NeoIllusions Profile Joined December 2002 United States 15625 Posts Last Edited: 2013-02-21 05:35:02 February 20 2013 18:56 GMT #1

NAME OF ARTICLE Table of Contents



Bringing Down the Throne







With Overwhelming Force







Wards in the Brush





Check out the LCS schedule and matchups at

Check out the LCS schedule and matchups at lolesports.com



To Stand Above All...

After an immensely successful Week 1, the LCS NA returned last week with both old school rematches and the first trials for NA newcomers. Counter Logic Gaming received a bye, leaving seven teams to duke it out in Week 2. For compLexity Gaming and Team MRN, the 7th and 8th place qualifying teams, this would be their first week of broadcast play; the spotlight was on them to take on Curse Gaming, Team Dignitas, and Team SoloMid. Meanwhile, Dignitas sought to redeem themselves after a poor performance in Week 1. With three games to play, including a rematch against TSM, Dignitas could either win big or drop abysmally low. Finally, with CLG out of the picture for a week, can TSM and Curse maintain their winning records to remain at the top of the pack? After an immensely successful Week 1, the LCS NA returned last week with both old school rematches and the first trials for NA newcomers. Counter Logic Gaming received a bye, leaving seven teams to duke it out in Week 2. For compLexity Gaming and Team MRN, the 7th and 8th place qualifying teams, this would be their first week of broadcast play; the spotlight was on them to take on Curse Gaming, Team Dignitas, and Team SoloMid. Meanwhile, Dignitas sought to redeem themselves after a poor performance in Week 1. With three games to play, including a rematch against TSM, Dignitas could either win big or drop abysmally low. Finally, with CLG out of the picture for a week, can TSM and Curse maintain their winning records to remain at the top of the pack?



Who Has Risen? Overall Standings





Bringing Down the Throne Week 2 Recaps

[Day 1] February 14, 2013

Dignitas vs MRN

Day 1 of LCS NA Week 2 began with the debut of Team MRN facing the 1–2 veterans Dignitas. Unfortunately, MRN's lack of experience was evident throughout the game and Dignitas took full of it. A Mid-lane ward spotted ClakeyD and Dignitas collapsed on him for first blood. Gaining early control in the lanes, Dignitas took the first Dragon at five minutes for a 1.3K gold lead. The game continued to snowball downhill for MRN as Dignitas secured kills and objectives all over the map. The Season 2 runner-ups, led by imaqtpie’s Draven and scarra’s Kayle, put on a clinic on how to humiliate an opponent, smashing through turrets and MRN players all game. Mercifully, the beatdown concluded around 25:00, when the Baron-exalted Dignitas put the final nail in MRN's coffin. Needless to say, this was not the strongest start for Team MRN; Dignitas, after a mediocre Week 1, appeared to be slowly regaining their pace.



Vulcun vs TSM

Team Vulcun received a redemption opportunity against Team SoloMid, again pitting the new against the old. However, in the teams’ first week encounter, TSM took a one-sided victory; Vulcun finished the week 0–2. An upset seemed unlikely. Sure enough, TSM started strong with an aggressive 3v2 dive in Top lane, eventually getting a TSM first blood on Xmithie. There were points throughout the game where TSM seemed error-prone, such as TheOddOne's unsuccessful attempt to steal Blue from four members of Vulcun or their frequent ceding of Dragons to Vulcun. On the other hand, TSM won nearly every teamfight by a landslide, typically engaging around turrets and the Dragon pit. This kill lead quickly became a turret lead as well and TSM slowly pushed Vulcun back towards their base, suffocating them with heavy lane pressure and map control. TSM's massive lead came to a head at 35:00, when TSM cleaned up three members of Vulcun and took Baron. By then, TSM was too big to fail and they rolled through the Vulcun defense for a 40:00 victory.



