TL;DW – LTA North Edition: C9 Outplay DSG in Game 1

• Ban phase removes Varus, Vi, Jayce, Yone, Rumble, and Kalista from the roster.
• C9 first picks Gwen. DSG take Azir and Skarner. C9 then pick Sejuani and Corki. DSG try something different and picks Vladimir.
• Three ADCs are taken out during the second ban phase as Kai’Sa, Ezreal, Lucian, and Nautilus are all banned.
• DSG picks her ADC, Miss Fortune. C9 finish out their team with Jhin and Alistar. DSG’s final pick is Rakan. C9 has opted to go for strong engage with 2 ADCs for extra damage. DSG, likewise, has strong engage as well but chooses to focus on mobility instead.
• Team comps are: C9 – Gwen (top), Sejuani (jungle), Corki (mid), Jhin (carry), Alistar (support) vs DSG – Vladimir (top), Skarner (jungle), Azir (mid), Miss Fortune (carry), Rakan (support).

Early Game Highlights: DSG’s Early Aggression Doesn’t Pay Off

• Early game starts out without too much conflict. Nothing unexpected.
• eXyu ganks bot lane by coming in from behind C9’s turret through red side bot jungle. He gets spotted out but still commits. Zvan manages to deal enough damage to huhi before he dies so that Vulcan can get First Blood. Then Zven dies to eXyu. Unfortunatley for him, he takes 2 turret shots that drops him low. eXyu tries to get away but Vulcan chases him down and gets another kill. Fight ends 2-1 for C9.
• DSG’s bot lane heads top lane. Eventually C9’s bot lane joins them. Early game ends with Castle hitting level 6 first. C9 leads in gold (400) and farm.

Mid Game Highlights: C9 Tightens Their Grip

• Blaber ganks top lane. ScaryJerry gets knocked back by Vulcan. When he tries to Flash away, he ends up Flashing into Zven’s Deadly Flourish and get snared. Despite getting knocked back, knocked up, snare, and then stunned by Blaber, ScaryJerry manages to survive thanks to Barrier.
• Blaber starts up the first set of Voidgrubs. eXyu tries to contest but gets pushed away. Blaber gets all the Grubs. Blaber tries to steal Red Buff from eXyu. eXyu manages to secure the Buff with Smite and escape. Game enters farming and warding phase.
• eXyu ganks top lane. huhi manges to CC Vulcan and Zven so that ScaryJerry can Ult them. Zven and Vulcan both get low but they both manage to escape. eXyu starts First Drake (Mountain) while Blaber (with Loki and Zven) starts the second set of Voidgrubs. Blaber gets 1 of the Grubs before backing off while Thanatos and Vulcan scare eXyu off the Drake.
• eXyu starts Drake again but gets pushed off it, again. This time Blaber is there and takes over Drake. Blaber mistimes his Smite and eXyu steals the objective. In response, Blaber and Zven work together to kill eXyu. The kill is handed over to Zven. Meanwhile Loki and Abbedagge battle each other up in top lane and Loki kills Abbedagge. Drake might go to DSG but C9 get 2 kills.
• Blaber heads back to Voidgrubs and takes the last 2. A fight breaks out, started by Zven snaring eXyu. Vulcan knocks up 3 members of DSG. No one dies but Blaber has to back off after only get 1 Grub (leaving 1 more left in the Pit). Meanwhile, down bot, Castle kills Thanatos.
• Blaber heals up in his jungle and goes back to finish off the last Grub. While this happens, Loki pushes Abbedagge under turret. Mid game ends due to time. C9 still in the lead with gold (2.3k) and farm.

Late Game Highlights: C9 Make Use of Their Advantages

• eXyu ganks top lane. He and Abbedagge take out Loki, with Abbedagge getting the kill. At the same time, Vulcan and Thanatos work together to kill Castle. Thanatos get the kill. Thanatos then takes outer bot turret for First Turret.
• The game enters a farming, warding, and posturing phase. This phase is broken when C9 engages DSG in mid lane. The fight starts off Thanatos diving in and almost taking out ScaryJerry. ScaryJerry manages to walk out to safety. Instead C9 turn their attention to eXyu, with Zven getting the kill with his Ult. Zven then fires into fog of war and manages to hit ScaryJerry for a second kill. C9 goes 2-0.
• Down bot, Abbedagge gets C9’s outer bot turret. Blaber starts up and takes Rift Herald. Blaber starts up the second Drake (Cloud) and takes it uncontested. huhi gets caught out and CCed to death. Zven gets the kill.
• Blaber drops Rift Herald mid. He uses it to take outer mid turret and to deal a massive amount of damage to inner mid turret.
• Abbedagge gets caught out bot lane. Almost gets killed outright but he uses his Ult and Flash to get away. Unfortunately for him, even though Blaber misses his Ult, the slow is enough to C9 to catch up to Abbedagge. He dies to Zven. eXyu, who was there to try and help Abbedagge ends up dying as well, but to Thanatos instead.
• Blaber and Thanatos take the Ruinous Atakhan, which spawned near bot lane. Pushing phase engaged. huhi gets snared by Zven in mid and then collapsed on. He dies to Blaber. The other members of DSG scatter. eXyu is chased down and kill. Loki gets the credit. Blaber starts and takes the third Drake (Chemtech).
• Thanatos tries to take DSG’s Red Buff but gets interrupted. He’s chased down and kill by Castle. At the same time, huhi, who was helping to pursue Thanatos is blown up by Loki. Blaber tries to reengage but gets taken low. After a little posture, everyon separates. 1-1. eXyu claims the contested Red Buff.
• Blaber starts up Baron right after it spawns. DSG hovers around. Vulcan engages on to huhi. Team fight breaks out. huhi gets away but Thanatos gets killed by Loki. Zven kills eXyu. Abbedagge gives in and Ult Loki and Zven. huhi knocks up Loki, who is then killed by Abbedagge. Zven and ScaryJerry kill each other. The rest of C9 then kill Abbedagge before chasing down and killing huhi. The fight goes 5-2 for C9
• After the fight, C9 takes Baron. Using Baron, C9 take down the last non-base turret and siege the top and mid base turrets. huhi tries to engage but misses his knock up. Abbedagge has to use his ult to push C9 away. C9 takes mid and top base turrets and inhibitors.
• eXyu tries to go in, ends up locking up Blaber but he is too tanky to kill. Zven evens up killing eXyu. Castle goes in and then dies to Thanatos. Zven, meanwhile, kills Abbedagge. ScaryJerry and huhi are pushed into Fountain, where Loki kills huhi with a well-aimed Ult shot. C9 then turns to the Nexus, destroying the turrets and the Nexus.

Post Game Analysis: Power Wins Out in the LTA

C9 finishes the game at 29:16 with a 13.8k gold lead. The final score is 22-6 for C9. DSG gets outplayed. Despite all the movement available to them, DSG was dominated by the power of C9. Thanatos and Loki bot have extreme damage and were able to bring members of DSG low enough for Zven to snipe them down several times.

Had DSG focused more on move around the map and setting up traps for C9, DSG might have had a better chance but in straight team fights, if you can’t take out the ADCs right off the bat, power beats mobility.

Terms

Early Game: Any time before 6 minutes, first outer tower down, or first level 6 (whichever comes first).

Mid Game: Between early game and either 15 minutes, 2 inner towns down, half the players are level 11, or 3^rd dragon killed.

Late Game: Any time after mid game.