Team Liquid 1 - Counter Logic Gaming 0
Team Liquid started off Week 5 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split with a victory over Counter Logic Gaming on Saturday in Los Angeles.
The first half of the game was a tedious battle for vision control that lacked in actual teamfighting. Team Liquid (6-3) did a great job of tracking Counter Logic Gaming's jungler Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin's Zac, allowing its lanes to have plenty of notice of when he was in striking distance. However, Reignover couldn't be kept in check and finally found an opening, engaging in a teamfight near the 26-minute mark in which CLG (3-6) picked up the latest first blood in the NA LCS this split.
After the first teamfight, Reignover made great use of the Fog of War to easily set up more teamfights with long range Elastic Slingshots. A few teamfight victories made up for some of CLG's deficit but, those battles did little to help in its lack of objectives. Team Liquid began to tear Reignover's attention in two, making him switch between stopping the split-push or contesting neutral objectives while never actually being able to do much about either.
Team Liquid's rotations were just too much for CLG to handle as it slowly whittled down all of the enemy inhibitors. Counter Logic Gaming finally found one final engage but it wasn't one that it could win as Team Liquid took a 4-for-0 teamfight victory and pushed to end.
Team Liquid next face off against the Golden Guardians at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, with Counter Logic Gaming looking to smooth out its record in Week 5 against 100 Thieves later that day at 4 p.m. ET.
-- Ben Wong
Echo Fox 1 - 100 Thieves 0
Echo Fox easily brushed past 100 Thieves on Saturday during the North American League of Legends Championship Series in Los Angeles.
With both sides taking some off-meta champions during the draft phase, it was Echo Fox (8-1) that picked up an advantage before the players even took the Rift. Not only did top laner Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon have the niche Yasuo, but mid laner Kim "Fenix" Jae-hun was on the powerful Zoe. By the time it was all said and done, those two ended up being the main catalysts behind the Echo Fox win.
100 Thieves (4-5) came out of the gate looking to prevent Echo Fox from running away with the game. 100 Thieves mid laner Yoo "Ryu" Sang-wook made great use of Taliyah's ultimate to pull off a flashy gank on Huni for first blood 11 minutes in, giving the team an ever-so-slight lead. After a short lull, Echo Fox started to pick up steam. It all started with 100 Thieves jungler William "Meteos" Hartman getting picked off at the 21-minute mark, allowing Echo Fox to secure its first Baron.
From then on, 100 Thieves only managed to delay the inevitable as the Echo Fox snowball really began rolling.
In the final few teamfights of the game, Fenix's Zoe poured on the damage while Huni gave the team a strong frontline presence. 100 Thieves was simply no match and were eventually taken down in 34 minutes. The win made it four straight for Echo Fox and guaranteed it at least a first-place tie heading into the second round-robin, depending on the result of the Cloud9 (7-1) game later in the day.
Echo Fox won't have to wait long to defend its top spot, as it will take on Cloud9 at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, while 100 Thieves will try and right the ship against Counter Logic Gaming in the following game at 6 p.m. ET.
-- Wyatt Donigan
Cloud9 1 - Team SoloMid 0
Cloud9 made quick work of Team SoloMid on Saturday during the North American League of Legends Championships Series in Los Angeles.
With Echo Fox winning in the preceding game, this was a must-win game for Cloud9 (8-1) if it wanted to keep itself locked in a tie for first place. After the first few minutes of the game, however, it didn't look like that would be the case. TSM (4-5) jumped out to an early lead on the back of mid laner Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg. The TSM stalwart picked up two quick kills and had his team on the right track early on. Cloud9 jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen had a thing or two to say about that, however.
Playing against his former team, Svenskeren made a beautiful play nine minutes in to not only save top laner Eric "Licorice" Ritchie's life but give his team two kills. Cloud9 followed up on this play with strong macro movements across the map to start gearing up for a Baron push. Once AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi picked up two kills with his Ezreal, including one off a Hail Mary-like True Shot Barrage, Cloud9 secured its first Baron and never looked back. With no one else on TSM besides Bjergsen really stepping up to help, it was powerless and could only watch as Cloud9 came barreling in to wrap up the game in just 32 minutes.
Cloud9 will now put its six-game winning streak and first-place spot on the line against Echo Fox at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, while TSM will try and start the second-half of the Split off on the right foot against Clutch Gaming earlier in the day at 3 p.m. ET.
-- Wyatt Donigan
Clutch Gaming 1 - FlyQuest 0
Clutch Gaming easily handled FlyQuest in a lopsided contest in the North American League of Legends Championship Series on Saturday.
As a battle between two mid-tier teams, both Clutch (5-4) and FlyQuest (3-6) stood to gain much from this game. Early on, FlyQuest seemed to recognize that importance and came out firing with two kills from mid laner Song "Fly" Yong-jun's Vladimir. Unfortunately for FlyQuest, those were the only two kills it secured during the final 25 minutes of the game.
Clutch used the strength of mid laner Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten's Orianna and top laner Colin "Solo" Earnest's Ornn to completely dominate every aspect of the game. Once it picked up two kills 24 minutes in, Clutch secured picks left and right to keep FlyQuest bogged down at every moment. Special attention was focused on FlyQuest's Fly, who had the most deaths and only kills for his team.
With the first round-robin coming to a close, Clutch has seemingly proved itself as a playoff contender. It may not yet be ready to contend with the best that North America has to offer, but it has proven that it can easily handle the lower ranks of the region. Reaching the halfway point with a better record than teams like Team SoloMid and 100 Thieves, both of which are 4-5, has to be an extra boost of confidence for Clutch during its first NA LCS Split.
Clutch will look to make it four straight wins when it takes on TSM at 3 p.m. ET to open Sunday's action, while FlyQuest will hope to prevent a three-game skid to close out the day at 7 p.m. ET.
-- Wyatt Donigan
OpTic Gaming 1 - Golden Guardians 0
OpTic Gaming beat down the Golden Guardians to close out Saturday's action in the North American League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split in Los Angeles.
Thanks to a dynamic offensive assault from its carries, OpTic Gaming (2-6) quickly found itself in an enviable position to begin the game. It started with mid laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage's Viktor getting plenty of gank help from jungler Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham's Skarner. All of the attention in the mid lane allowed the bottom lane to become an island in which AD carry Noh "Arrow" Dong-hyeon's Draven dominated the two-on-two skirmishes early and often. With the damage carries snowballing gold leads, OpTic Gaming quickly rotated around the map knocking down turrets. Its early success came with a few mid game mistakes, however. Once the side lanes were opened up on the Rift, OpTic made a few sloppy rotations, and the Golden Guardians seized the opportunity to pick up few kills.
The kills that the Golden Guardians (1-7) picked up were all for naught, though, as it didn't take long for OpTic to regain its composure in the second half as it smashed the Guardians in the teamfight during the first Baron take. Arrow's Draven had plenty of protection as he scored a quadra kill during OpTc's ace. The ace took all of the fight out of the Guardians as it ceded over objectives with little resistance. The Guardians' final stand came as it contested an Elder Dragon, resulting in yet another OpTic Gaming ace. There was little chance for a comeback afterwards as OpTic quickly pushed to victory.
The Golden Guardians will face Team Liquid at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, while Optic Gaming has the struggling FlyQuest later that day at 5 p.m. ET.
-- Ben Wong