compLexity vs Crs

The clash of the old guard and the new continued with compLexity vs Curse. With Curse already with a 3-0 record, compLexity was in for a challenge, but it was one they met with style. CompLexity made the first big play of the game, as jungler Lautemortis employed Vi's Vault Breaker to hop into the Dragon pit, soloing the beast before the four minute mark and garnering coL an early gold lead from under Curse's nose. Curse struck back almost immediately, netting first blood for Voyboy with a Saintvicious gank. However, compLexity kept up the fight, continuing to prosper with Lautemortis' back-door Dragons, Nickwu's impressive resistance of Voyboy's aggression, and superior teamfighting. Throughout the midgame, compLexity maintained a 2-3K gold lead, thwarting the Week 1 leaders, who played sloppily for nearly 25 minutes. However, at 26:00, Curse engaged on compLexity after they had taken Dragon and executed a spectacular teamfight which turned the game around. From that point onwards, in spite of an occasional poor play, they took command of the game, plucking teamfight after objective after turret from the hands of compLexity. At 40:00, Curse destroyed the compLexity Nexus, pulling off a comeback to remain undefeated in the LCS. Despite the victory, Curse's game was off against coL and only the late game mistakes and inexperience of compLexity allowed Curse to close the gap. One must wonder if Curse could have recovered at all against more seasoned opponents. Nevertheless, compLexity played very well in the early stages of the game and if they clean up their end game, we may have a powerful new force in NA.



Dignitas vs TSM

The final game of the day was another TSM rematch, this time against old school rivals Dignitas. Their Week 1 match concluded in a convincing loss for Dignitas. But after such an effective victory over Team MRN, Dignitas's chances of a repeat performance were unlikely. Sure enough, TSM began the game with a botched 3v1 turret dive; TSM successfully acquired first blood, but it was on Xpecial and Chaox managed to give KiWiKiD's Singed a kill to boot. Not a minute later, TheOddOne's mid lane gank ended in a double kill for scarra due to clever warding, a low health Reginald, and a well-executed countergank by Crumbzz. By 12:00, Dignitas had killed even more members of TSM, secured a Dragon, and demolished all three outer turrets, resulting in a 4K gold lead. The entirety of the game was the Dignitas Show: they never once ceded a single advantage to TSM. After 25 minutes, TSM decided they had had enough and surrendered, granting Dignitas their second one-sided, sub-30-minute game of the day. Dignitas, an entirely different team in Week 2, was simply levels above the one that played in the first week. TSM on the other hand, performed entirely under par throughout, a far cry from what fans have come to expect.



[Day 2] February 15, 2013

Crs v Vulcun

Vulcun came into this match with the high hopes of picking up their first win. After Curse's relatively poor performance against compLexity the day prior, it didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility for Curse to drop this match. Curse allowed both GGU and compLexity obtain significant leads before they regained control and capitalized on both team's lack of experience in closing out games. Curse wouldn't let Vulcun get this same chance. Despite the equal kill count and relatively close CS on carries, Curse kept the gold lead throughout the entire game by securing Dragon four times to Vulcun's zero. The real turning point in the match where Curse's gold lead translated into a team fight victory came at 26:35 mark. Vulcun chased Curse a little bit too far down Mid lane and Saintvicious about faced on Jarvan landing an EQ combo onto Zuna along with a well timed Cataclysm, trapping four members of Vulcun inside. Even with a well placed Crescendo coming across the team and interrupting Bullet Time, the damage from Curse was too much for Vulcun to overcome. From there, Curse pushed down Mid lane taking down the 2nd and 3rd tier turrets. Curse retreated to buy, but quickly ran down Mid to Vulcun's Inhibitor and picked off two members trying to defend. With a Teleport from Voyboy, the full five man team of Curse was able to force down the Nexus Turrets and Nexus for the victory.



Dignitas v GGU

Dignitas was already having a good week coming into this match, going 2-0 on the first day and generally looking much more solid in comparison to their Week 1 performance. GGU was looking for their first win after coming up short in several Week 1 matches. The game began with GGU initiating a lane switch with Bloodwater on Nunu and DontMashMe on Caitlyn going Top in hopes of pushing down the tower quickly. dig took advantage of this by sending Crumbzz bot and performing a three man dive on Fat where imaqtpi picked up First Blood. Once they secured this lead, dig never really let up. Despite the close kill count throughout most of the game, dig would continue to increase their gold lead by taking free Dragons and heavily out-farming GGU. dig continued to split push and take down towers at their leisure. GGU made a valiant effort to defend their base, but dig's commanding gold lead was too much for the young team to overcome as dig simply walked into the base and killed the Nexus with ease.



