Cloud9 1 - FlyQuest 0
Cloud9 weathered an early storm from FlyQuest to push its win streak to five games on Sunday in Los Angeles during Week 4, Day 2 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series.
FlyQuest (3-5) came into the game looking to prove that it's better than its record, and for a large portion of the game, it played like it. On the back of some nice macro play by both top laner Lee "Flame" Ho-jong's Gangplank and mid laner Song "Fly" Yong-jun, FlyQuest was securing picks and neutral objectives with relative ease to take a lead into the mid game. Even with the lead in hand, however, it never seemed like FlyQuest was in full control of the game. There was a presence hanging over the game in the form of Cloud9 mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen's Azir.
Cloud9 (7-1) allowed FlyQuest to take picks here and there before letting its mid laner almost single-handedly bring the team back. In the final 12 minutes of the game, Jensen found seven of his team's 12 kills to wrestle back full control of the game. After getting a few isolated picks, Jensen and company picked up three kills and the Baron 37 minutes in. That Baron was all that Cloud9 needed to stroll up the mid lane and lock up the win.
Cloud9 will try and make it six straight victories with a matchup against Team SoloMid at 6 p.m. ET Saturday, while FlyQuest will be looking for a bounce-back win when it takes on Clutch Gaming directly afterward at 7 p.m. ET.
-- Wyatt Donigan
Golden Guardians 1 - 100 Thieves 0
Golden Guardians finally put together a clean enough game to secure its first win and got a victory against 100 Thieves on Sunday in Los Angeles.
There are no more winless teams in the NA LCS. After struggling through its inaugural season in the league, Golden Guardians (1-7) stepped up in a big way against a talented 100 Thieves (4-4) squad. It all started just two minutes in when AD carry Matthew "Deftly" Chen's Kog'Maw picked up first blood on 100 Thieves AD carry Cody "Cody Sun" Sun's Ezreal. While 100 Thieves managed to make the game interesting throughout the rest of the early game, Golden Guardians set the tone and never let up the pressure.
At the forefront of Golden Guardians' strong macro play was jungler Juan "Contractz" Garcia's Camille. He used the mobility of his champion to easily roam the map and lock down various members of 100 Thieves. This led to Guardians completely dominating the objectives throughout the game, only allowing 100 Thieves to get a single tower and dragon by the end of the contest. Comparatively, the Guardians found 10 towers, two inhibitors, three dragons and three Barons, leaving 100 Thieves with no room to maneuver. After picking up its third Baron of the game, the super minions of Guardians razed both of 100 Thieves' Nexus turrets, allowing the rest of the team to finish the job.
While the victory was a nice morale boost for the Guardians, this marked the third-straight loss for 100 Thieves, which through the first two weeks was 3-1. With Echo Fox (6-1) up next on the docket, 100 Thieves will need to get back to the drawing board in a hurry or risk falling below .500.
Golden Guardians will go for its second win of the season at 5 p.m. ET next Saturday, while 100 Thieves will try and right the ship against the aforementioned Echo Fox at 8 p.m ET that same day.
-- Wyatt Donigan
Team SoloMid 1 - Counter Logic Gaming 0
Team SoloMid claimed another victory in League of Legends' oldest rivalry Sunday, taking down Counter Logic Gaming in decisive fashion during the North American League of Legends Championships Series Spring Split.
This was a slow early game, with the first casualty of the match being a top lane turret that Team SoloMid (4-4) took just seconds before Counter Logic Gaming (3-5) traded one back in the bottom lane. The lack of aggression left just about everyone free farming, with only miniscule creep score differences early in the match.
The tension finally broke near the 18-minute mark, and once it did, everything seemed to fall apart for CLG. A teleport play into the mid lane earned the team first blood, but ended in a 3-for-2 trade in TSM's favor. CLG mid laner Choi "huhi" Jae-hyun on Fiora made moves to put his team back in the driver's seat, finding two solo kills in a row onto TSM top Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell's Gangplank. However, these picks did surprisingly little for CLG, as the kills barely slowed down Hauntzer's farm and resulted in no objectives.
