Five
dragons were taken by both teams, two Barons fell, and Elements and the Copenhagen
Wolves only had three towers between themselves when all was said and done. In
a 67-minute epic, the Copenhagen Wolves managed to outlast Elements and pull
victory out of the jaws of the defeat in dramatic fashion.
The “super team” has finally
delivered. Alliance defeated Fnatic today in 4 games to secure themselves their
first-ever split championship title in convincing fashion. Thanks to superior
early game control, especially in terms of dragons, Alliance dethroned the
3-time split champions to set themselves up as the team-to-beat from Europe.
Fnatic got
off to a slow start in the series and were seemingly unprepared to play against
Alliance’s aggressive early moves. Numerous times, Fnatic made crucial mistakes
and just flat-out bad decisions that gave Alliance an early gold lead and every
single dragon of the game. Alliance is a team that knows how to use an early
advantage and they exploited it to the utmost in their 38-minute victory.
Game 2 was
a much closer affair, in large part due to xPeke being allowed to play
Kassadin. Alliance managed to get an early gold advantage as before, but a
crucial midgame teamfight went awry for them after a stunning turnaround from
xPeke. A triple kill onto Rekkles, in addition to an inner tower going down,
cut Alliance’s gold lead down to a measly 1k following the play. However,
Alliance still held an objective lead and wasn’t out of the fight. They
eventually outmaneuvered Fnatic and took a successful 3-kill teamfight in
Fnatic’s own red jungle, then translated the victory into a Baron. Fnatic
managed to sneak down Alliance’s middle inhibitor tower in exchange for the
Baron, but it was a lopsided trade. The Baroned-up Alliance proceeded demolish
Fnatic under their own inhibitor tower, then took the middle inhibitor.
Suddenly down 7k gold, Fnatic had no answer for Alliance’s team.
Down 0-2,
things were grim for Fnatic. However, Europe’s three-time champions weren’t
defeated yet and they managed to pull out a clutch victory to stay in the
series. Unlike the previous games, Fnatic prevented Alliance from snowballing
the early game thanks to a series of good rotations and excellent plays by Rekkles.
By 19 minutes, Fnatic had taken a 3k gold lead and had 5 kills on their
marksman. The rest of the game continued in the same fashion, with Fnatic
outrotating and outfighting Alliance, and Rekkles getting bigger and bigger.
Alliance couldn’t manage to burn through Fnatic’s shields and eventually they
were dismantled in dominating fashion.
It could
have been the start of an epic turnaround by Fnatic, but was instead a
momentary flash of glory. A sneaky play by Alliance gave them first blood at
two minutes into the game, snapping Fnatic fans out of their dreams of a
comeback almost immediately. Every time Fnatic appeared to be clawing their way
back into the game, Alliance pulled off a clever play or a well-orchestrated
teamfight to keep their advantage. At the end of the day, Alliance didn’t even
need Baron to put Fnatic away, as their comp was just too strong for Fnatic to
overcome. As the Nexus fell, Alliance took the series and their first Split
Championship.
For more stats, including the VoDs for each game, check out LoL Esports
SK Gaming
has finally found their stride. Despite floundering in the middle of the pack
throughout the Summer Split, SK came out swinging for Super Week. A victory
against Millenium yesterday started them off on the right foot, and today they were able to carry the momentum through against the
ever-dominant Alliance. In a 46-minute game, SK convincingly took down EU’s
number one team thanks to a number of aggressive early plays and superior
rotations.
Good early
rotations allowed SK to jump out to a 6k gold lead, but they found
themselves stymied at the inhibitor turrets due to Alliance’s excellent
waveclear. It took a pair of Barons to finally break into Alliance’s
base, but even after the turrets went down it took everything SK had just to
secure the inhibitors. An indecisive skirmish in the bottom lane sent SK home to
heal, which gave Alliance a momentary advantage. They rushed for Baron, trying
to take it down before SK gaming could respond, but were just a little too long
in taking it. Jesiz and fredy122 went ham, comboing their knockups on four
members of Alliance and killing all of them in seconds. Froggen was the only
survivor of the massacre, but even Xerath’s long-ranged waveclear was of no use
when his base was wide open. SK shoved down mid and took the Nexus down while
Froggen danced on the sidelines, unable to stop the inevitable defeat.