TSM vs MRN

Team MRN needed to prove themselves with this match. After getting destroyed by dig in their very first LCS match, many people questioned whether or not Team MRN would be able to stand up against the top LCS teams. This was not the game to prove their critics wrong. TSM immediately took control of the game with first blood at 2:35 into the game on MegaZero who was in the Bot lane after his team initiated a lane switch. To further increase their lead, as well as adding insult to injury, TheOddOne came Bot one minute later and the three members of TSM dove MegaZero under his tower yet again. They would grab the kill with ease and ClakeyD who came down to try and support MegaZero would also fall to Chaox. From this point on Team MRN never really stood a chance. TSM had too much of an advantage and they just slowly grinded out the rest of the game by not taking any unnecessary risks. Turret after turret fell, as well as Baron, then TSM simply pushed their way into Team MRN's base. Even Anivia's wave clear wasn't enough to deal with TSM as their hard engages allowed them to burst down Team MRN before they could really do any damage. TSM ran a clinic on how to abuse weaker teams and if Team MRN wasn't to compete in weeks to come they have a lot of rethinking to do in terms of strategy and preparation. Day 1 of LCS NA Week 2 began with the debut of Team MRN facing the 1–2 veterans Dignitas. Unfortunately, MRN's lack of experience was evident throughout the game and Dignitas took full of it. A Mid-lane ward spotted ClakeyD and Dignitas collapsed on him for first blood. Gaining early control in the lanes, Dignitas took the first Dragon at five minutes for a 1.3K gold lead. The game continued to snowball downhill for MRN as Dignitas secured kills and objectives all over the map. The Season 2 runner-ups, led by imaqtpie’s Draven and scarra’s Kayle, put on a clinic on how to humiliate an opponent, smashing through turrets and MRN players all game. Mercifully, the beatdown concluded around 25:00, when the Baron-exalted Dignitas put the final nail in MRN's coffin. Needless to say, this was not the strongest start for Team MRN; Dignitas, after a mediocre Week 1, appeared to be slowly regaining their pace.Team Vulcun received a redemption opportunity against Team SoloMid, again pitting the new against the old. However, in the teams’ first week encounter, TSM took a one-sided victory; Vulcun finished the week 0–2. An upset seemed unlikely. Sure enough, TSM started strong with an aggressive 3v2 dive in Top lane, eventually getting a TSM first blood on Xmithie. There were points throughout the game where TSM seemed error-prone, such as TheOddOne's unsuccessful attempt to steal Blue from four members of Vulcun or their frequent ceding of Dragons to Vulcun. On the other hand, TSM won nearly every teamfight by a landslide, typically engaging around turrets and the Dragon pit. This kill lead quickly became a turret lead as well and TSM slowly pushed Vulcun back towards their base, suffocating them with heavy lane pressure and map control. TSM's massive lead came to a head at 35:00, when TSM cleaned up three members of Vulcun and took Baron. By then, TSM was too big to fail and they rolled through the Vulcun defense for a 40:00 victory.The clash of the old guard and the new continued with compLexity vs Curse. With Curse already with a 3-0 record, compLexity was in for a challenge, but it was one they met with style. CompLexity made the first big play of the game, as jungler Lautemortis employed Vi's Vault Breaker to hop into the Dragon pit, soloing the beast before the four minute mark and garnering coL an early gold lead from under Curse's nose. Curse struck back almost immediately, netting first blood for Voyboy with a Saintvicious gank. However, compLexity kept up the fight, continuing to prosper with Lautemortis' back-door Dragons, Nickwu's impressive resistance of Voyboy's aggression, and superior teamfighting. Throughout the midgame, compLexity maintained a 2-3K gold lead, thwarting the Week 1 leaders, who played sloppily for nearly 25 minutes. However, at 26:00, Curse engaged on compLexity after they had taken Dragon and executed a spectacular teamfight which turned the game around. From that point onwards, in spite of an occasional poor play, they took command of the game, plucking teamfight after objective after turret from the hands of compLexity. At 40:00, Curse destroyed the compLexity Nexus, pulling off a comeback to remain undefeated in the LCS. Despite the victory, Curse's game was off against coL and only the late game mistakes and inexperience of compLexity allowed Curse to close the gap. One must wonder if Curse could have recovered at all against more seasoned opponents. Nevertheless, compLexity played very well in the early stages of the game and if they clean up their end game, we may have a powerful new force in NA.The final game of the