TL;DW – LEC Edition: G2 Capitalize on FNC Follies in Game 2

1^st ban phase removes Gwen, Kalista, Yone, Lillia, Dr. Mundo, and Maokai from contention.

G2 starts things out with a Senna pick. FNC responds with Taliyah and Pantheon. Wukong and Nautilus are taken by G2. FNC grabs Renata before the 2^nd ban phase.

FNC targets the Mid Lane with Oriana and Hwei bans, while G2 spreads things out more by exiling Jayce and Xayah.

FNC starts up champion selection again by locking in Zeri. G2 closes out their comp with Ahri and Gnar. FNC last pick Yorick. G2 has strong engagement and follow-up damage, whereas FNC is more split-pushing/map mobility focused.

Team comps are: G2 – Gnar (top), Wukong (jungle), Ahri (mid), Senna (bot), Nautilus (support) vs FNC – Yorick (top), Pantheon (jungle), Taliyah (mid), Zeri (bot), Renata (support).

Early Game Highlights: Things Seem to Happen Faster in the LEC

Game starts without incident. Few deep wards, but that’s about it.

Hans Sama and Labrov get aggressive in the Bot Lane. Labrov Flashes and Ignites Upset, who gets very low and has to use Ghost to get away. Upset ends up back, leaving Hans Sama free to get ahead on farm.

Razork looks for a potential gank in Mid Lane but doesn’t find one. He tries to back inside the Raptor Pit but is spotted by a ward. Labrov, SkewMond, and Caps all jump on him. Razork Flashes out of the Pit but still gets Charmed by Caps. He dies to SkewMond for 1^st Blood.

SkewMond goes Top and tries to gank with BrokenBlade. Oscarinin manages to kite them out, but he has to burn Flash.

Razork heads up to Top and tries to gank Razork in the River while he was trying to ward. BrokenBlade manages to get away by Flashing over the River wall and into the jungle.

Caps almost dies to Humanoid in Mid Lane but manages to juke the damage. Humanoid then heads towards the Dragon Pit, where Labrov, who was roaming up to Mid through the River, has been caught out. Upset gets the kill.

After the kill, Humanoid tries to use Weaver’s Wall to go in on Caps in Mid Lane, but Caps hits him with a Charm as he arrives, knocking him off the Wall and chunking him down. Humanoid only survives because of Flash and Mikyx arriving to Shield him.

SkewMond and Labrov try to invade FNC’s Blue Side Jungle together but run into 4 members of FNC. Caps, who is still in Mid Lane, tries to come over and help, but before he can even get out of lane, SkewMond has already died to Razork.

BrokenBlade jumps onto Oscarinin in Top Lane as SkewMond and Labrov comes up through River. SkewMond dashes forwards and Knocks up Oscarinin with his Ultimate. Mikyx arrives and uses Bailout on Oscarinin, but neither of them are able to kill anyone fast enough, so Oscarinin dies to SkewMond.

As Oscar dies, Razork arrives via Grand Starfall. Thanks to Labrov Rooting up Razork with a Passive enhanced Auto Attack, both he and SkewMond are able to escape.

In Bot Lane, Caps goes onto Humanoid as he arrives in the lane through the River. Caps hits a Charm and manages to sidestep a Seismic Shove, allowing him to get the kill. While this is happening, FNC takes the Voidgrubs uncontested.

As SkewMond moves through Bot River, Caps waits to join him in a bush. However, the bush has been ward. Humanoid uses the Weaver’s Wall to block off the Tri-Brush entrance to G2’s Red Side Jungle. SkewMond dives onto Humanoid, but there are too many members of FNC nearby. He gets flicked back by a Seismic Shove and is killed by Humanoid.

Meanwhile, in Top Lane, BrokenBlade shoves Oscarinin under G2’s Outer Top Turret and then chases him down for a kill. However, with SkewMond down and Caps out of the way, FNC takes the 1^st Drake (Infernal) uncontested.

Early Game ends with gold effectively even, but FNC ahead in farm.

Mid Game Highlights: Back and Forth, The Pendulum Swings

In Bot Lane, as Humanoid (with Mikyx hiding in a bush for backup) pushes the wave into the tower, Labrov arrives through Tri-Brush and manages to land an incredible hook onto Humanoid.

Humanoid gets low and tries to back off, but Caps arrives, having TPed in just out of lane, and kills him (though, because of Bailout, Labrov is the one who actually gets the credit). Mikyx, now all by himself, dies to Caps.

In Top Lane, with SkewMond coming up behind him through the lane, BrokenBlade again jumps onto Oscarinin. He manages to make it almost back to his Turret before dying to SkewMond.

Caps run into Mikyx in his own Red Side Jungle. Misses the Charm but keeps fighting and kiting. Razork Grand Starfalls in and jumps onto Caps, chasing him down and killing him under Turret. He then moves over to join Milkyx and Humanoid, who are harassing Labrov under Turret. Together, they manage to kill him, with Humanoid getting the kill. They then take the Outer Bot Turret for the 1^st Turret of the game.

As they set up for the 2^nd Drake (Mountain), FNC tries to pick someone off in Mid Lane. They initially engage on Labrov, but he weathers the CC and damage. As FNC moves away, Labrov hooks Upset. G2 jumps on him, and SkewMond kills him through the Bailout.