Jesiz carried SK Gaming through this matchup. His clutch three-
and four-man Shockwaves never failed to turn the tides of a battle, and it was
his ult alone that prevented Alliance from making too many aggressive plays.
CandyPanda meanwhile made excellent use of the disruptions that Jesiz’s ult
created, leaping into fights with his Rocket Jump and taking down Alliance’s
members in a flurry of missiles. His late-game Tristana proved to be an
absolute nightmare to deal with – he could tank towers thanks to Jesiz and
Nyph’s shields and tear them apart within seconds. Tabzz’s Ezreal didn’t have
nearly the same impact, but with Kog’Maw banned out and Lucian unavailable, his
lategame AD carry options were slim.
Alliance’s
play was just as stellar as it has been all split long, but somehow – impossibly
– SK outplayed them. Early objectives were traded back and forth between both
teams, and while Alliance secured first blood, SK was not far behind with
the second. The breaking point of the early game was the first dragon fight.
Jesiz landed a beautiful Command: Shockwave on Alliance’s team, giving SK a
kill and letting them secure dragon and back off before the rest of Alliance
could regroup. Another skirmish a few minutes later by Alliance’s red buff
had a similar feel to it – Jesiz landed a three-man ult, CandyPanda cleaned
house, and then objectives were taken by SK. Alliance couldn’t get the
early fights to go their way, nor were they able to catch up to SK’s
rotations.
However,
Alliance didn’t go down easily. SK was forced into three Baron attempts to try
and break through Alliance’s waveclear. The first Baron was easily secured by
the duo of Svenskeren and CandyPanda, but in the aftermath of the Baron
CandyPanda got sniped down by Froggen and Tabzz’s ults. With their AD carry down,
SK fought a retreating battle against Alliance in which Jesiz and nRated also
fell. Alliance took down the mid inhibitor and looked to end the game, but the spawn
timers were too short and SK beat back the attack. It was the closest Alliance
would get to winning the game.
It was a
disappointing day for Fnatic fans. Their match against Alliance had been hotly
anticipated, as a win here would tie them for first place and force a
tiebreaker match between the two when playoffs arrived. Fnatic’s early aggression
gave them a quick advantage, but their passive play and indecisiveness
eventually let Alliance outrotate, outfight, and outplay Fnatic.
Fnatic and
Alliance played a 50 minute game, but in truth the match was over before then.
Fnatic had been slowly stumbling over the course of the game and made a series
of poor decisions that allowed Alliance to pull back into the game. Suddenly at
a disadvantage, Fnatic then reverted back to their infamously passive play from
their 8-game losing streak last split. With their opponents too scared to
fight, Alliance applied pressure everywhere they could, taking towers and dragons
with ease. After Alliance took one inhibitor and made to pressure another,
Fnatic finally tried to fight them off. By this point though, Fnatic had
forfeited a huge amount of gold and the fight went immediately south for them.
With most of their opponents dead, it was a simple matter for Alliance to shove
onto the Nexus and end the game.
Fnatic’s
play early on was brilliant. An early five-man invasion cost Shook his Flash
and forced him to start jungling at his blue buff – then, a couple minutes
later, Fnatic returned and stole his red buff right as he tried to secure it.
Another pair of Flashes were burned by Alliance following the skirmish, giving
Fnatic a huge early-game lead. Shifting Rekkles and YellOwStaR into the top
lane against Wickd also proved to be a good move. With Nyph and Shook being
forced to stay with Wickd, sOAZ was able to soak experience and farm in
relative comfort down in the bottom lane. With early rotations coming out from
YellOwStaR and Cyanide, Fnatic pressured Alliance’s lanes all across the board.
However,
Fnatic seemed to lose steam after the first few minutes of the game and their calculated
aggression slowly turned risky. Instead of securing uncontested objectives,
Fnatic more often than not traded towers with Alliance – then found themselves
in a bad position and gave up even more afterwards. Alliance also had much
better dragon control, securing five out of six for the game. With their early
advantages dwindling away to nothing, Fnatic decided to stop pressuring
Alliance and play more defensively. It was a move that Alliance punished to the
utmost, and one that eventually proved fatal for Fnatic.