day was another TSM rematch, this time against old school rivals Dignitas. Their Week 1 match concluded in a convincing loss for Dignitas. But after such an effective victory over Team MRN, Dignitas's chances of a repeat performance were unlikely. Sure enough, TSM began the game with a botched 3v1 turret dive; TSM successfully acquired first blood, but it was on Xpecial and Chaox managed to give KiWiKiD's Singed a kill to boot. Not a minute later, TheOddOne's mid lane gank ended in a double kill for scarra due to clever warding, a low health Reginald, and a well-executed countergank by Crumbzz. By 12:00, Dignitas had killed even more members of TSM, secured a Dragon, and demolished all three outer turrets, resulting in a 4K gold lead. The entirety of the game was the Dignitas Show: they never once ceded a single advantage to TSM. After 25 minutes, TSM decided they had had enough and surrendered, granting Dignitas their second one-sided, sub-30-minute game of the day. Dignitas, an entirely different team in Week 2, was simply levels above the one that played in the first week. TSM on the other hand, performed entirely under par throughout, a far cry from what fans have come to expect.Vulcun came into this match with the high hopes of picking up their first win. After Curse's relatively poor performance against compLexity the day prior, it didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility for Curse to drop this match. Curse allowed both GGU and compLexity obtain significant leads before they regained control and capitalized on both team's lack of experience in closing out games. Curse wouldn't let Vulcun get this same chance. Despite the equal kill count and relatively close CS on carries, Curse kept the gold lead throughout the entire game by securing Dragon four times to Vulcun's zero. The real turning point in the match where Curse's gold lead translated into a team fight victory came at 26:35 mark. Vulcun chased Curse a little bit too far down Mid lane and Saintvicious about faced on Jarvan landing an EQ combo onto Zuna along with a well timed Cataclysm, trapping four members of Vulcun inside. Even with a well placed Crescendo coming across the team and interrupting Bullet Time, the damage from Curse was too much for Vulcun to overcome. From there, Curse pushed down Mid lane taking down the 2nd and 3rd tier turrets. Curse retreated to buy, but quickly ran down Mid to Vulcun's Inhibitor and picked off two members trying to defend. With a Teleport from Voyboy, the full five man team of Curse was able to force down the Nexus Turrets and Nexus for the victory.Dignitas was already having a good week coming into this match, going 2-0 on the first day and generally looking much more solid in comparison to their Week 1 performance. GGU was looking for their first win after coming up short in several Week 1 matches. The game began with GGU initiating a lane switch with Bloodwater on Nunu and DontMashMe on Caitlyn going Top in hopes of pushing down the tower quickly. dig took advantage of this by sending Crumbzz bot and performing a three man dive on Fat where imaqtpi picked up First Blood. Once they secured this lead, dig never really let up. Despite the close kill count throughout most of the game, dig would continue to increase their gold lead by taking free Dragons and heavily out-farming GGU. dig continued to split push and take down towers at their leisure. GGU made a valiant effort to defend their base, but dig's commanding gold lead was too much for the young team to overcome as dig simply walked into the base and killed the Nexus with ease.Team MRN needed to prove themselves with this match. After getting destroyed by dig in their very first LCS match, many people questioned whether or not Team MRN would be able to stand up against the top LCS teams. This was not the game to prove their critics wrong. TSM immediately took control of the game with first blood at 2:35 into the game on MegaZero who was in the Bot lane after his team initiated a lane switch. To further increase their lead, as well as adding insult to injury, TheOddOne came Bot one minute later and the three members of TSM dove MegaZero under his tower yet again. They would grab the kill with ease and ClakeyD who came down to try and support MegaZero would also fall to Chaox. From this point on Team MRN never really stood a chance. TSM had too much of an advantage and they just slowly grinded out the rest of the game by not taking any unnecessary risks. Turret after turret fell, as well as Baron, then TSM simply pushed their way into Team MRN's base. Even Anivia's wave clear wasn't enough to deal with TSM as their hard engages allowed them to burst down Team MRN before they could really do any damage. TSM ran a clinic on how to abuse weaker teams and if Team MRN wasn't to compete in weeks to come they have a lot of rethinking to do in terms of strategy and preparation.

