TL;DW – LTA North Edition: C9 Fight Back in Game 3 Against FLY

Gwen, Vi, Bard, Kalista, Ahri, and Taliyah were banned away off the bat.

FLY 1^st picks the Ryze. C9 opts for Senna and Poppy. FLY grabs Sion and Smolder. C9 locks in Oriana before the 2^nd ban phase.

Jarven IV, Camille, Pantheon, and Nautilus are removed during the 2^nd half of bans.

C9 comes back into champion selection by taking Alistar. FLY closes out their team with Rakan and Xin Zhao. C9 finishes things up with Gnar. Both teams have late-game scaling ADC. FLY has more map mobility, though.

Team comps are: FLY – Sion (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Ryze (mid), Smolder (bot), Rakan (support) vs C9 – Gnar (top), Poppy (jungle), Oriana (mid), Senna (bot), Alistar (support).

Early Game Highlights: C9 Wins Big Early

Stack farming ADCs means no real action in the early Early Game.

Oh joy, another interview…

Inspired ganks Top Lane, forcing Thanatos to burn his Flash. No kills though.

FLY takes the 1^st Drake (Hextech) uncontested.

FLY starts up the Voidgrubs. They manage to secure 1 before C9 arrives to contest. Busio gets slammed into a wall by Blaber and then killed by Zven for 1^st Blood. The rest of FLY back off, giving C9 free rein to take the remaining 2 Grubs.

As Blaber tries to take the Top Scuttlecrab, Inspired jumps in on him. However, there are several other members of C9 around. They all converge, and Inspired ends up dying to Zven. Busio, who jumped in to try and help, also dies, but to Thanatos. Then they chase after Bwipo, who was in the area. He dies to Zven as well. Fight, which Inspired starts on his own, goes 3-0 for C9.

Early Game ends with C9 ahead in gold by 2k and also ahead in farm.

Mid Game Highlights: FLY Keeps Fighting

2 fights break out, 1 in Bot Lane and 1 in FLY’s Red Side Jungle. Quad gets taken low in the fight with Bot and ends up dying to Loki. In the Jungle, Blaber almost goes down but manages to get away as his team arrives and Thanatos drops Inspired instead. Loki roams up, after getting his kill on to Quad, and gets another 2 kills on to Busio and Massu. Bwipo, who was almost in the area, gets chased down and killed by Loki. Fight goes 5-0 for C9.

After the elongated fight, C9 rotates over and takes the 2^nd Drake (Mountain) uncontested.

A fight breaks out in the Top River. At the same time, Thanatos and Bwipo start fighting 1v1 in the Bot Lane. Thanatos comes out victorious and kills Bwipo. In the fight in the River, Loki takes out Quad. FLY retreats. The combined fights go 2-0 for C9.

C9 takes the Outer Bot Turret of FLY for the 1^st Turret of the game. They then take the Outer Top Turret before rotating over to start up the Rift Herald. They get it low, but Inspired manages to come in and Steal it, though he dies to Thanatos for his troubles.

Inspired gets caught out in his own Red Side Jungle and dies to Loki. After he dies, Massu is caught out in Mid Lane and dies to Thanatos.

FLY drops Shelly in Mid Lane and uses it to take the Outer Mid Turret. They then look for a fight, but C9 are able to disengage. With C9 pushed back, FLY immediately rotates over to Dragon Pit and takes the 3^rd Drake (Ocean) uncontested.

Mid Game ends with C9 still ahead in gold (now by 4k) and still ahead in farm.

Late Game Highlights: Let There Be Blood in LTA North

Quad and Thanatos get into a fight in Top Lane. Thanatos gets low and tries to flee, but Quad chases him down and kills, earning FLY their first kill of the game. Quad gets a 1k shutdown from this.

C9 starts up the Atakhan. FLY hovers around, looking for an angle to contest. Bwipo ends up going in with Unstoppable Onslaught, but he doesn’t hit anyone. He dies fairly quickly, with Zven getting the credit. However, his sacrifice provided an opportunity for Inspired to slip in and Steal the Atakhan.

