Game of the Week: Counter Logic Gaming vs Team Liquid

In the upper echelon of NA LCS, two of the top four teams square off in a 54 minutes battle with Team Liquid coming up huge after trailing CLG for much of the middle to late-game. This game will be another test for the ADC sub Keithmcbrief, who is coming off of a win over the #1 ranked NA team TSM.

The pick and ban phase ended with CLG taking their comfort picks, Link on Ezreal and Xmithie on Vi, and Team Liquid snatching their strong Rek'sai pick for IWDominate, as well as securing a recent surging pick Morgana for Quas. While CLG ran a poke composition focused on tower siege, TL chose to pick a powerful team fighting composition with the aim of taking the fight to CLG. Both teams had excellent scaling into the late game.

The early game was a complete bloodbath. At the 13 minutes mark, a team fight in Liquid's bottom lane resulted in a near double ace. Team Liquid kept their composure, and CLG was not able to gain a significant early game advantage thanks to IWD's yet another exceptional performance on Rek'sai. CLG's bot lane did outperform TL, however, catching Keith on two occasions with Aphromoo's aggressive Braum initiations.

CLG controlled much of the mid game with faster and on point rotations that caught out TL over and over again. But every time CLG seemed to have game in the bag, their recurring weakness of poor team fighting delayed the victory further. Eventually, TL's patient team play allowed Keith to reach his end game build of two Phantom dancers (90% crit!). They caught Doublelift facechecking the Baron area, took the Baron, and pushed to win.

While not a do-or-die game for either teams, there are many important implications for their future. For CLG, they need to fix their poor team fighting and work on their poor late game team fights. CLG does not look like a dominant team if they are not allowed to gain a significant early game advantage. For TL, the hope of Piglet's return diminishes week by week, as Keith continued to prove his worth on the starting line-up. For both teams, they only have a few weeks to fix their weaknesses and perfect their roster before the NA play-offs.

Game of the Week: Fnatic vs. Copenhagen Wolves

The first game between these two teams in Week 4 was an upset in favor of Copenhagen Wolves. CW managed to completely shut down Fnatic's comfort champions, Rengar and Rumble. They killed the pair a combined 17 times and handed Fnatic their first and only loss with those two picks.

This week, Fnatic were not looking to make the same mistake twice. The second time around, despite their previous success, CW decided it was best to ban Rengar. However, they left Rumble available to Fnatic. That decision is one that they would eventually come to regret as Huni's Rumble, alongside Febiven's stellar Ezreal, decided the fights that would give Fnatic the win. This game, like many of the games this week, was back-and-forth and without a clear winner until the final fight. Unlike the other games, this one was decided by neutral objectives. CW focused on securing dragons and succeeded in claiming all 4 that were killed. However, Fnatic secured both Baron buffs, one to even the game out, and the other to win it.

This game featured the first appearance of Zilean this split, as well. Also, thanks to Gambit Gaming's Diamond, Sejuani made her first (and second) appearance this week.

Game of the Week: SK Telecom T1 vs. Najin e-mFire, Game 1

The rematch of the opening match of the season came with lots of hype as NaJin would field the most hyped player from Solo Queue since MaRin's debut almost a year ago in substitute jungler Peanut. Rain would also play in the mid lane instead of Ggoong but all of the attention was focused on Peanut, who even looked like a rival to Watch's famed looks.

Unlike MaRin's debut, Peanut surpassed expectations, playing an incredible early game with Rengar allowing NaJin to get a sizeable early game advantage. Right when it looked like NaJin would be able to take the early game, a combination of stellar Ezreal play from Faker, complete vision control from SKT, and incredible Event Horizons from Piccaboo's Veigar, SKT made the necessary actions to claw themselves back into the game. As amazing as Peanut's Rengar play was, hitting nearly every single bola, Faker's Ezreal play somehow managed to be even more impressive, hitting a NaJin player with nearly every Trueshot Barrage that he aimed to either one of SKT's side lanes. Faker's arguably played the best mid Ezreal ever, and his uncanny accuracy with skillshots was on full display here. Although NaJin looks promising with their new roster, SKT looks like a lock for the playoffs, and could challenge the GE Tigers if their performance continues.

Game of the Week: Edward Gaming vs. OMG Game 1

Going into this set the hype surrounding it was akin to season two WE vs. IG. Edward Gaming were the favorites to win, but with OMG's odd playstyle and individual star power anything was possible. The match started off confusing right off the bat with OMG subbing out Uzi and Luo for San and Xiyang for the first game.

It's hard to pinpoint the reason for the swap, but it worked wonders. Xiyang adapted to his new role rather well and pressured the bot lane lead they amassed together. In fact the only OMG lane that found trouble was Cool's Twisted Fate as he found it hard to repel Pawn's advances. Pawn had an excellent game on Nidalee. He showed a side of him that felt lost since his days on Samsung, but unfortunately it just wasn't enough to secure his team the win, as OMG was able to scrape a win through heavy back and forth teamfighting.

Game of the Week: AHQ e-sports club vs Logitech Snipers

While quite a few things happened this week the most bizarre one was AHQ midlaner Liu "Westdoor" Shu-Wei's fascination with AP cho'gath complemented by flash and ghost as the summoner spells. In the first game of this week of LMS AHQ chose to counterpick Lissandra with the terror of the void. The roam and burst power provided by westdoor's cho'gath proved to be key for AHQ snowballing their advantage. While this wasn't the most exciting game it alongside the other two AHQ games this week are interesting watches for those who want to see a unique pick.

Game of the Week: DetonatioN FocusMe vs Ozone Rampagee

We're in the home stretch now. With only three games left per team, and a double-header this weekend, the LJL is still far from winding down. A dead-heat tie for first and fourth place, and the LJL's propensity for sudden upsets, make it difficult to say for sure what things will look like when the dust's cleared. However, if things go like this past week did, nothing'll change at all. The top three teams played the bottom three teams, and none of the matches were close. None of the life that RPG and RJ showed off the week prior was there to be seen. Neither are eliminated from playoff contention yet, and they still have to play each other. This is going to come down to the wire.

This week's recommended game was tough, because all three were extremely one-sided. We ultimately went with DetonatioN FocusMe vs Ozone Rampage, thanks to Bonzin bringing out the off-meta Malphite and the unorthodox exhaust/ignite bottom lane from Yutapon and Kazu.

Game of the Week: INTZ vs. Keyd Stars

Saturday was a tumultuous day in CBLoL. particularly for KaBuM! Black – a team with a far better record than their points total – as their playoff hopes rested partially in the hands of JAYOB e-Sports, who managed to eek out a win in their set against KaBuM! Orange. While Black drafted well in their set against INTZ, INTZ outpaced Black in both of their matches, controlling the tempo and setting up plays one or two steps ahead of Black. The 0-2 loss to INTZ set the stage for a tiebreaker between the two KaBuM! teams to determine which one would earn the last playoff spot. Black sent their sister team packing in a fairly measured and controlled performance, showcasing their teamwork and objective control.

As the dust settles, Dexterity Team and KaBuM! Black emerge victorious, punching their tickets to the playoffs with fifth and sixth place finishes respectively. The overall playoff bracket was cemented on Sunday, March 1, following a set between paiN Gaming and CNB e-Sports, and an eventual tiebreaker for first place between INTZ and Keyd Stars.

This match, to determine the best team of the first split round robin, is the recommended CBLoL game this week. INTZ is a team firing on all cylinders right now, and here they take on a Keyd team that has looked more coordinated as the weeks go by. Neither team has hit their ceiling, but this game creates another benchmark for both to surpass in the upcoming playoffs.