In the LCS Spring Split, Team Vulcun sat rarely noticed in the middle of the pack, just below the Season 2 giants. Defying expectations, Vulcun reached lofty heights during the Spring Playoffs, yet many discounted it as a fluke by their opponents, and paid them little mind. Entering the Summer Split, the C9 hype train and already-attentive fans of the old guard bulldozed mention of Vulcun from the community commentary, despite matching the Week One score of TSM, last Split's Champions and keeping an even pace with CLG up until this week. When they surpassed them. Now an 8-4 Vulcun sits above all four of last Split's major contenders, exceeded only by the near-immaculate Cloud 9. Yet still, polls favor the slumping Curse and Dignitas. Now that they have the tournament standings to prove the strength of their play, it may be too late for true hipster cred, but jump on the Vulcun bandwagon before everyone else "discovers" their strength.


Vulcun refined their sloppier elements from the Spring Split prior to Summer's beginning, developing themselves into a highly aggressive, objective-based team fueled by intelligent decision-making and teamfighting. As showcased in Week 4, when Vulcun's roster performs their duties perfectly, little can be done to stop them. Vulcun's early game revolves around Xmithie, an aggressive early game ganker and invader who can either threaten lanes or keep objectives on lockdown (or both, as seen this week on his Elise). The 3.8 jungle especially lends strength to this style, since the payoff for the buff control he exerts is greater than ever. Sycho Sid continues to perform the stalwart Top Lane role he filled in the Spring Split, leaving only to cover his teammates and engage into the enemy teams. Zuna currently makes up for his mediocre farming by playing safer Champions like Tristana, Kog'maw, and Caitlyn with whom he can eventually outfight any Champion in the game, whether teamfighting or 1v1ing. On the other hand, mandatorycloud remains Vulcun's foremost carry and is able to perform this role whether he's utilizing Ryze's late game damage or Lissandra's deadly CC and initiate. Finally there's their Support and shotcaller BloodWater, whose play-making supports lend overwhelming strength to Vulcun's teamfighting (and, in fact, earn him the highest KDA of the team). Coupled with this is his great decision-making that has Vulcun to push multiple lanes, consistently nab Dragons, or lie in ambush in the Baron pit at the exact right moments. With the strength and style of their play, it's no wonder why the comparison between themselves and Cloud 9 has been drawn (and by C9 themselves no less). Both teams seem to have found the magic solution that leads to Summer Split victories, but Vulcun gets little attention and praise for the achievements that led them to second place this week. Yet perhaps this is exactly what Vulcun wants: the longer they go under the radar, the more and more impressive their coming victories will be.

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Bans:       

13        dig        56.2
vs.
18        VUL        65.0

Bans:       

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Vulcun played their style perfectly in the final game of the Week 4 Independence Day marathon. With an entire team of comfortable Champions, Vulcun prepared to go head to head with the split-push/Twisted Fate gank + Graves/Sona bot style dignitas showcased earlier in the day against Cloud 9. Vulcun began with a Blue buff invade, using their 2v1 positioning on Purple side and early strength of Elise to take away Crumbz's first critical Blue. Far behind, Crumbz could do nothing to prevent Vulcun from dealing heavy damage to the top outer turret and eventually fed First Blood when he got too close to the Vulcun trio. Xmithie continued his jungle reign of terror for the next five minutes by ganking KiWiKiD twice in mid lane and getting mancloud kills both times. After a Sycho Sid Stand United helped Zuna take down imaqtpie, Vulcun took their first Dragon for free. However, dignitas kept themselves in the game by outfarming Vulcun in nearly every lane, matching them turret for turret, and taking a 13:15 teamfight when scarra Flashed to initiate a Moonfall/Crescendo/Collateral Damage combo, allowing dig to take advantage of their midgame power and AoE abilities.

When the game left the laning phase, Vulcun stayed on top of Dragons, but fell prey to their lack of farm, a few painful facechecks from Zuna, and some well-executed Destiny/Gate ganks to assist the split-pushing scarra. The teams were still fairly even at 28:30 when Sycho Sid once again fell to a TF gank in the top lane, leading to an inhibitor trade of Vulcun's top for dignitas's mid (after imaqtpie fell defending it). Vulcun then displayed their aggressive decision-making by running straight towards Baron, taking the objective before the poorly-warding dignitas even knew they were there. From there dig attempted to thwart Vulcun's lead through ambushes, but they could not find picks while Vulcun demolished turrets and killed monsters (including all FIVE of the game's Dragons). In a desperate bid for the win, dignitas engaged with Shurelya's, but were brought down by Vulcun's better items and late-game oriented Champions. After a 3:0 trade in Vulcun's favor, they rushed down the Nexus turrets, only losing mancloud before taking the game. Despite mediocre farming and occasional mistakes, Vulcun used objectives, ganks, and decisive gambits to overpower their veteran opponents.

