RheingoldRiver brings match reports and interviews from the LCS floor

With excellent overviews of each match and interviews with the expert summoners involved, RheingoldRiver brings fantastic insight into the League of Legends Championship Series event this past week.

RheingoldRiver is a valued member of the terrific LolKing community; the site for all of your League of Legends tools, guides and information. You can also find additional, regular LoL insights at Rhein’s own blog, right here.

Game 1: Cloud 9 v Counter Logic Gaming

Balls: Kennen

Meteos: Lee Sin

Hai: Zed

Sneaky: Ezreal

LemonNation: Lulu

Nientonsoh: Jayce

bigfatlp: Elise

Link: Orianna

Doublelift: Tristana

Chauster: Janna

In the first game on the 3.8 patch, CLG immediately took the lead, as Cloud 9 found itself caught trying to invade red, giving up two kills for free to CLG.  Cloud 9 came back in gold through farm and towers, but CLG stopped it from taking the lead by securing all of the first three dragons—stealing away the third one. 

In this game, it was CLG that consistently managed to get pickoffs onto Cloud 9, with Doublelift taking several of the kills for himself in addition to freefarm from split-pushing botlane.  At 29 minutes CLG showed in botlane and Cloud 9 took baron for free, but was unable to capitalize on its buff, and CLG actually took the next baron at 38 minutes.  Unlike its opponents, it was able to capitalize on its buff, and took down both bot and mid inhibitors—bot had been exposed for over 10 minutes. 

An early grouping around Baron by CLG led to Cloud 9 picking up an inhibitor turret of its own, but with Slicing Maelstrom burned by Balls prior to the final teamfight meant that nothing could stop Doublelift's level 18 Tristana with GA and red buff, and CLG won the fight easily, pushing across the map to close out the game at 45:30.

Game 2: Team Solo Mid vs Velocity eSports

Dyrus: Shen

TheOddOne: Zac

Reginald: Karthus

WildTurtle: Caitlyn

Xpecial: Sona

Cris: Vladimir

Nk Inc: Master Yi

Vileroze: Orianna

maplestreet: Varus

Evaniskus: Lissandra

Once again, first blood happened in the jungle at level 1, but this time it was the invading team successful, as TSM caught Evaniskus in the Velocity jungle and also stole the red buff for WildTurtle.  The invade led to top turret falling by 6 minutes for TSM despite the lane being a 2v2. 

After the turret, TSM started to snowball the game forward, getting two kills onto Cris in a row, picking up dragon and four more turrets and taking an 11-3 kill lead by 15 minutes.  TSM didn't close out the game as quickly as it might have, but continued to win every fight and secure every objective that was available to it finally besting Velocity 4-0 in its base and pushing the nexus by 27 minutes.

Game 3: Vulcun Techbargains v Curse

Sycho Sid: Kennen

Xmithie: Lee Sin

mancloud: Jayce

Zuna: Tristana

BloodWater: Sona

 

Voyboy: Elise

Saintvicious: Jarvan IV

Nyjacky: Malphite

Cop: Draven

EDward: Leona

Curse opted for the very aggressive duo lane of Draven/Leona, but lane-swapped to top, and Zuna was able to farm in botlane on Tristana.  Vulcun took the first dragon at 4 minutes, and sidelane outer turrets were exchanged.  First blood went to Vulcun in botlane after Curse was unable to successfully turret dive Zuna and BloodWater, and both Cop and EDward fell. 

At 16 minutes, a flash-ult engage by Xmithie's Lee Sin led to a 5-1 fight in favor of Vulcun, despite the fact that Zuna only got a couple auto attacks off during the entire fight.  That dominance led to Vulcun picking up two turrets, and from there on it was just a matter of Vulcun forcing objectives down and winning every teamfight.  A slight hiccup at 33 minutes led to Sycho Sid and Xmithie dying after Vulcun pushed the bot inhibitor, but a few minutes later the blue team was back in Curse's base, and won the game shortly after.

Game 4: Team Coast v Dignitas

ZionSpartan: Rumble

NintendudeX: Elise

Shiphtur: Jayce

DontMashMe: Ezreal

Daydreamin: Blitzcrank

 

KiWiKiD: Twisted Fate

Crumbz: Lee Sin

scarra: Zed

imqtpie: Draven

Patoy: Thresh

Though Dignitas picked up Twisted Fate, it was actually for KiWiKiD rather than scarra, as it rotated its duo lane top, toplaner to mid, and midlaner to bot.  The first Destiny gank was successful, at 9 minutes, giving Dignitas first blood onto ZionSpartan and allowing it to answer the turret that Team Coast had claimed in mid a few minutes earlier. 

The first dragon went to Coast, but the next two went to Dignitas, and at 20 minutes the red team was up by about 2k gold.  Throughout the game, Patoy's Death Sentences proved to be more deadly than Daydreamin's Rocket Grabs, but the biggest threat on the map was without question scarra's Zed, who couldn't be 1v1'd by any member of Team Coast. 

Scarra split-pushed botlane starting in the early midgame and though Coast answered with a focused push through the mid inhibitor, after Dignitas took Baron at 29 minutes, Coast couldn't do anything other than pick up a few kills.  The final fight of the game was initiated at 32 minutes by KiWiKiD with a Destiny-Zhonya's bait, and Dignitas cleanly won the fight and then the game at 33 minutes.

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