TL;DW – LTA North Edition: LYON Pounce on DIG in Game 2

Mid and Jungle are targeted during the 1^st ban phase as Yone, Vi, Sylas, Azir, Nocturne, and Naafiri are removed.

DIG starts things off by grabbing Pantheon.  LYON responds with Rumble and Corki.  DIG next pick Jayce and Viktor.  LYON grabs Maokai to finish out this round of picks.

2^nd ban phase sees the Bot Lane being targeted, with Lucian, Kalista, Senna, and Nautilus taken off the table.

Back to champion selection with LYON picking Jhin.  DIG decides on the Lover’s Duo to close out their team.  LYON ends things by selecting Rell.  DIG has great poke, engage, and disengage.  LYON, meanwhile, has a strong lockdown, AoE, and long-range follow-up.

Team comps are: DIG – Jayce (top), Pantheon (jungle), Viktor (mid), Xayah (bot), Rakan (support) vs LYON – Rumble (top), Maokai (jungle), Corki (mid), Jhin (bot), Rell (support).

Early Game Highlights: A Dull Early Game in LTA North

Lots of farming and skirmishing at the start of the game.  The first bit of excitement comes at almost 6 minutes in when Sheiden ganks Mid Lane and forces Saint to burn Flash.

Oddielan ever so slowly manages to take the 1^st Drake (Ocean) uncontested.

DIG starts up the Voidgrubs soon after they spawn.  LYON hovers nearby but decides not to contest.  DIG gets all 3 Grubs.

The farming commences.  The Early Game ends with DIG leading in gold by 400, as well as in farm.

Mid Game Highlights: A Battle for Objectives

Sheiden uses Grand Starfall to gank Licorice in Top Lane with Srtty.  Sheiden gets the kill for 1^st Blood of the game.  Seeing this, LYON starts up and takes the 2^nd Drake (Chemtech).

After crashing several waves into it, DIG takes the 1^st Turret of the game by destroying LYON’s Outer Top Turret.

LYON starts up Rift Herald, but Sheiden comes in and Steals it with Smite.  A team fight breaks out.  Hena manages to kill Isles before everyone disengages.

Tomo forces Flash out of Hena in Mid Lane as Oddielan starts up the 3^rd Drake (Hextech).  DIG starts to converge on him, and he disengages.  DIG takes over the Drake.  Oddielan uses Nature’s Grasp, but Isles tanks most of it (Keine Flashes to try and avoid it, but ends up Flashing into it).

Saint dives in, almost dies, and gets away.  Sheiden, likewise, gets targeted.  He also almost dies, but uses Grand Starfall to get away.  This leaves Drake open for Oddielan to secure.  No deaths, but LYON is now on Soul Point.

Mid Game ends with DIG ahead in gold by 1.6k.  LYON is, however, ahead in the farm.

Late Game Highlights: Nature Wins Out

Licorice gets baited in Bot Lane and killed by Keine.  DIG takes Outer Bot Turret off this kill.

A long period of nothing happening.

Both teams set up around the Dragon Pit.  LYON has initial control of the area, but Isles tries to flank them from behind.  He’s spotted on a ward and chased away, but this gives DIG a chase to get a better position in Bot River.

DIG starts up the Drake.  LYON is too spread out to do anything, so DIG secures the objective without too much issue.

LYON engages after the Drake falls.  Nature’s Grasp locked down Sheiden, who gets roasted by Licorice.  After he dies, Lyonz manages to take down Tomo.  Isles, who tried to disrupt LYON, also ends up dying (Saint gets the credit).  Fight goes 3-0 for LYON, but DIG gets the objective.

Off the back of this fight, LYON goes Top Side and takes Atakhan.  Both teams start to set up around Baron.

LYON takes control of the Baron area and pushes DIG into Mid Lane.  Isles gets Snared by Nature’s Grasp, Snared again by Deadly Flourish, has an Equalizer dropped on him, gets pelted with Gatling Gun bullets, has a Phosphorous Bomb dropped on him, and then is finally sniped down by Hena with Curtain Call.

Keine face checks Bot Lane Tri-Brush and gets deleted by Oddielan and Licorice (Oddie gets the kill).  Sheiden tries to come in with Grand Starfall, but he’s too late.  He gets chased back down Bot Lane by Oddielan and Lyonz but gets away.

LYON heads over to the Dragon Pit and starts up the 5^th Drake.  While Oddieland and Hena work on the Drake, the rest of LYON zone off DIG.  Oddielan secures the objective, giving his team Hextech Soul.

A brief team fight breaks out after the Drake goes down, but DIG decides to retreat instead.  As they leave, Hena activates Curtain Call and gets Sheiden low enough that Oddielan is able to kill him.  Oddielan then pops Nature’s Grasp.  It Snares Isles, who is almost instantly deleted (Oddielan gets credit).

Keine and Srtty, who Isles’ body blocked Nature’s Grasp for, both get an Equalizer dropped on them.  The damage and slow allow Licorice and Saint to kill them respectively.  LYON then takes the Outer Mid Turret before killing Tomo.  Fight goes 5-0 to LYON, who immediately rotates up to take Baron.

Using Baron Buff, LYON takes several Turret, kills 4 members of DIG, and ends the game.  Kills were Isles (Saint), Srtty (Hena), Sheiden (Saint), and Keine (Saint).

Post Game Analysis: Patience is Its Own Reward

LYON ends the game at 31:12 with a gold lead of 9.3k.  The final score was 15-2 for LYON.

While things were looking good for DIG for a while, despite being ahead, they had no real way of pulling LYON off objectives.  LYON’s peel and engage were just too strong.  All they had to do was wait for an opening and then pounce.

LYON demonstrated what they are capable of when they slow down and don’t get overly aggressive.  They were able to find the best angles to utilize Nature’s Grasp and Equalize to their fullest.  It also helped that some of DIG’s players were caught out of position a few times.

Going forward, they need to be more cautious about face-checking.  Or, at the very least, be more inclined to let those who do face check die without committing Ultimates or Flashes to try and fail to save them.

Terms

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

Mid Game: Between early game and either 20 minutes, 2 inner towns down, half the players are level 16, or 3^rd dragon killed.

Late Game: Any time after mid-game.