Mikyx Flashes away to survive and then pushes SkewMond into Turret range with a Handshake. A second later, Labrov lands a hook onto Razork, who then gets locked up by Hans Sama and has to Flash away to survive. While this is all happening, Caps kills Humanoid 1v1 off-screen near the Dragon Pit. Disjointed fight goes 2-0 for G2.

While his team takes the 2^nd Drake, Caps tries to recall in the middle of Bot Lane, only to get jumped on by Razork with Grand Starfall. He dies. Is recalling in a bad place an EU thing or something?

Yet again, BrokenBlade jumps onto Oscarinin in Top Lane. This time, he kills him solo. As BrokenBlade retreats, Humanoid TPs in to try and kill him. Though he takes a sizeable chunk of damage, BrokenBlade is able to escape, wasting Humanoid’s TP.

Mikyx gets caught out in Top River, dies to SkewMond as he tries to get away. Off the back of this pick, G2 takes the Rift Herald uncontested.

Seeing that his teammates are moving towards him, BrokenBlade goes in on to Humanoid in Top Lane. However, he goes in too early. Razork arrives to help Humanoid, but none of BrokenBlade’s team have gotten there yet. He dies to Razork.

After he dies, the rest of G2 file in and look for a kill. The rest of FNC also arrives. Not only do they prevent G2 from getting a kill, but they also get another kill with Humanoid taking down Labrov. Fight goes 2-0 for FNC.

Mid Game ends with FNC not only retaining their farm lead, but they are now ahead in gold by 600.

Late Game Highlights: Them Skill Shots Though

As both settle up around Mid Lane, Humanoid tries to split G2 with a Weaver’s Wall, but everyone on G2 is able to get on the right side of it. BrokenBlade TPs but there is no fight.

G2 gains priority over the Dragon Pi,t but they still have some time before the objective spawns. While they wait, G2 drops Shelly in Bot Lane and uses it to take the Outer and Inner Turrets. On the other side of the map, FNC takes the Outer Top and Outer Mid Turrets of G2.

Instead of letting Shelly die to Upset, who went Bot to try and defend, SkewMond rides her back down the lane so he can get to the Dragon Pit faster. FNC, however, gets there first and starts up the 3^rd Drake (Chemtech).

As FNC gets the Drake low, Hans Sama uses Curse of the Black Mist to sneak SkewMond in so that he can Steal the Drake with Smite. As FNC tries to retreat, Caps hits a Charm onto Oscarinin, who dies to SkewMond. Labrov then lands a hook onto Humanoid, who dies to BrokenBlade.

Upset dashes over a wall and throws out a few pokes at G2. Caps tries to Spirit Rush/Charm him but misses. As he retreats, Razork hits him with a Spear and kills him and Labrov, who was nearby and low.

Razork then uses Grand Starfall to try and get another kill, but he ends up dying to BrokenBlade. The fight goes 3-2 for G2, who also gets the objective. Sidenote: Caps and Labrov should have backed off. They handed FNC 2 free kills for no reason other than greed. That said, Razork also shouldn’t have tried to get more. So much greed and recklessness.

Mikyx and Humanoid both get caught out in FNC’s Blue Side Jungle, though in different locations. Mikyx dies to Hans Sama while Humanoid uses Weaver’s Wall to escape. With FNC retreating after this, G2 takes the opportunity to start up the Atakhan. They take it uncontested.

As both teams hover around Mid Lane in anticipation of Baron, Labrov lands a hook onto Mikyx. He gets pulled into all of FNC and taken very low.

The rest of G2 converge on him and, even though he dies to Upset, his imitation, and a well-positioned Ultimate by BrokenBlade, allows BrokenBlade to kill Razork, Caps to kill Mikyx and Oscarinin, and Hans Sama to kill Upset and Humanoid. The fight goes 5-1 to G2, who head straight for Baron and take it.

As G2 sieges the FNC Base, Upset walks a little too close to the wall of his base. Caps lands a charm on him and kills him in an instant. G2 takes down the Base Mid Turret as Labrov lands a hook onto Humanoid, which leads to him dying to Caps.

As Hans Sama takes down the Base Bot Turret, Oscarinin tries to stop him/lead him away, but he dies quickly enough to Hans that he’s able to get right back to sieging the base.

As G2 starts to work on the Nexus Turrets, BrokenBlade tries to keep Mikyx and Razork from interfering. He gets a little too close to the fountain, however, and gets dragged in with the Handshake. He dies to Mikyx, but G2 manages to finish off the Nexus.

Post Game Analysis: Bad Timing Leads to a Bad Time

G2 ends the game at 27:27 with a 7k gold lead. The final score was 23-12 for G2.

Both teams played well, overall, and both teams got caught out a few times. The reason why G2 was able to win was because FNC got caught out at the worst times, allowing G2 to take objectives and find a lead. If EU and NA can’t get over this tendency to get caught out, they are gonna be in so much trouble at MSI and Worlds.

On a more positive note, special praise should be lauded on Labrov. His hooks in this game were exceptional. And, despite his rather odd recall decisions and greed, Caps completely outplayed Humanoid, which also deserves some attention.

Terms

Early Game: Any time before 10 minutes, first outer tower down, or first level 10 (whichever comes first).

Mid Game: Between Early Game and either 20 minutes, 2 inner towns down, half the players are level 16, or 3^rd dragon killed.

Late Game: Any time after Mid Game.TL;DW – LEC Edition: