Inspire eSports - 3/3/16 - NA/EU LCS Week 7 Recap and Highlights

It is with great pleasure that I share with you all my first published article for Inspire eSports. This is the start of my own exclusive column with Inspire eSports entitled The Baron Call, a weekly recap/highlight segment that looks at the most memorable moments and Baron calls for the NA LCS and EU LCS Splits. Enjoy!

Original post: http://www.inspireesports.com/news/baron-call-expectations-defied

Week 7 was an emotional rollercoaster for fans of both EU and NA. Surprise plays, unlikely victories, and shocking news all mark this as one of the most exciting and exhausting weeks in the Split so far. With all that said, let’s get into the some of the most memorable moments of the week that was:

EU LCS - Day 1 highlights

G2’s slow, methodical start against Elements gave the latter the time they needed to aggress into the lead, but G2 seized the win after capitalizing on mispositioning errors from Elements. Vitality maintained their top 3 spot with a commanding win vs. GIANTS, thanks to superb shotcalling by Kasing. Meanwhile, a struggling Origen continued to find some breathing room with a calculated win against Splyce. A very close game between H2K and Fnatic ended with a spectacular victory for H2K, but soon turned bittersweet; Forg1ven revealed in his post-game interview that after this week, he would be stepping down from H2K to answer the call of the Greek armed forces and return to active duty. Rounding out the day was yet another big surprise: ROCCAT pulled an upset and claimed the win against the Unicorns of Love, due in huge part to massive showings from ROCCAT’s new support player, Noxiak.

BARON CALL OF THE DAY - GIANTS vs. Vitality

Kasing’s shotcalling around the neutral objective takes our Baron highlight for the day. After denying GIANTS’ vision around the Baron area, Vitality are able to draw GIANTS into the fog of war and pick them off with Quinn flanks and hooks from Thresh and Nautilus, allowing them to secure Baron for a huge push that snowballs them to the finish. Although the Baron buff is powerful in of itself, plays like this show the latent advantages in how a team controls the area, using the incentive of the buff to make plays.

EU LCS - Day 2 highlights

The opening match of the day, Origen vs. G2, was messy on all sides, with Origen seemingly losing their momentum from the past weeks. G2’s execution was rough but solid, although Origen’s missteps gave G2 the extra edge. H2K took another strong win against GIANTS, although foiled attempts to close by H2K resulted in a 48-minute game. Hylissang was the MVP in Unicorns of Love vs. Splyce, making huge plays on Thresh with Steeelback and hooking a dominant victory for his team. Fnatic continued to show steady improvement in their match against ROCCAT, with Spirit finally hitting his stride on Lee Sin and Fnatic taking the win. Vitality vs. Elements ended the weekend, with Nukeduck’s Quinn razing through Elements’ members as his own one-man (plus one bird) army.

BARON CALL OF THE DAY - GIANTS vs. H2K

For this highlight, we will focus on a Baron defense, rather than a Baron secure. GIANTS finally managed to fight back against a dominant H2K and secure Baron, but ineffectual lane pushes and a stalwart defense by H2K actually wastes the Baron buff on GIANTS, defusing the momentum that GIANT had been building up.

NA LCS - Day 1 highlights

Dardoch kicked off the first match of the day in TIP vs. TL, bringing in some classic Lee Sin mechanics. A play around Baron allowed Dardoch to Insec-kick Mash into the waiting Team Liquid before casually walking away from four members of TIP. TSM had an overall dominating performance against Echo Fox, despite some questionable tower play from Doublelift (which he blamed on low in-game sounds). REN held a strong early game lead against NRG, but were unable to transition that lead to mid-game macro plays and were eventually taken down. Cloud9 remained on the rise as Balls on Pantheon continued to step up, though Jensen led the crushing victory over DIG, going 13-1-0 on LeBlanc. However, all of today’s games were seemingly eclipsed by CLG taking down the juggernaut known as IMT. The glorious match was equally glorious in conclusion with Darshan backdooring IMT’s exposed Nexus, xPeke-style. Immortal no longer!

BARON CALL OF THE DAY - IMT vs. CLG

The undisputed Baron highlight of the day was Xmithie’s amazing Baron steal against the 5-man force of IMT. Early shutdowns on Reignover coupled with excellent map movements by Xmithie had already mounted the advantage for CLG, but Xmithie’s clutch Smite was the final nail in the coffin for IMT, allowing them to, in the words of Trick2g, “open the gates” to victory.

NA LCS - Day 2 highlights

NRG continued to struggle going into the match against TIP. Despite a strong Jugger-Maw draft on the side of NRG, strong performances from Pirean and Mash allowed TIP to take the game. The match of the week, C9 vs. CLG, saw the latter in their second hyped game of the weekend. Action-packed from the first minutes in and the advantage continuously swinging back and forth between both teams, CLG finally pulled the win after a 40-minute game. Meanwhile, in TL vs. TSM, Dardoch continued to shine on Lee Sin, and TL ended the game pre-30 minutes with a dominating 24-4 kill score. On the other side of the spectrum, REN and DIG fans were surely going mad over their match. Although REN pulled the miracle win against DIG to end their 12-game losing streak, Summoner’s Rift was the true victor in this matchup; BillyBoss and Kiwikid got executed during a three-man tower push, and Crumbzz and Hakuho got executed by Rift Herald, all before 5 minutes into the game. IMT and Echo Fox wrapped up the day, and the one-sided victory for IMT was best summed up by Reddit users in the post-match threads: “BAN SORAKA!”

BARON CALL OF THE DAY - C9 vs. CLG

CLG are two-for-two for Baron plays this weekend! A well-timed Bard ultimate from Aphromoo stopped Cloud9 mere seconds before they slay Baron, and despite quickly taking the buff afterward, CLG took out four members of C9 before they could even leave the Baron pit. Though the match continued on with further back-and-forth exchanges, this was among the numerous insane moments of what is being considered the best game of the Split.

The LCS takes a break next weekend as teams head off to play in IEM Katowice, but will return the following week for the next set of games. Only 2 weeks remain in the Split before playoffs, and if these recent days have been any indication, anything can happen from here on out!

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