CG members fell. With this opportunity, CLG rushed into CG's base, killed one more champion, and then their Nexus.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 36:01

Kills: 6-7

Turrets: 5-9

Gold: 59.9k-65.3k

Dragons: 2-3

Barons: 0-1

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