TL;DW – LTA North Edition: DIG and SR Take It To Game 3

• First ban phase sees mostly common champions with one new face as Jayce, Vi, Akali, Gwen, Aurora, and Kai’Sa are banned out.
• SR first pick Yone. DIG go for Ambessa and Varus. SR take Ziggs and Lilia. DIG ends the first round of picks by taking Maokai.
• Second ban phase takes 3 top laners off the table with Neeko, Irelia, Gnar, and Camille being banned away.
• Returning to champion selection, DIG grabs Blitzcrank. SR add Pantheon and Sion to their team. DIG finish things off with Aatrox. SR has strong poke and decent engage, whereas DIG is more team fight focused and tanky.
• Team comps are: SR – Sion (top), Lilia (jungle), Yone (mid), Ziggs (carry), Pantheon (support) vs DIG – Aatrox (top), Maokai (jungle), Ambessa (mid), Varus (carry), Blitzcrank (support).

Early Game Highlights: SR Outplay DIG in the Bot Lane

• Simple farming and trading to start out the game.
• Tomo and Isles get aggressive on Bvoy and Ceos before even hitting level 2. They chase down Ceos and almost kill him, but he manages to get away and Bvoy ends up taking down Tomo for First Blood.
• Contractz roams down to help but doesn’t get there until after Tomo is dead. Isles lands a hook on to a very low Ceos, pulling him back but he doesn’t get the kill. Instead, he gets killed by Ceos. (You really have to watch this fight to get the full scope).
• Both bots and tops switch lanes. Early game ends with Srtty hitting level 6. SR has the gold lead (900) but DIG leads in farm.

Mid Game Highlights: The Game Starts to Slow Down

• Farming and warding time.
• Sheiden takes 2 of the first set of Voidgrubs. Contractz interrupts, Sheiden backs off and Contractz takes the third. Grub score is 2 for DIG, 1 for SR.
• DIG takes the first Drake (Cloud) uncontested. In mid lane, Keine almost kills Palafox 1v1. More farming and warding. Lots of farming and warding.
• Both teams position around Baron Pit for Voidgrubs. Sheiden throws out Nature’s Grasp to start a fight. No one really goes it. Isles hooks Ceos but he uses the Pantheon shield to protect himself from further damage. Srtty tries to pincer but all of SR turn on him and Contractz kills him. DIG retreat. Palafox uses his ult to chase but misses and almost dies. DIG get away and takes 1 of the Grubs, while SR get 2. The Grub score is now 2 for DIG, 4 for SR
• DIG take the second Drake (Mountain) on spawn uncontested. Keine and Palafox fight top. Palafox almost dies but gets backs off and survives. Mid game ends due to time. SR is still ahead in gold (800) and DIG are still ahead in farm.

