In a CJ Entus team-kill, Blaze brought wreck and ruin to their brother team Frost and advanced over them with a flawless 3-0. A grand final against MVP Ozone incoming.
If the first semi final of OGN Spring 2013 pitted one clan against another, it was all kinslaying today. Fire went against ice, as it has many times already, fighting for familiarly high stakes - a premier league grand final.
As far as OGN semi finals are concerned, Frost were in a familiar situation - so far, they have always won the round of four and thus have never missed a grand final. This time, however, they couldn't have faced a tougher opponent - their brothers from CJ Blaze.
There's no doubt that Blaze have been looking exceptional the past couple of months. They were crowned IEM World Champions (beating Frost themselves along the way), finished second in OGN group stage and absolutely destroyed Reapered's SK Telecom in the quarter finals. Blaze, one could say, were looking stronger than ever and Frost had to play beyond their best to make it to their fourth OGN grand final in a row.
Game 1
As it's expected when two brother teams play together, the early game passed more or less uneventfully, Helios the only player to really shine in those moments. Running an elusive and dangerous Lee Sin, Helios made several appearances on mid and one on top to give Blaze the first three kills for the game, allowing Ambition's Ahri to easily snowball later.
The first chance for Frost to make something out of their team-fighting composition came at the 15th minute mark before the dragon pit but oddly enough, not even a full 5v5 engagement aided their cause. A disruptive Flash/Monsoon from Lustboy put Shy's Kennen out of the fight and Blaze proceeded to trade four for two.
Blaze continued to show impeccable positioning in the next couple of team fights and Frost found themselves in a puzzle - they couldn't capitalize on their AoE combo because of Janna's disengagement and they couldn't win individual battles because of Blaze's early domination. As not winning team fights is literally the worst thing that can happen to a team-fighting composition, Frost finally crumbed under the pressure coming from Caitlyn and Ahri.
Game 2
Once again the game would start with low-on-kills minutes and so Frost took advantage of their long-raged composition to take dragon almost uncontested at the 10th minute mark. While this gave them a hefty enough gold boost, Blaze were winning the farm on top and mid (and quite signigicantly) and so the money scales were held even.
Over the next couple of minutes, thing would get even better for Blaze. While Frost were winning the kills race, Blaze continued to be focused around securing objectives and the gold lead steadily went into their favor. As Frost's champions grew in power, however, Blaze found it harder and harder to push deeper into enemy territory due to Xerath's and Caitlyn's wave clearing. Not even an uncontested baron helped Blaze in their quest for lane pushing and so a stalemate onset.
What broke it partially was Madlife and Rapidstar getting caught out of position. While Frost's support did escape with a sliver of his health, Xerath didn't have the same luck and Blaze pushed in for the middle inhibitor. While the game could be considered more or less over at this point of time, Blaze's discipline and caution prolonged the match for a good ten more minutes in which Blaze would take another baron and the middle inhibitor for a second time before they could reach Frost's nexus for 2-0.
Game 3
Down two games, Frost had the extremely difficult task of coming back against one of the best teams in the world. This was their last chance for a comeback and so Shy and his crew plunged into a do-or-die match against their fellow colleagues.
What followed could only be described as a slightly more violent version of St. Bartolomew's Day massacre. After staying in the ban list for two games straight, Ryze finally made it past the hate phase and was immediately picked by Flame. The double AP composition was completed by Ambition's Karthus and thus it began.
After a high-action first minutes which were like a nightmare for Frost, things got even uglier. At the 17th minute, Blaze scored a perfect ace and took dragon to come 8K gold ahead and make comeback almost impossible for Frost. If that hadn't sealed the deal, an ace for two at the 25th minute, followed by a baron kill, pretty much did it. Up 20 kills to 8 (and quite a lot of gold), Blaze were in the most comfortable lead imaginable. A lead which was increased even further as three minutes later, a requiem landed to ace Frost for the final time and give Ambition a much unneeded triple kill.
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