Photo credits go to: lolesports' flickr
Miss out on this past weekend’s excitement? Here’s a quick rundown of what you missed:
As a person who follows eSports, I’m always trying to predict how games will turn out and how the standings will end up at the end of each week. I can safely say that I was wrong on a great many accounts this week. Of course, Immortals still remain untouchable at the top. However, no one really predicted how well Echo Fox would perform with their full team back together, or how mightily Team SoloMid would struggle against middle-of-the-pack teams, or how Cloud 9 would really raise themselves up in the second half of the split. This week was a week of upsets, let’s touch on the major ones.
Echo Fox runs wild
When it was announced last week that after a month of sitting on the sidelines due to visa issues, European star midlaner Henrik “Froggen” Hansen and Korean solo queue king Jeong-hun “kfo” Park would finally return and complete the Echo Fox roster as it was originally intended to be. And what an explosive return it was, with the team taking their 1-7 record and turning it into a 3-7 record, finally pulling themselves out of the last place spot. This week, Echo Fox would again have to prove their dominance against two strong middle-table teams: Team Liquid and Team Impulse. Again, Echo Fox proved themselves more than capable, taking a dominant victory off of TIP and a scrappy one against Liquid. AD Carry Yuri “KEITHMCBRIEF” Jew was a true star both of these games, picking up an impressive quadra kill against TL that earned his team the win.
With yet another 2-0 week under their belts, Echo Fox has solidified their place in the middle of the standings, tied with TL for 6th place. While it would be easy to hop on the hype train (as, I’ll admit, I already have), countenance your excitement: remember that while their performances have been very very good with their full roster, they have yet to prove themselves against the best teams in the league. Their true challenge comes as they play the top four (which are, as of this writing, TSM, Counter Logic Gaming, C9, and Immortals). Next week will see them pitted against TSM and Immortals, and we’ll see if they really have what it takes to play with the big boys.
TSM goes 0-2
It was a hard week for TSM. Following an uplifting Week 5 that saw the team take two convincing victories, everyone thought that was the turning point – the point where the team had shored up their inconsistencies and early game weaknesses and could start fulfilling the super team promise they had made when their roster was first spoiled. Perhaps, however, they turned too far, as this week saw the team eke out some very convincing early/mid-games, gaining leads that were almost impossible to throw, very much unlike the past 5 weeks of the split. Then, they threw them away. Overconfidence and poor team fight coordination meant that Team Dignitas and Cloud 9 could secure victories from lost games. The C9 game will be discussed in a moment, but against Dig, TSM found themselves with their pants around their ankles, completely caught out in most fights by the slick combination knockups of Alan "KiWiKiD" Nguyen and Billy "BillyBoss" Yu. The TSM draft was also odd, picking Quinn into a Malphite and an Alistar, which found Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell completely zoned out of (or killed in) most teamfights. This will be hard, mentally, on a team that has already had some stated struggles with mentality and morale. It’s all in how they bounce back; next week they play TL and the rising starlets of NA, Echo Fox.
Cloud 9; Balls can body fools too
C9 have been a team of ups and downs. One moment they’re taking games of the top half of the table and going blow-for-blow with Immortals, the next they’re struggling to find wins against middling teams. This half of the split, however, is showing a different side of C9. After giving immortals a bloody nose, they’ve stepped up their game, taking a surprising win off of TSM and a convincing one against NRG eSports. They were poised and elegant in both games, playing safely and taking major teamfights when they knew they could. An “Balls” Le, often cited as being the poorest performing member of the team, completely stepped up and made a statement to all of his detractors. His Gangplank (picked against TSM) was nothing short of godlike, using barrel chains to catch out and annihilate Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s Kog’maw every teamfight. It goes to show the level of trust C9 has amongst each other. Most other teams would stick him with a utility toplaner and seek to ban champs like gangplank. Not them, and their faith in Balls paid major dividends this week, giving C9 a very well earned 2-0.
Standings
Every week we come to the standings section, I get to start the same way (and I very likely will till the end of the split): Immortals reign supreme, a buffer zone of four wins between them and their closest competitors. C9 and CLG have supplanted TSM for second place, dropping the boys in black (and sometimes charcoal grey) to fourth. NRG stands alone at fifth, followed by Team Liquid and Echo Fox. Dignitas and TIP tie for second-to-last, and the poor, lost souls on Renegades continue to anchor the league, their relegation almost assured at this point.
Next week will be one to watch for sure. We’ll see if Echo Fox and Cloud 9 can keep up this huge jolt of momentum they’ve received, if TSM can recover from a crushing 0-2, if Immortals can remain undefeated against more top-table teams clamboring for their head. It’s bound to be yet another in a series of exciting weeks, so don’t neglect to watch. Unless you can’t of course, in which case we’ll be here to fill you in same time next week.
