Championship Sunday

Who will prevail?

Heading into day three of Vainglory Worlds, I knew we were going to see the best gameplay we have seen all year. Cloud9 verse Tribe Gaming was a little bittersweet, knowing that one of the top two teams left in the tournament would not make it to the finals. The players gave us a back and forth, intense series. Impunity verse Ace Gaming was going to be just as exciting, with the home crowd having major momentum going into day three. We couldn’t of asked for a better day three of worlds. So who prevailed and has their sites set on lifting that OG VIPL trophy?

I do not think I have ever witnessed a series as closely matched as the Cloud9 vs Tribe. After day two, I was fully convinced no one was stopping Cloud9 from winning worlds 2017. Gabevizzle and crew won 7 games throughout day one and two. I knew Tribe was going to be their first challenge, but I did not expect Tribe to look as strong as they did.

Getting right into game one, Cloud9 drafted something that they are very familiar with. Vox and Fortress paired up with a captain of Gabe’s choice. They decided it would be an Adagio in order to counter DNZio. This may have been their down fall, as Zio picks up a Rona and ttigers a Blackfeather. Seeing C9’s comp, I was worried. They do not lose often when they run this, but Tribe played into their win condition. Diving on top of Oldskool over and over made it extremely difficult for him to kite around and survive. Tribe strikes first and wins game one 9–2.

DNZio 4/2/5

ttigers 4/0/3

MaxGreen 1/0/7

Heading into game two, I was interested in seeing how Cloud9 was going to react. They had just experienced their first lost of worlds. It was crucial for them to stay level headed and focus on what they needed to do to even the field. The draft phase was rough for C9 once again. C9 gives up the Rona and Koshka over to Tribe. After seeing Oldskool struggle heavily into the Rona first game, I was not sure how game two would be different. It really wasn’t for most of it, but something switched in Oldskool. His kitting ability was on another level in this game. Cloud9 was down ten thousand gold, ten…TEN. They played the late game perfectly and won back to back team fights within a four minute window. I am not sure how they accomplished it, but they even the series 1–1.

Oldskool 8/3/4

iLoveJoesph 4/3/7

gabevizzle 0/3/5

How does Tribe react to being ahead so far in game two, just to let is slip away? During draft, I knew Tribe had game three in the bag as soon as they first picked Skye. Zio’s weapon power Skye is truly one of the greatest things to watch. Cloud9’s comp was very dive heavy, having drafted Rona, Koshka, and Fortress. The issue was Maxgreen on Ardan and ttigers on Baptiste, which provided so much peel for DNZio. I will just show you what I mean. Tribe wins game three.

Would we see this series make it to best of 5? I do not think it really matters at this point. It has easily been the most challenging series yet. Looking at game four, I was so excited to see the comps that would come out of these teams. DNZio and Tribe locked in WP Adagio, Grace, and Koshka. Oldskool gets on Vox once again, but for some reason, he struggled. This was a theme all series with Cloud9 dropping to Tribe 3–1. I personally was rooting for Tribe, as I think it would be really cool seeing the last team getting a wild card spot, win it all!

Seeing the emotion coming from Cloud9 was truly heart breaking. They won back to back unified live finals and have been on top all year. Gabevizzle with the most important message to his team. GGs to both teams and keep your head up Cloud9.

Being so emotionally invested in both the NA teams in the first semis, I was not as pumped for series two. That being said, I should of been because these teams came to play! The home team Impunity has the whole crowd behind their backs, while EA’s ACE gaming is the strongest team in EA and wants to keep the trophy in Korea.

Game one was pretty interesting since I think the drafts were even. Unfortunately, that did not show during the actual game as ACE won in a dominating fashion. YoungJoo was on Ardan and landed some nasty gauntlets that locked down QuiCi on the WP Skye. I think deftQ did struggle against his counter part T4SA, who ran a Reza. Also, creatioN being able to stick on top of Impunity on the Rona was devastating for them. Even after dominating in game one, I was not giving the series to ACE just yet. We saw in day two, that they won against paiN in under 11 minutes in game one, but still went to the full 5 games.

creationN 6/1/3

T4SA 5/1/4

YoungJoo 2/2/9

Looking at game two, ACE had a pretty interesting draft. We get to see the first captain Glaive of worlds on YoungJoo. Impunity on the other hand had Baron, Lorelai, and Ardan. I actually gave Impunity the advantage in this game two, but was not sure if they could perform well enough to beat ACE. I am not sure either team really dominated in this game two. It went a full 32 minutes and had multiple Krakens released. CreatioN played Vox to such a high level and finishing 7/3/4 is what made the big difference. ACE is able to back door and win game two to take a 2–0 lead against Impunity.

After game two, I was fully invested in this series. Rooting for the home team to make the ultimate comeback that we would remember for the years to come. Impunity is down 2–0 heading into game three and faced their biggest challenge yet. Win or go home. Leave it all on the line and that is exactly what the kids from Impunity did. ACE runs a CP Ardan, which surprisingly has seen some play from multiple teams. It has never won a game, so I was interested to see what they could do with it. Impunity drafted a strong Cloud9 comp of Vox, Fortress, and Catherine. QuiCi and deftQ fought their way along side Quater to win game 3 and stay alive for another game. The heart from these kids is tremendous and I was thinking that they just might do it.

Looking at game four, I had all the hopes in the world. This was going to be such a back and forth game with everything on the line for Impunity. Impunity had this game locked up and were ready to move on to game 5! CreatioN had something else to say about that though. They win a late team fight, push and take out all of Impunity’s turrets. Impunity answered with a Kraken and a push of their own. During this time, CreatioN along with YoungJoo on Lyra, attempt and succeed another back door. Impunity doesn’t have the damage to stop it, and ACE rips the hope right out of Impunity and the crowd. They win the semifinals and let the celebration begin! All the feels for ACE Gaming.

So looking ahead to championship Sunday, NA vs EA. ttigers said he wanted to face ACE just so they could decide who the best region of 2017 actually is. I have no clue what is going to happen. Tribe is coming off one of the biggest wins in their history of Vainglory. ACE have overcome all odds and proved that they are the best team in the EA region. With Tribe Gaming playing as well as they are, my final prediciton will be Tribe winning 4–2. All I know is it will be back and forth with some of the most exciting Vainglory yet. Yes, even better than day 1,2,3 combined!

So we will also get to see a king of the hill format of 5v5. Renegades, Rox Armada, and TSM with super sub ShinKaigan will be battling it out. The showcase matches will be a great cherry on top for SEMC’s fantastic year.

Thanks for reading and if you would like more, as always follow our twitter and soundcloud for the Time For Rolling esports podcast!

Cheers! -Endless