Today marked Day 3, Week 3 of the 2016 North American League Championship Series (NA LCS) Summer Split.
From Team SoloMid demolishing yet another opponent and continuing their perfect split, to EnVyUs continuing to show us why they’re good, here is how Day 3, Week 3 went down.
(6-0) Team SoloMid 2-0 NRG eSports (1-5)
Game one was full of scary moments for TSM, as Diego “Quas” Ruiz’s Vladimir seemed unkillable for a majority of the match. TSM would seemingly catch him out of position, only for Quas to survive for several seconds and allow his teammates to come in and route his attackers. Still, TSM’s impeccable team coordination, along with stellar play from Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng on Lucian, allowed a relatively easy final push for TSM to take game one.
TSM looked unstoppable in game two. Seemingly nothing went wrong for this squad. Their coordination continues to impress and NRG’s coordination only got worse going into this game. The macro play from TSM was simply too much for NRG to take on. At just 25 minutes into the game, TSM took all three inhibitor turrets simultaneously and completely opened NRG’s base. Just three minutes later, the game was over.
(4-2) Cloud9 2-1 Apex Gaming (3-3)
Cloud9 controlled this game practically from start to finish. Constantly putting pressure on the entire map and taking objectives across the board, Cloud9 took complete control just under 30 minutes in when they took the Baron and aced Apex. Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi’s 8/0/12 performance on Sivir allowed him 100% kill participation and player of the game honors.
A 50/50 match until the end, game two was a close one. Despite a late game Elder Dragon steal from Sneaky’s Ardent Blaze on Lucian, Apex’s late game fighting and wave clear was too powerful. Cloud9 just couldn’t get too Apex’s damage dealers. A 60-minute match ended in one team fight, with Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen being picked early and Cloud9 not being able to make up for it. Early wins from Ji-won “Ray” Jeon allowed the rest of Apex to scale and claim this victory.
Ray was never given a chance this game, as Cloud9 never let him get ahead early. Jensen took this game over from the beginning and never let go, demolishing Apex with a 7/1/7 performance on Leblanc. It was close again, but Cloud9 closed out game three to take the series and improve their record to 4-2.
(5-1) Immortals 2-0 Echo Fox (1-5)
Henrik “Froggen” Hansen and Jeong-hun “kfo” Park were the shining lights for Echo Fox in their bid to upset Immortals, but it just wasn’t enough. An over-extension into the Immortals base opened up Echo Fox’s base to a full five-man push from the Immortals squad, and that was the game. Although it was a relatively, and relatively is a nice word, close game overall, Immortals still came out on top and were obviously the stronger team.
With what has become quite common for Immortals, early game struggles did not impact their ability to win a game. Echo Fox won the early game, but several miscues allowed Immortals to slowly edge back into the series. Once they took the lead, it was over. The common theme found in the winning teams in the NA LCS right now is coordination. Immortals has that, Echo Fox does not. This Echo Fox team just doesn’t seem to trust one another.
(5-1) Team EnVyUs 2-1 Counter Logic Gaming (2-4)
EnVyUs may have stole the Baron, but CLG took the Elder Dragon and that was enough to push them to the win in this extremely close game. Neck and neck in almost every category all game, CLG and EnVyUs gave their supporters heart attacks this entire game. In the end, CLG took the nailbiter.
After the close loss in game one, EnVyUs bounced back in a big way in game two. CLG got off to a strong start, but EnVyUs didn’t back down. CLG’s loss wasn’t exactly because EnVyUs forced bad plays, though, as CLG as a squad were extremely inactive and hesitant the entire game. Still, EnVyUs’s team fighting and decision making were tiers above CLG’s in game two, and EnVyUs took the win.
The team fighting champions of the Summer Split, CLG were defeated in almost every team fight by EnVyUs in game three. EnVyUs out-maneuvered CLG time and time again, proving that their record is not a fluke and that they are one of the best teams in North America.
What are your thoughts on week three of the NA LCS? Did any team surprise you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or on our Twitter – @GAMURScom, and be sure to follow us for all of your eSports needs.
Spencer Hester is an editor for GAMURS and can be contacted by email at Hester.eSports@gmail.com or on Twitter – @SpenceGAMURS.