With Overwhelming Force Match of the Week

GGU vs Vulcun

Bans:

14 Good Game University 54.5K

vs.

8 Vulcun Command 52.3K

Bans:

Week 2 for the LCS was somewhat lackluster in terms of quality games. Most of the matches were total stomps or ended with a team throwing away a huge lead. It wasn't until the last round of the week that we were treated to a match with no foreseeable favorite until the very end of the game. For GGU and Vulcun, this was an important game as both teams were looking to pick up their first win. Since the real objective of the first half of the season is to break into the Top Four to guarantee a return spot for the second half of the season, every win is an important one. In theory, a team could quickly reach a point where even if they won the remainder of their games for the season, they still wouldn't break into the Top Four. With that in mind, it makes sense both teams were so desperate for a win.



In contrast to many of the games we saw during Week 2, both teams decided to forego a lane swap and instead just have their players lane in their standard positions. The first real action of the game would come around the 4:00 minute mark. GGU had pushed up pretty far to Vulcun's turret but were relying on some early wards to keep them safe. What they didn't consider was some clever play by Xmithe on Jarvan. By performing an EQ combo he was able to



Aside from a failed gank Mid that only resulted in Mancloud Flashing to safety, the game remained relatively calm. The next big conflict would occur as



Things were starting to look bleak for GGU as Vulcun further expanded their gold lead by securing Dragon as well as taking a lead in turret kills. Then GGU started to play to the strength of their team comp. Just after 30 minutes into the game GGU would start the team fight that would turn the tide of match.



GGU's superior siege was just too much for Vulcun to overcome and in what seemed like a desperation play they tried to force an engage Bot lane leading to a 4-1 trade in kills in favor of GGU that would also secure them the win. At the end of it all this was a well deserved victory for GGU. Vulcun simply outplayed them in the early game, but with superior team coordination and utilizing the strengths of their team comp they were able to come back. This game proved that GGU had a lot of raw talent, and could easily be a dark horse to break into the top four come the end of the first half of the season. Week 2 for the LCS was somewhat lackluster in terms of quality games. Most of the matches were total stomps or ended with a team throwing away a huge lead. It wasn't until the last round of the week that we were treated to a match with no foreseeable favorite until the very end of the game. For GGU and Vulcun, this was an important game as both teams were looking to pick up their first win. Since the real objective of the first half of the season is to break into the Top Four to guarantee a return spot for the second half of the season, every win is an important one. In theory, a team could quickly reach a point where even if they won the remainder of their games for the season, they still wouldn't break into the Top Four. With that in mind, it makes sense both teams were so desperate for a win.In contrast to many of the games we saw during Week 2, both teams decided to forego a lane swap and instead just have their players lane in their standard positions. The first real action of the game would come around the 4:00 minute mark. GGU had pushed up pretty far to Vulcun's turret but were relying on some early wards to keep them safe. What they didn't consider was some clever play by Xmithe on Jarvan. By performing an EQ combo he was able to position himself in the Bot lane river bush without being seen by any wards. From there, it was just a matter of waiting for his cooldowns to come back. Once this happened Xmithe made his presence known and engaged on the unsuspecting Bot lane duo of GGU. Even after burning his Flash and Cleanse, DontMashMe wasn't able to escape and fell to Zuna for first blood. In addition, Bloodwater on Lulu burned his own Flash and Exhaust trying to escape.Aside from a failed gank Mid that only resulted in Mancloud Flashing to safety, the game remained relatively calm. The next big conflict would occur as Nintendudex came to gank Mid lane yet again. Luckily for Vulcun, Xmithe was ready with a counter gank. ZionSparten was able to get the first kill of the fight onto Mancloud, but a combination of Requiem and an EQ combo from Jarvan secured the revenge kill on Zion. In addition to this, Psycho Sid was able to pick up a solo kill on Fat Top lane and due to the Requiem damage Mancloud was also awarded an assist. This would give Vulcun a solid 1K gold lead.Things were starting to look bleak for GGU as Vulcun further expanded their gold lead by securing Dragon as well as taking a lead in turret kills. Then GGU started to play to the strength of their team comp. Just after 30 minutes into the game GGU would start the team fight that would turn the tide of match. With a great Trundle Pillar , GGU was able to separate Vulcun in half. Nintendudex charged in head long drawing a lot of focus and baiting Vulcun into the fight. Off of this they were able to catch Sycho Sid out of position in an attempt to retreat. This set up GGU up for a team fight under tower where their superior poke was able to drop three more members of Vulcun and allow them to pick up Mid Inhibitor with no deaths. From there the game was firmly in GGU's control. For a poke comp both their engage and disengage was incredibly solid. A combination of Trundle’s Pillar and Ezreal’s Iceborn Gauntlet was able to prevent Vulcun from engaging, even after popping a Shurelya's.GGU's superior siege was just too much for Vulcun to overcome and in what seemed like a desperation play they tried to force an engage Bot lane leading to a 4-1 trade in kills in favor of GGU that would also secure them the win. At the end of it all this was a well deserved victory for GGU. Vulcun simply outplayed them in the early game, but with superior team coordination and utilizing the strengths of their team comp they were able to come back. This game proved that GGU had a lot of raw talent, and could easily be a dark horse to break into the top four come the end of the first half of the season.