Sitting on a lead but with relatively limited engage tools, TSM's next move in this game was unclear, until jungler Mike "MikeYeung" Yeung on Jax suddenly drove the final nail into CLG's coffin at 25 minutes. Using a ward hop to land a stun onto the opposing AD carry, MikeYeung and the rest of TSM were ultimately able to pick off the CLG jungler, allowing TSM to take Baron and clean up the rest of CLG in the process. TSM wasted no time, quickly devastating CLG's base and ending the game in 31 minutes after scoring an ace in the CLG fountain.
Counter Logic Gaming will need to recover quickly from this loss if it hopes to defeat Team Liquid at 5 p.m. ET next Saturday. Likewise, Team SoloMid will have no chance to rest on its laurels, as it takes on first-place team and longtime rival Cloud9 at 7 p.m. ET the same day.
-- Brendan Hickey
Echo Fox 1 - Team Liquid 0
Echo Fox teamfought its way to a dominant victory over Team Liquid on Sunday in Los Angeles to stay tied for first in the North American League of Legends Championship Series through four weeks.
Coming out of the gate, Team Liquid (5-3) looked as though it was ready to hand Echo Fox (7-1) its second loss of the Spring Split after securing two early kills. However Echo Fox was content to give up isolated picks and opted to teamfight with reckless abandon all over the map. This high-engage, teamfight-heavy approach paid off, as jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett's Zac and mid laner Kim "Fenix" Jae-hun's Cassiopeia ran rampant about the map.
Both Dardoch and Fenix were nearly untouchable in this game for Echo Fox. The pair combined for a 7/1/14 KDA (kills/deaths/assists), and the duo was the driving force for the team's eventual victory. Dardoch's play has been especially eye-opening for Echo Fox. While many have been leery of the jungler's early success, he has made Echo Fox look like geniuses for taking a chance on him for this new-look roster.
On the opposite side of the Rift, Team Liquid is looking worse for wear here in Week 4, coming out with an 0-2 record. While it faced tough competition in both games, it's still not the greatest of signs that Liquid has crumbled against the best of the best early in the season. Working on its teamfighting will be a good place to start in order to prevent falling further in the standings.
Team Liquid will try and get back on track at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday, while Echo Fox will attempt to make it four straight against 100 Thieves at 7 p.m. ET the same day.
-- Wyatt Donigan
Clutch Gaming 1 - OpTic Gaming 0
Clutch Gaming clawed itself out of an early hole against OpTic Gaming to close out Sunday's action in the North American League of Legends Championship Series with a strong win.
While OpTic Gaming (2-6) pulled out a quality win over Counter Logic Gaming on Saturday, all the strides it made were thrown out the window on Sunday. OpTic stormed out to a quick lead on the back of six kills and three towers by 17 minutes, and the Green Wall looked poised to earn its first 2-0 week of the Spring Split. However, OpTic seemingly forgot what to do with the lead, as it allowed Clutch Gaming (4-4) to march right back into the thick of it without much opposition.
Led by jungler Nam "LirA" Tae-yoo's Kha'Zix and mid laner Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten's Cassiopeia, Clutch went on an absolute tear in the final 10 minutes of the game to secure the win. It may have taken 21 minutes for the team to find a kill, but Clutch made it count by immediately marching toward the Baron, kickstarting the comeback. What occurred in that last 10 minutes was a clinical dismantling that saw Clutch hold OpTic to no kills or objectives while it secured 11 kills, seven towers, two Barons and an inhibitor to completely break through the Green Wall on the way to victory.
OpTic Gaming will try and right the ship against Golden Guardians at 5 p.m. ET next Saturday, while Clutch Gaming will hope to find that early game consistency against FlyQuest later that day at 7 p.m. ET.
-- Wyatt Donigan