TL;DW – LTA North Edition: FLY and C9 go to a Game 5 in the Finals of Split 2

Game 5 Fearless sees some new champions banned out. Casseopia, Vi, Yorick, Sivir, Sett, and Gwen are all removed.

C9 has 1^st pick, and they immediately lock in Kalista. FLY responds by picking Caitlyn and Viktor. C9 grabs Jarvan IV and Renata. FLY takes Elise before the 2^nd ban phase begins.

FLY targets the Mid Lane with their bans, removing Ahri and Akali. C9 aims for Jungle with Skarner and Lee Sin bans.

FLY starts things back up by grabbing Kha’Zix. C9 closes out their team with Hwei and K’Sante. FLY has last pick, and they opt for Gragas. C9 has a comp that’s made for team fighting, while FLY is more of an assassination/pick comp.

Team comps are: C9 – K’Sante (top), Jarvan IV (jungle), Hwei (mid), Kalista (bot), Renata (support) vs FLY – Gragas (top), Kha’Zix (jungle), Viktor (mid), Caitlyn (bot), Elise (support).

Early Game Highlights: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider Came Up from Bottom Lane

C9 invades the FLY Red Side Jungle. Inspired started at his Red, so there is no fight, but Blaber does secure FLY’s Blue Buff for himself.

In Bot Lane, Busio lands a Cocoon onto Vulcan. Thanks to Headshot, Massu is able to drop Vulcan into Bailout. Neither Zven nor Vulcan are able to get a kill, so Vulcan dies to Busio when the timer runs out.

Bwipo TPs into Bot Lane, right in front of Vulcan and Zven. They chase him to his Turret only for Busio and Inspired to come in from behind them. Busio hits a point-blank Cocoon onto Vulcan, leading to his death (Busio gets credit).

Blaber starts up the 1^st Drake (Ocean). FLY hovers around, looking to potentially contest. Zven and Vulcan attempt to zone. They are successful, and Blaber is able to secure the objective. They then turn to start attacking FLY, first Bwipo, then Busio. Zven is able to get enough Spears into Busio that he Rends him to death. Everyone backs off after this.

C9 starts up the Voidgrubs. They manage to take 1 before FLY arrives. C9 uses Cataclysm and Hostile Takeover, but they don’t find much, so they back off, and FLY takes the remaining 2 Grubs.

Early Game ends with C9 ahead in gold by 200 and also ahead in farm.

Mid Game Highlights: C9 Brings a Bug Zapper

C9 takes the 2^nd Drake (Infernal) uncontested.

Bwipo takes C9’s Outer Top Turret for the 1^st Turret of the game. Then rotates down into Top River and runs into Blaber, who was hiding in a bush. While they fight, Zven arrives in Top Lane and starts farming, only to find that Inspired and Busio snuck into the lane through the fog of war. Blaber is unable to get to Zven in time, and he dies to Inspired.

The rest of C9 arrives. Vulcan Hostile Takeover sets up a double kill for Loki (Inspired and Busio). Bwipo then gets bounced around before also dying to Loki. The remaining members of FLY back off afterwards. Fight goes 3-1 for C9, who rotate over to Rift Herald and take it.

Busio gets caught out in C9’s Red Jungle and dies to Blaber.

Loki gets caught out in Bot Lane by Bwipo and Busio. He dies to Bwipo. At the same time, C9 drops Rift Herald in Mid and takes the Outer Turret. After they take the Turret, C9 heads down to the Dragon Pit to start up the 3^rd Drake (Chemtech). FLY is right behind them to contest, however.

Despite FLY’s posturing, C9 are able to zone them away and secure the Drake. They are now on Soul Point.

Mid Game ends with FLY, the ones now ahead in gold (by 1k), but C9 still ahead in farm.

Late Game Highlights: Now That was an Ending

After claiming the objective, C9 turns to look for a proper fight with FLY. However, the poking has done its job and Quad is able to kill Vulcan. Blaber then uses Cataclysm on Inspired and takes him out. This cost him his life, though, as Massu uses his Ultimate to snipe him down.

Thanatos and Zven try to escape through Bot Lane, but Bwipo gets ahead of them and forces them back with his Ultimate. This leads to Zven dying to Massu. Thanatos is able to sail over a Jungle wall to join up with Loki (who has finally arrived), taking Quad with him. This leads to Quad dying to Loki.

Right afterwards, however, Thanatos, who is out of escape tools, dies to Busio. Loki backs off. Fight goes 4-2 for FLY, though C9 claims the Drake.

The setup is obscured by a replay (they have to get better at that), but a fight breaks out in Top River. Zven kills Bwipo, Busio drops Blaber, and Massu takes out Zven. FLY tries to get Thanatos, too, but he’s able to Blast Cone away to safety. Fight goes 2-1 for FLY. Replay shows that the fight started as a result of Bwipo getting caught out.