Inspired tries to get out but is CCed in place. Busio tries to help him out, but he dies to Zven, who kills Inspired immediately afterwards. Massu then goes in and kills Blaber. He tries to kill Zven but gets knocked around by Vulan and ends up dying to Zven instead.

Quad, the last one standing, tries to get away, but he gets jerked around. He does manage to take down Vulcan, but dies to Loki right after. As Quad goes down, Bwipo TPs in but decides not to engage. Fight goes 5-2 for C9 but FLY gets the Atakhan.

C9 takes the 4^th Drake uncontested.

C9 starts up the Baron. As FLY approaches, Vulcan dives onto Inspired. Both teams converge, with Quad and Thanatos TPing in. Inspired lasts for quite a while, but he is the first to die, dropping to Loki. Thanks to Blaber’s CC, Loki is also able to take down Massu. Quad takes out Vulcan as he and the rest of FLY retreat. C9 turns to Baron and secures it. Fight goes 2-1 for C9.

Using Baron Buff, C9 takes FLY’s Inner Bot and Inner Mid Turrets. They then get into a fight with FLY in the Bot Lane, which results in Bwipo dying to Zven. FLY tries to use Realm Warp to take out Thanatos, who is isolated from his team, but he’s fast enough to avoid them. Another fight breaks out in FLY’s Red Jungle. Zven takes out Quad.

C9 look for me, but at this point, they are getting quite low. Massu executes Blaber, then Zven, before Vulcan dives onto him. They take each other out. Loki and Thanatos pester Inspired and Busio before starting their recalls. As they do, Bwipo, having respawned, TPs in and manages to interrupt Loki, who gets chased across the map before finally dying to Bwipo. Fight goes 4-3 for FLY.

As a result of FLY chasing down Loki, Thanatos is able to take the 5^th Drake uncontested. C9 is now on Soul Point.

While dealing damage to the Inner Top Turret of C9, Bwipo gets engaged on by Thanatos. Inspired and Vulcan arrive to help their respective teammates. As they fight, the rest of the players arrive as well.

Blaber takes down Massu a second before Quad drops Thanatos. Loki kills Bwipo, then moves up to eliminate Quad. Blaber and Vulcan chase down Busio and Inspired, slowing them down enough for Zven to arrive and kill them both for the ACE. Fight goes 5-1 for C9.

Both teams head Mid Lane as they set up for Baron. C9 has the advantageous position. Thanatos tries to wrap around behind FLY but gets spotted and turned on. He has to back off. However, this puts FLY at an even worse position for Baron.

C9 starts up the Baron, but FLY is able to push them off it. Thanatos again tries to pincher but gets jumped on and, despite Zven’s Ultimate, dies to Massu. In response, Zven kills Bwipo, who was lagging behind. Both teams posture for a second but decide to back off. The fight is 1-1.

There is a trade of objectives as FLY heads up and takes Baron while C9 heads down and takes the 6^th Drake. C9 now has Ocean Soul.

As FLY sieges the Inner Bot Turret of C9, they use Realm Warp to get into the backline. Though several people get low, there are no kills off the bat. FLY starts backing off. Inspired ends up dying to Zven as he retreats, though he does take the Inner Turret with him.

There is a prolonged chase which finally ends with Blaber killing Bwipo and Zven taking out Busio. Blaber then chases down and kills Massu (though it does take a while) for the ACE. Fight goes 5-0 for C9.

During this time, Loki, Thanatos, and Vulcan head to Top and break into FLY’s base. With all of FLY down, they move end of the game. Inspired and Busio do respawn and try to defend, but they both die to Zven and Loki, respectively. C9 then destroys the Nexus.

Post Game Analysis: It Was Closer Than It Looks

C9 ends the game at 38:58 with an 11.2k gold lead. The final score was 37-10.

Despite the vast difference in kills, this game was actually quite close. FLY did have enough power in their tank to actually win. However, they were hampered by being overly aggressive in the Early Game, which gave C9 a massive lead, and poor awareness.

More than once, someone from C9 was able to slip around and take out the carries from FLY. If they had been able to keep their carries alive, they might have actually won.

Terms

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

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

Late Game: Any time after Mid Game.