With games featuring Victorious, Unknown, Vap, Tiger-Phobia, Raid, and WILD, the latest set of games from the Vainglory International Premier League were full of unique strategy and epic comebacks. This set of games rounded out the group stage, giving each team two games played.

Due to dropping their first games, most of the teams playing in this episode were fighting for their tournament survival. Two losses in the group stage almost certainly means that team won’t proceed to the final bracket. The one exception would be if three teams finished 1-2 and one team finished 3-0, in which case one of the three 1-2 teams would advance.

Return of Glaive

Glaive has been considered one of the strongest jungle picks in the North American region, but few expected the European contender, Unknown, to pick it as their jungler in their latest match against Victorious. As Glaive, Tercus provided reliable early-game pressure that helped propel Unknown into their full potential.

Transcript, Victorious’ Koshka, eventually made an impact in the game, catching Bayu with his ultimate. Though Unknown’s laner, Bayu, had purchased a Reflex Block for his Skaarf, he missed a few key timings that set his team back drastically in kills.

Victorious made a massive comeback, reversing the kill lead to be in their favor. However, Unknown picked up a timely Kraken, and then Tercus initiated perfectly into Victorious, distracting them from the siege beast until it was too late.

a balanced diet

An important aspect of every team is a balanced composition. Tiger-Phobia bested Vap by selecting heroes that compliment one another; a ranged hero that has consistent damage output and lanes well, and a melee hero with high mobility who assassinates targets effectively. Urano could duel anyone as Ringo, and Suri could scrap and brawl effectively in team fights. Suri would go unanswered, repeatedly picking off Chivalry, despite the dual supports that were trying to keep him alive.

These teams knew one another quite well, and it became apparent just 80 seconds into the match, when Urano took first blood on Chivalry’s Vox. By positioning himself in the lane to be able to harass Vox, Urano was able to clear minions and get to level two first. He immediately capitalized on that advantage, picking up first blood extremely early.

While the kills stayed relatively close, the gold difference was immense. Suri and Urano looked like surgeons, professionally extracting resources from their opponents’ jungle. It seemed like lily1999iu was trying to scale the Ardan into a weapon power beast, but the dream was never realized.

doing your homework

If you ever play in the NBA, don’t leave LeBron James unguarded to shoot a jump shot. In that same regard, don’t leave Liege in a lane to farm to the late game as Ringo. WILD came into the game with the mentality to shut down Liege, and they nailed it. Liege died as first blood before the two-minute mark. Then he rotated with his team, catching Mong and Senti in their jungle rotation. Despite the fight being 2v3, Senti immediately focused Liege with his Rocket Leap, which resulted in WILD leaving with two kills, compared to the one of Raid.

About a minute later, Mong and Senti dashed into the lane to try to catch Liege sleeping. Liege survived the dive, but it put him on tilt, forcing an adaptation in his build early. Liege still fell a third time before the game reached seven minutes. When discussing the double-stun potential of Catherine and Joule, MonteCristo said that it looks like this is a strategy specifically designed to deal with Raid’s play style.

Once Liege was playing tentatively, WILD moved aggressively into Raid’s jungle, picked off both Deesta and Spell, and then easily dove to finish Liege under his turret. WILD never let up the pressure, showing the effectiveness of the double-stun comp.

WILD’s Mong was a massive threat this game, setting up every kill for his team. His Merciless Pursuit was used to its maximum potential, but aside from constantly being the aggressor, he was also phenomenal at avoiding death. His play was extremely fun to watch, and was a tribute to every support player in the Vainglory universe. He was a true carry from the support role.

Here’s a short GIF of Mong in action (thanks Ares_II), playing in the minds of Raid.