Late Game Highlights: New Longest Game in the LTA This Season

• More farming.
• SR starts up Rift Herald, but DIG arrives to interfere. Sheiden uses Nature’s Grasp, Isles pulls in Ceos. Before they can kill him, however, Fudge barrels into the fight. Palafox kills Isles, Keine counters by taking down the already low Ceos, Contractz finishes Rift Herald, Fudge smashes Keine, and the rest of DIG run for the hills. The fight goes 2-1 for SR, who also claim the objective.
• Isles hits a grab onto Ceos over a wall near mid. No real damage dealt to him from DIG though. SR converges. Palafox starts to dash around the back line as Srtty joins in and takes out Ceos. Almost immediately afterwards, Palafox kills Tomo. DIG considers chasing after the rest of SR but decide against it. Fight goes 1-1. During the fight Palafox drops Herald in mid lane but it doesn’t get any turrets.
• Isles hits another grab over the same wall, this time on Palafox, who just dashes away. Meanwhile, SR starts up the third Drake (Infernal). They take it uncontested. Keine takes the First Turret of the game by breaking the outer top turret.
• Ol’ McDonald had a farm, EIEIO!
• SR take their first tower in mid lane.
• Posturing and farming and warding, oh my.
• SR take the fourth Drake (Infernal) uncontested. Tomo almost gets caught out but Flashes to safety.
• Palafox and Ceos try to dive on to Keine. Palafox barely whiffs his ultimate and almost dies to turret. Instead of recalling, he decides to clear a minion wave and almost dies to Keine. He has to burn is Flash to get away.
• This is the way the push the lanes, push the lanes, push the lanes.
• SR start up Baron. DIG hovers around. SR wait until Keine TPs in. They jump on him. He gets away from everyone but dies to Ignite. Contractz takes Baron. Isles, while retreating, tries to grab Bvoy, who uses Zhonya’s to avoid it. The rest of DIG get away. Fight goes 1-0 for SR and they take the objective.
• SR start up the Voracious Atakhan. Isles grabs Fudge, who has been snared by Chains of Corruption. He gets taken down by Sheiden but is still in the fight because of his Passive. Palafox dashes into the back line and takes out Tomo but then dies to Keine. Sheiden steals the Atakhan. Srtty kills Ceos. Bvoy gets chased down by Isles and Srtty, with Srtty getting the kill. DIG then takes the fifth Drake. The fight goes 4-1 for DIG and they get 2 objectives.
• Palafox gets caught out and killed 3v1 by Sheiden. Ceos tries to intervene but gets there too late. He goes down to Keine. Fudge, meanwhile, takes out Tomo off to the side, only to die to Srtty soon after. Contractz tries to salvage the fight, hopping around DIG. He manages to kill Keine but can’t get the rest of DIG. The fight ends 3-2 for DIG.
• Keine tries to TP in behind SR. They back off but the rest of DIG charge after them. Isles manages to grab Fudge, who dies to Tomo 1v4.
• SR start Baron. Srtty TP behind them. DIG attempt a pincher. Contractz run straight into where Srtty was hiding. He goes down. Ceos gets hit with Chains of Corruption. Before they can spread to him, Palafox ults into the back line of DIG.
• He almost kills Tomo but he goes golden. Meanwhile Keine kills Ceos. Bvoy gets jump on, goes golden, then gets kill after he comes back. Palafox is chased down lane and killed by Keine under turret. 4-1 for DIG. Fudge, who died before the fight, is the only one alive for SR and he’s now pushing mid lane. DIG take Baron.
• DIG then go and take the six Drake (Infernal) earning them Infernal Soul. Keine gets caught out in top lane by Fudge and Contractz and killed by Fudge. But, while they are up there dealing with him, DIG takes down mid base turret and mid inhibitor.
• DIG back off, recall, buy, and fan out across the map to start warding. The game slows down to pushing and warding phase again.
• Baron spawns, DIG starts it up almost immediately. SR is hovering around. There are only 2 members of DIG on Baron, the rest are lying in wait. Isles shows and Fudge uses his ult to barrel towards him, only to get intercepted by the rest of DIG.
• Palafox comes in from behind DIG but almost gets killed and has to flee. Fudge dies to Tomo. Keine goes after Palafox and drops him into GA revive. When Palafox comes back up he tries to escape but dies to Keine. The rest of DIG chase after the other SR members. Tomo kills Contractz and Ceos. Sheiden kills Bvoy.
• DIG heads to SR’s base to end the game. As they are attacking the last Nexus, mid inhibitor respawns. They destroy it and then destroy the Nexus.

Post Game Analysis: Do Something!

• DIG ends the game at 44:08 with a 9.2k gold lead. The final score is 19-11 for DIG. Hesitation leads to death. There got to a point where if either team made a mistake, the game was over for them.
• Unfortunately for SR, they made the mistake of waiting too long and allowing DIG to get better positioning and set up. Had they been a little faster on the trigger, they could have won. Also, apparently learning from game 2, DIG drafted tanks again, which made things harder for SR. Hopefully this doesn’t herald a return to the dreaded tank-meta.
• After this games, DIG is 1-0 and SR is 0-1. This is the first LTA game to go 2-1.

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.