Wards in the Brush Predictions for Week 3

Week 3 marks the return of NA favorites CLG to the LCS, while bidding a temporary adieu to TSM. Week 3 will be a throwdown in the lower half of the bracket, with most of the matches between compLexity, Vulcun, MRN, and GGU. Many teams are still looking for their first wins, so each match should be a slug fest for a higher rank in the standings. If there's a time for Vulcun and MRN to bring their best games to the table, it's now, for neither team wants to come out of another week without a single victory. The most interesting matchup of these teams will likely be the final match of the week: GGU vs compLexity. While both teams have more losses than victories, each played well in their respective games against opponents like Curse and TSM. As such, they should be good challenges for each other and a good way for the spectators to map out a hierarchy of the lower bracket teams.



However, the match to watch this week is certainly Dignitas vs CLG. In Week 1, CLG went 2-1, losing only to the still-undefeated Curse. They've had a week to relax, practice, and observe their opponents, which may give them an edge over the possibly-weary Dignitas. Dignitas, on the other hand, had a tough time in the first week, but dominated Week 2 with a whopping 3-0 record. With Dignitas crushing their recent opponents, will CLG be able to survive the dig onslaught? Only way to know is to tune in to NA LCS Week 3.



[Day 1] February 21, 2013

Vul vs CLG + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + CLG - CLG performed superbly in their opening matches of the LCS, only dropping a game to Curse. Since everyone that's played Curse has lost that game, I wouldn't count that against them, especially considering their impressive victories against TSM and GGU. Vulcun, on the other hand, hasn't managed to take a match yet, sporting an unfortunate 0-5 record. Unless CLG shows up to the match drunk, missing fingers, or with amnesia, Vulcun is going to be 0-6. I genuinely want to see Vulcun do well, especially after a decent showing against GGU. Unfortunately, it's hard to imagine them defeating the powerful and well-practiced CLG.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + CLG - In Week 2 we saw a lot of Vulcun and no CLG. Vulcun failed to pick up any wins and are coming into Week 3 0-5. Vulcun is far from a bad team, but they are just simply outclassed at the moment. CLG looked very good during Week 1 and I have no reason to believe they will look different coming out of their bye week. I expect CLG to turn on the aggression early in order to lessen the chance of Vulcun getting a snowball going, they should win fairly easily.

