TL;DW – LTA North Edition: C9 Overwhelm LYON

LYON targets Sven with 2 of their initial bans, removing Kalista, Azir, and Ezreal. C9, meanwhile, opts to spread the love, banning Vi, Varus, and Yone.

LYON first picks Rumble. C9 responds with Corki and Sejouni. LYON then picks Skarner and Kai’Sa. C9 opts for Gwen as their last pick before the second ban phase.

C9 removes Neeko and Taliyah as options, while LYON tries to reduce Vulcan’s options by banning Alistar and Bard.

Returning to Champion Selection, C9 takes Tristana. LYON closes out their team with Rell and Jayce. Last pick goes to C9, and they opt for Braum. It seems that LYON is opting for a dive/disruption team, while C9 has decided to go for pure power with a double ADC comp.

Team comps are: LYON – Rumble (top), Skarner (jungle), Jayce (mid), Kai’Sa (mid), Rell (support) vs. C9 – Gwen (top), Sejouni (jungle), Corki (mid), Tristana (carry), Braum (support).

Early Game Highlights: C9 take Control Immediately

The game starts off with a bang as C9 invades and steals Red Buff. This puts Oddielan behind significantly. LYON’s bot lane hits level 2 first and, capitalizing on their increased strength, deal a large amount of damage to Vulcan.

Blaber continues to bully Oddielan, stealing his blue. In top lane, Thanatos and Licorice skirmish heavily. Both are severely injured and have to recall, though Thanatos is the first one to do so. After this, both sides switch their top and bot lanes.

Early game ends when Saint hits level 6. No death, major fights, or objectives taken. The gold difference is 2k in favor of C9, who are also up in farm.

Mid Game Highlights: The Scales are Starting to Tip

The mid game opens with 2 fights, 1 in top lane and 1 in mid. No deaths in the top lane fight but Blaber kills Saint for First Blood in the mid lane. This is followed by Thanatos getting a double kill in bot lane, killing Licorice and Oddielan. Off the back of this, C9 takes the 1^st Voidgrubs.

C9 starts the 1^st Drake (Ocean), but LYON interrupts. The fight ends 2-0 in C9’s favor, but they have to back off the Drake. As a consolation, C9 end up taking the 2^nd Voidgrubs. After this, C9 tower dives twice, once in bot and once in top. Bot dive leads to a 1-1 (Jayce for Corki) while top leads only to Licorice’s death.

After he respawns, Licorice is caught out again in red side bot jungle, leading this his and Lyonz’ deaths. While this is happening Loki and Thanatos start to finish off bot outer turret, taking First Turret for C9.

Thanatos is caught out near the inner bot turret and chased by Licorice and Lyonz to the bot river, where he is joined by Blaber, who had just taken the 1st Drake for C9. The fight ends 1-1, with both top lanes down.

Mid game ends due to time with 3 objectives (1 Turret, 1 Drake, and 2 Voidgrubs) taken by C9. Gold difference is 3.9k in C9’s favor, but LYON has more farm.

Late Game Highlights: LYON Can Catch a Break

Late game starts off with an aggressive fight mid lane. Zven almost dies but manages to get out and the fight goes 1-0 for C9. Of the back of this fight, C9 takes Rift Herald and uses it to take the mid outer turret.

C9 takes the first inner turret in bot lane. There is a period of inaction, where both teams are waiting for objectives to spawn and fighting the vision war. Once the 2^nd Drake spawns, C9 takes it. The Ruinous Atakhan spawns bot side almost immediately after the 2^nd Drake dies, so C9 takes it as well.

Thanatos and Licorice skirmish top side, with Thanatos almost killing Licorice 1v1. While clearing out vision, C9 runs into LYON in top river. Unfortunately for LYON, they can’t do enough damage, and they lose the fight 1-0 (Lyonz dies).

After a short period of warding and wave pushing, there is a skirmish at the top inner turret where Licorice almost dies. He has to back off and C9 takes the turret. They have now taken all non-base turrets.

More lane pushing and warding. Thanatos face checks into 4 members of LYON in red side bot jungle and dies. However, C9 responds immediately and kills 4. Jayce, who was split pushing, joins late but kills Corki before getting caught out himself, leaving the final score 5-2 in C9’s favor. They use this advantage to break open LYON’s base, taking base mid turret and the mid inhibitor.

Off this win, C9 takes the 3^rd Drake (Hextech).  Thanatos 1v1s Licorice in bot lane. This time he finishes the job and kills him. C9 starts up Baron. LYON tries to stop them, but the fight ends up going 5-1 for C9. Meanwhile, Thanatos is inside LYON’s base. The rest of C9 abandon the Baron and head down to join Thanatos. By the time they get there, Thanatos is already attacking the Nexus. C9 wins the game here. The final kill count is 22-5 for C9.

Post Game Analysis: C9 Shows Why They are LTA North’s Top Team

C9 ends the game at 26:21 with a gold lead of 12.5k. C9 dominated the game from the beginning and did not cede any control to LYON. The opening invade set the tempo for the rest of the match, ensuring that LYON was always on the back foot.

With this win, C9 cemented their position as the number 1 team. LYON, who are now 3-4, will remain in the middle of the pack regardless of the remaining matches. At 5^th place, they are the highest-ranking team of the lower 4.

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.