Tons of crazy things across the board end the first week of the LPL, showing a much stronger and closer amount of competition in comparison to the first split.

RC vs. EP

The final day of the first week of the LPL kicked off with the newly contesting squad hailing from Hong Kong kicking off against the long time LPL veterans of Royal Club. Though no early level 1 fights were had, BuPing did bring an annoying amount of pressure to Lucky in the jungle, utilizing a well placed ward and just being Nunu. Lucky would be set behind in the jungle after having his red taken from right under his nose.

Royal Club would find their revenge when Wh1tezz on Zed along with Lucky would invade the red-side wraiths, taking out Nunu in his own jungle to give him a taste of his own medicine. Off of this, they were easily able to take the first turret of the game bottom away from EP. Following that up would be 2 more kills from Royal Club. The funny thing to note from this point is the gold invested from Lucky's assists went into a blasting wand.



Thanks. See ya, nerd.

Utilizing the ability power from Lucky's strange build, they were able to push waves more adequately and follow up with turret kills after some successful initial assassinations. In an overzealous attempt at catching up in kills, Royal Club caught several members of EP off guard, also acquiring a turret. With 4 turrets up and a hefty 6k gold lead, things were looking grim for EP. Eventually, Lucky sold his blasting wand for an aegis.

Royal Club would show impressive tower diving coordination by engaging first with the explosive cask from their top lane Gragas, chunking the entire enemy team and splitting them apart so Lucky could dive on Nasus, soak the damage, and allow the remaining 3 to commence cleanup duty. With a game ending 4-man explosive cask and some excellent micro from Uzi, the game would soon come to a close with Royal Club finding revenge on EP's early aggression.

VOD (click for full-screen)

PE vs. IG

The next game would kick off with Pdd taking a page out of Wickd's book to see what he can do with top lane Zac. Invictus Gaming was the first to bring out the aggression by taking a long route straight to Positive Energy's blue buff, taking it essentially for free. While Aluka's elise attempted to stop him, 3 tiger strikes left PE's top laner incredibly gimped in her 2v1 against Kid and Xiaoxiao, eliminating a large amount of her sustain.

IG's team would find some trouble in future engages, most noteably when Illusion's Udyr attempted to gank Sicca and Nomei was simply not having it. Draven bravely turned on Udyr and acquired the first blood. Despite iG having Jing's blue buff, Jing would continue to put an excellent display on, going 4-1 and the team overall going 3 towers up to 1 at 12 minutes. However, Kid's 3-0 Vayne would still pose a threat in this phase.



Leave my support alone!

PE's plays would continue to be relentless and they made sure to press every advantage gained over a small smirkish, eventually pulling ahead 4-1 in towers and 11-5 in score around the 15 minute mark. They had enough map control where Jing was simply walking around and scouting for IG prey, all the while zoning iG away from a potential dragon. When dragon spawned, Xiaoxiao would commit to a very impressive engage over the wall, but IG was just not strong enough.

Several minutes later, Positive Energy would take a nearly uncontested baron and continue assaulting Invictus Gaming. While they fought top, a massive wave of minions were build up bottom, causing IG to go deal with it while Positive Energy rampaged through IG's jungle. Though Positive Energy probably could have closed the game out from this, they took it patient, secured vision over the map, took a second dragon, and then went ahead to take the game away from IG.

VOD (click for fullscreen)

WE vs. OMG

Definitely one of the most anticipated matches of the night would be the game leading up to the final game of the weekend. Both sides started off passively in their jungles, with LoveLin getting the first blood opportunity onto CaoMei's Diana. A very typical Korean-style game would ensue as the tower races would begin with both sides immediately taking each others' tower. Even more wildly is the inner tower would also go down for OMG and action was everywhere.

Bloodshed was the name of the game here with 5 kills going off before the 5 minute mark and constant skirmish battles popping up for both sides desperately defending their towers and even overstaying a little, resulting in the many deaths on the battlefield. Even with WE suffering the first two killing blows of the game, their objective control was impeccable as they were able to grab the dragon with absolutely no contesting going on from the side of OMG.



Incredible amounts of action from the get go. ​

A 4-0 terrifying Lee Sin from Troll would bring absolutely panic to OMG as he acquired a 4-0 kill score very early on in the game showing just how much potential the character still has. With the catching potential of OMG's roster and the increasing Chinese popularity of a first item Iceborne Gauntlet on Ezreal, OGM were able to slowly close the gab a bit, catching up in gold, towers, and kills.

After a bit of a stalemate, Misaya would split push bottom with Zed while OMG attempted to take a baron. Unfortunately for OMG, WE was able to stop it with only 4 members, meaning not only did OMG not get baron, but Misaya was able to take the bottom tower and the inhibitor. A second baron engage would leave WE falling apart and OMG taking baron, but not before Caomei TP'd bottom and bought down a nexus turret. After a breathtaking back and forth battle, only one would emerge victor...

VOD (click for fullscreen)

LMQ vs. YG

The final game of the weekend would begin with a passive start and the traditional purple duo swap into the top lane and vice versa. Though no jungle fights went down early, action would erupt in the lanes immediately from jungle assistance with noname grabbing first blood top and Syz on Hecarim assisting Syndra on grabbing a kill middle against Wayoff. While middle turret almost went down, the jungle and mid of LMQ narrowly were able to save it.

LMQ showed prowess with their champions and were able to secure a lead early after having lost their first turret by abusing YG's lack of vision to make plays across the map. Relentless with their siege, the team would all swap middle to take out the middle turret and then immediately swing top to take out the last outer turret of the game. YG victmized a few of LMQ's turrets of their own, but still had their bottom outer turret.



F1sh gets caught, but LMQ is strong enough to turn around and demolish YG. ​

As the game progressed, Young Glory would be able to secure a dragon in an attempt to catch back up in gold values while only suffering one loss for it. LMQ were rarely found split pushing and utilized their powerful poke to siege which would end up getting them in a bit of trouble and driven out of their base. However, even after their ADC getting caught, LMQ was able to turn on YG and crush Young Glory, taking their top inner turret and backing off.

At this point, LMQ had a significant gold lead and a much more annoying teamfight composition to boot. Having placed wards in both lizard and ancient golem portions of red side, they were able to move as a unit wherever they pleased, taking free dragons and turrets across the map. An epic battle at the gates of Young Glory would decide the game for LMQ, allowing them to clean up and close out the weekend with a victory.

VOD (click for full-screen)

RESULTS