Crs vs GGU + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + Curse - On the surface, this call is a simple one: Curse is currently undefeated and they've beaten GGU before. No-brainer, Curse victory. Yet the reality is more complicated. Curse's play has hardly looked flawless over the last two weeks, and while it could have been called a fluke in Week 1, sloppiness is a pattern by Week 2. Who was the team that's had the closest game with Curse so far? That's right: GGU. It would still be an upset to end all upsets, but a GGU victory is not impossible here. Regrettably for GGU, the key word there is still "impossible." The odds are significantly stacked in Curse's favor, but keep your eye on this game because it has the potential to be the biggest surprise yet.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + Curse - In their meeting in Week 1 GGU almost pulled off an upset on Curse. They played extremely well and their loss came down to lack of experience in closing out games. In order to prevent this from happening again, Curse is going to have to take this match a little more seriously. They played sloppy in their first game and the only thing that kept them in it was experience. GGU can win if they capitalize on Curse's arrogance, but I think the odds are still in favor of Curse.

dig vs CLG + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + CLG - This match is the toughest one to call all week. CLG came out swinging in Week 1 and was able to spend Week 2 practicing, relaxing, and watching their competition's strategies and compositions. Dignitas appeared weak at first, but powered up for Week 2, smashing the competition, including TSM. At this point, it's possible, perhaps even likely, that Dignitas will continue their God Mode streak and muscle through CLG like they did through TSM. However, I'm guess that the extra time to practice and study their opponents will give CLG the edge, an edge they'll use to slice through Dignitas. No matter what the result, watch this game: it's likely to be the best one of the week as well.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + CLG - This is probably the hardest game for me to predict this week. dig didn't perform the best in Week 1 but really redeemed themselves Week 2 by going 3-0. Out of all the matches a majority of my wrong predictions have been from games involving dig so I guess I'm having a hard time getting a read on them. Due to dig's inconsistencies, I give the edge to CLG since they played very well Week 1 and I expect them to have studied dig's games very intently during their bye week. That said, if dig plays up to their potential it won't be an easy win for CLG.

coL vs Vul + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + coL - This is another one that's so close that it could go either way. One thing that makes it particularly hard is how little of compLexity we've seen so far in the LCS. This is only their second game with their first being a loss to Curse where they were actually ahead for most of the game. We've seen a lot of Vulcun but it hasn't been the most impressive performances so far. I think these teams are pretty even in terms of skill, but I'm gonna pick compLexity after being impressed with a lot of their play against Curse.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + coL - This is another one that's so close that it could go either way. One thing that makes it particularly hard is how little of compLexity we've seen so far in the LCS. This is only their second game with their first being a loss to Curse where they were actually ahead for most of the game. We've seen a lot of Vulcun but it hasn't been the most impressive performances so far. I think these teams are pretty even in terms of skill, but I'm gonna pick compLexity after being impressed with a lot of their play against Curse.



[Day 2] February 22, 2013

MRN vs GGU + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + GGU - So far, Team MRN has failed to thrive in the LCS, losing in completely one-sided matches against both Dignitas and TSM. Their match against GGU will pit them against more even competition, which will hopefully allow MRN to show their quality. However, GGU has already proven they can outmaneuver teams in their half of the bracket in their comeback against Vulcun last Friday. Based on their performances so far, I'm guessing that GGU will be able to get their second win from MRN. While MRN certainly has the capacity to give GGU a close game, I don't see them beating GGU's solid line up.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + GGU - In contrast to my prior predictions this one came to me fairly easily. To be blunt I think Team MRN is the weakest team in the LCS. I know their two losses were against experienced teams like dig and TSM, but those games were complete and utter stomps. Until Team MRN proves otherwise I don't feel as if this is too much of a stretch. With Shiphtur coming back this week they will be back to full strength and they've looked better against top tier teams compared to Team MRN.