FLY rotates down to the Atakhan after the fight and starts it up. Even though Vulcan sees them doing it, the rest of his team aren’t close enough to contest, so FLY secures the objective.

Both teams set up around the Dragon Pit for the 4^th Drake. C9 starts it up, but FLY is the one who gains control. Bwipo tries to come in behind C9, but he gets caught and is taken out by Zven. The Drake gets low. Blaber uses Cataclysm to jump onto Inspired but Leaps away while Smiting the Drake to secure it. I repeat, FLY gets the Drake, delaying the potential soul for C9. Everyone backs off afterwards.

C9 starts up the Baron, but FLY arrives to contest. Bwipo tries to flank again but dies to Zven just like last time. In this case, he team was too far away to capitalize. However, he did get enough members of C9 low that they had to give up on taking the Baron.

C9 starts up the Baron again. FLY hovers around but are unable to stop them from securing it. After the baron dies, Bwipo takes out Blaber. They look for more kills, but C9 are able to kite them out and escape.

After C9 disengages, FLY rotates down to the Dragon Pit and starts up the 5^th Drake. C9 decides not to fight for it, so FLY secures the objective uncontested.

Thanatos gets caught out in Mid Lane, but K’Sante is slippery and manages to get away. However, Bwipo again tries a flank maneuver and dies, yet again. This time, he goes down to Loki. This is becoming a pattern.

C9 uses Baron to take Inner Turret, but aren’t able to break open FLY’s Base.

Blaber spots Massu farming in Mid Lane and tries to jump on him, but Massu nets away. Blaber chases, only to find that Massu wasn’t alone. He tries to get away but ends up getting Knocked Back by Bwipo’s Ultimate and dies to Massu. The rest of C9 tries to back off, but Inspired cuts off their escape route, to Thanatos decides to go in instead. He gets CCed and dies to Quad.

The rest of C9 backs off. FLY chases them for a bit but then turns and takes the 6^th Drake. Now they, too, are on Soul Point. They then rotate up and start the Baron. They are able to kill it before anyone from C9 can arrive.

Like C9, FLY uses Baron Buff to take Outer Turrets only.

Both teams gather around the Dragon Pit for the 7^th Drake. FLY are the ones to start it up. There is a lot of posturing before Blaber finally dives in. He gets dropped into his GA. Thanatos takes out Inspired, but Massu drops Blaber when he revives. Loki then kills Thanatos a split second before Zven kills Bwipo.

During the fight, C9 gets pushed into FLY’s Blue Side Jungle. As a result, they are unable to get back to the Dragon Pit in time to stop Massu from securing the Drake. FLY now has Chemtech Soul. Maybe now Bwipo’s flank maneuvers will work out. After taking the Drake, FLY looks to finish off the rest of C9, but they can’t quite catch them.

Both teams, once everyone respawns, head straight for the Baron. C9 gets there first and starts it up. Inspired is able to deal massive chunks of damage to Vulcan and Zven. This causes C9 to back away from Baron. As they retreat, Thanatos gets locked down and dies to Massu. FLY immediately turns and takes the Baron. Now with the Baron Buff, FLY group as 5 and march down Mid Lane. They take the Base Turret and Inhibitor, then rotate Bot Lane. They take the Inner Turret and then start to siege the Base Turret.

Bwipo uses his Ult to push C9 away so that FLY can take the Base Turret and then the Inhibitor. They take chunks out of the Nexus but aren’t able to completely take them down before Baron Buff runs out. As they try to continue sieging the Turrets, Blaber dives in. He gets locked up and dropped into his GA.

Thanatos jumps in after Blaber goes down and causes enough distraction for the rest of C9 to engage as well. Zven kills Massu, and Vulcan takes out Inspired. Blaber revives and survives. Fight goes 2-0 for C9, though they lost 2 Inhibitors. As FLY retreats, minions take out the Lower Nexus Turret.

C9 head over to the Elder Drake and starts it up, but Bwipo and Quad both TP into fog of war and head straight for C9’s Nexus. Busio sacrifices himself to waste C9’s time (dying to Blaber) and to give his teammates the opportunity to destroy both the last Nexus Turret and the Nexus itself.

Post Game Analysis: LTA North Split 2 Ends with a Backdoor

FLY ends the game at 47:16 with a gold lead of 3.6k. The final score was 16-16.

I’ll start this off by saying that, while Backdoors are acceptable, they are a touch underhanded. Still props to FLY for being able to pull it off, especially with only 2 people.

This game demonstrates that over-aggression is still a problem in the LTA North. C9 had a good lead and then lost it when they chased too far. FLY overstayed in C9’s Base and almost lost the game because of it. This tendency towards greed needs to be fixed, or the LPL and LCK representatives at MSI will rip FLY apart.

With this win, FLY obviously wins Split 2 but also qualifies for MSI, which will be held in Canada this year. Hopefully, the home field advantage will help FLY perform well.

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.