After a frustrating loss Saturday, Team Liquid rebounded against its opposition on Sunday, defeating Phoenix1 2-1 during Week 4, Day 3 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series in Los Angeles.
The series started with a rather standard draft, with the traditional power picks being quickly removed. Team Liquid (2-6, 5-14 match record) opted to pick AD carry Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin an early Caitlyn while simultaneously securing Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin his signature Olaf. Phoenix1 (1-7, 7-14 match record) opted to take jungler Mike "MikeYeung" Yeung his signature Lee Sin in retaliation.
What transpired after was an extremely scrappy and aggressive game from both sides, with each team trading kills back and forth. Relying on mid laner Andrew "Slooshi" Pham on Orianna, Team Liquid managed to gain the slightest of advantages in the late game, securing a final teamfight victory to pick up the Game 1 win.
Game 2 saw a slightly different draft with Rek'Sai remaining unbanned and Phoenix1 swiftly first picking it for MikeYeung. As a whole, Phoenix1 found themselves on more carry-oriented picks, giving Ryu "Ryu" Sang-wook Ahri and No "Arrow" Dong-hyeon Twitch.
Emulating the first game of the series, kills bounced back and forth during the early game. MikeYeung found several early kills for his team that ultimately allowed P1 to pick up a small lead, which would continue to grow thanks to a handful of ganks from its jungler. By the 20-minute mark, Phoenix1 had found itself a 5,000-gold lead, using the advantage to dictate the pace of the contest. While Phoenix1 would allow the match to drag into the late game, a deciding teamfight win near the 50-minute mark would help it finally claim the Game 2 win.
With the series heading to a deciding Game 3, both teams went with different strategies from their previous games in the drafting phase. With the majority of the power picks removed once again, P1's MikeYeung found himself on Rek'Sai while top laner Derek "zig" Shao defaulted to his comfort Kled. On the side of Liquid, Piglet found himself on Varus for the second game in a row and Slooshi switched up his play from the controlled Orianna to an aggressive LeBlanc.
The picks ultimately favored Team Liquid who utilized LeBlanc's roams and Reignover's Elise to pick up several kills early on. Their efforts were rewarded with a massive gold lead, finding themselves 12,000 gold up just 22-minutes into the game. Although P1 forced several fights, impressive mechanics by support Kevin "KonKwon" Kwon's Thresh turned things around and allowed Team Liquid to dominate on all fronts. After picking up a 26-minute Baron and an Infernal Dragon immediately after, Liquid, on the back of top laner Samson "Lourlo" Jackson's quadra kill with Jarvan, cleaned up the enemy Nexus en route to the series victory.
Liquid will try to string together back to back wins next Saturday when it takes on Echo Fox at 6 p.m. ET. Phoenix1 will attempt to find its second win of the season as it faces EnVyUs Friday at 9 p.m. ET.