CLG vs coL + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + CLG - This should be one of the closer matchups between upper and lower bracket teams, but once again I have to side with the upper half of the bracket. Predictable as it may be, experience has been the limiting factor so far in the LCS and CLG is heavily stacked in that regard. On top of that, CLG should be prepared for some of coL's sneaky strategies that allowed them to gain the early lead in their first game of the season. Hopefully coL will still be able to put up a good fight against the CLG juggernaut, even if they do as well as they did against Curse, CLG should prevail in the end.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + CLG - Not much to say on this one. I believe CLG is one of the best NA teams and compLexity is in thebottom half. The players have a lot of individual skill but I don't seem them being able to establish themselves as a dominate force. They could always force the upset, but I think CLG did a lot of prep work over their bye week so I expect them to be prepared for any sort of tricks compLexity might try to pull.

MRN vs Vul + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + Vulcun - Oddly, this match is another hard one to predict, but for a completely different reason than Dignitas vs CLG. In this case, both of these teams have failed to impress so resoundingly that choosing which of them will finally earn a win is tough. Yet if we apply the "who has more experience" metric, Vulcun (a.k.a FeaR, mme.Ferus, mTw.NA, and APictureOfAGoose) comes out far ahead of the LAN novices on MRN. Moreover, Vulcun showed a strong early game against GGU, whereas MRN recognizes that they perform at their best outside of the laning phase. Assuming Vulcun takes advantage of MRN's early game weaknesses, this matchup will be theirs.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + Vulcun - If my predictions are right up until this point neither of these teams will have a win, which means they are in pretty bad spot. One of these teams desperately needs a win and luckily for them one team will get one. Even so, getting so far behind will make it tough for either team to claw their way into the top four. I think Vulcun is better than Team MRN and should probably take the win. But who knows, maybe Team MRN will tap into the same magic they had at the NA LCS Qualifiers and call upon the Throwing Gods to curse their opponents into giving up huge leads.

GGU vs coL + Show Spoiler [AsmodeusXI's pick] + GGU - This is easily the most exciting match of the day, one between the two lower bracket teams that have showed the most potential in the LCS so far. Both teams have played against top-tier NA teams and made the games look even (at least for a while). The biggest difference between the two is this: coL seems to thrive in the early game and laning stage, whereas GGU (at least, in their only victory) looked far stronger late. Since I highly doubt GGU will lose the game before 30 minutes, I'm predicting that coL will hit a late game stumbling block that GGU will use to climb to a victory.

+ Show Spoiler [onlywonderboy's pick] + GGU - I'm actually really excited for this match. While the top four teams of the LCS are pretty apparent, the bottom four are a little bit harder to call. As I said before, I believe Team MRN is the weakest, but 5-7 is up for grabs. This is important because if a team can get themselves positioned 5th, they could easily surprise the 4th place team and snatch up the guarantee qualification position for the second half of the LCS. Again this is tough due to the lack of compLexity games we've seen, but I have a gut feeling GGU will establish themselves as one of the stronger teams.



Week 3 marks the return of NA favorites CLG to the LCS, while bidding a temporary adieu to TSM. Week 3 will be a throwdown in the lower half of the bracket, with most of the matches between compLexity, Vulcun, MRN, and GGU. Many teams are still looking for their first wins, so each match should be a slug fest for a higher rank in the standings. If there's a time for Vulcun and MRN to bring their best games to the table, it's now, for neither team wants to come out of another week without a single victory. The most interesting matchup of these teams will likely be the final match of the week: GGU vs compLexity. While both teams have more losses than victories, each played well in their respective games against opponents like Curse and TSM. As such, they should be good challenges for each other and a good way for the spectators to map out a hierarchy of the lower bracket teams.However, the match to watch this week is certainly. In Week 1, CLG went 2-1, losing only to the still-undefeated Curse. They've had a week to relax, practice, and observe their opponents, which may give them an edge over the possibly-weary Dignitas. Dignitas, on the other hand, had a tough time in the first week, but dominated Week 2 with a whopping 3-0 record. With Dignitas crushing their recent opponents, will CLG be able to survive the dig onslaught? Only way to know is to tune in to NA LCS Week 3.

Administrator For the Glory that is TeamLiquid (-9 | 155) | Discord: NeoIllusions#1984