The "Baron Dance" has always been a tense part of League of Legends games. Often important for a team to take a lead and turn it into a victory, the buff grants sustain for winning siege wars as well as a significant damage boost for direct brawling. Sometimes, a team can cleverly outmaneuver, outward, outpoke, or outfight the other team in the Baron area in order to secure it. However, attempting to secure Baron has turned topsy turvy many winning games, if a team overestimates their advantages in the area.

In Team Coast’s match against TSM, Coast attempted to rush Baron down while all of TSM were still up: Coast had built up large waves Top and Bot, and after some posturing Mid, TSM sent Draven and Karthus away to farm those waves; having had just cleared vision, Coast started Baron. However, key factors were missing from a successful Baron equation. As TSM were just Mid except for Karthus, they were keenly aware of the objective and moved to stop Coast immediately. Regi’s Karthus was all the way in bottom lane, but he sent a Requiem to assist TSM as they engaged while Coast was still fighting Baron. Although Nintendude successfully Smote Baron, the MR shred from Baron amplified Requiem, bringing Coast low enough for TSM to take four kills in a 4v5 and momentum for the rest of the game.

Dignitas too misjudged an advantage in the Baron area. While Cloud 9 took down Dragon, Dignitas cleared wards and grouped in the Baron pit to bait a teamfight. However, without Flash up on Sona or Zhonya on Twisted Fate, Dignitas held a very limited ability to execute their trap and initiate over the wall. Instead, Meteos launched in with Elastic Slingshot and Let’s Bounce onto four of dignitas, further buffered with Wild Growth. Scarra dove into Cloud 9 with Living Shadow, but was instantly locked down with Cocoon and received no back-up as his teammates were repeatedly knocked around. Meteos went down, but recovered via Cell Division as Cloud 9 routed Dignitas and took Baron.


But it's not always wrong to take a risky Baron. Teams with fast baron clears or enough vision can potentially DPS down baron during narrow windows of opportunity. Solo laners like Elise or Ryze provide significantly more DPS to Baron than most. Velocity pulled precisely this off the match against TSM, when Reginald was spotted bot lane. Evaniskus' (Lulu) Oracle expired before killing TSM's last Baron ward, but they had a total vision of the area, and their team was stacked with four high DPS champions in the form of Elise, Evelynn, Ryze, and Draven. They opted to race Baron down before Reginald could reach his team, and succeeded before turning and winning a team fight. Velocity didn't win the game in the end, but the ballsy Baron gave them an advantage which took TSM a long time to chip away. In the final game this week, Vulcun outmaneuvered Dignitas to pick up Baron. Both teams traded inhibitors, but Vulcun recognized that even though they Dignitas got the inhibitor first, Scarra and Kiwikid were delayed in recalling. Their team - again with high speed Baroners - made a beeline for Baron instead of recalling, killing it uncontested and only really spending Shen's ultimate to have him regroup with the team after respawning.

Positioning and judging advantages at Baron Nashor is certainly a difficult skill for teams to learn; we have seen many games from both novice and experienced teams thrown over it. Those teams who demonstrate a greater understanding of the advantages and disadvantages will have a serious late game advantage over others. If opportunities are judged correctly, Baron can be properly used as an opportunity to close out a winning game or to come back in a losing one. Our eyes are ever on Baron as the season presses on, as our favorite purple serpent will surely provide exciting plays and groan-worthy throws.

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Bans:       

19        TSM        57.1
vs.
12        Coast        46.1

Bans:       

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Right off the bat we must acknowledge that is game could have been 10x more epic, but scumbag Reginald denied us a Statue of Karthus vs Uncle Ryze 4th of July showdown in the Mid lane. Some things can never be forgiven.

That said, let's talk about TSM. After a disappointing start to the Spring Split, TSM benched Chaox and replaced him with WildTurtle. After this point TSM bounced back and managed to win the split. Much to the dismay of many fans, TSM hasn't been quite able to ride this momentum forward into the Summer Split with their performances best summed up as inconsistent. But right now there is one thing that teams should avoid when playing against TSM, and that's giving them Jayce or Karthus in any combination. Giving up comfort champs to TSM is bad news as they can focus on other aspects of the game more intently. Regi is able to farm up Karthus and become a late game monster while Dyrus plays a mean Jayce in general rocking a 3-1 record so far this split. These picks were critical in TSM winning this game against Coast.

TSM got pretty far behind in the early game as Daydreamin turned on God Hand mode and made TSM's life a living hell hitting Rocket Grabs left and right Despite giving up so many kills, TSM was able to regain objective control and slowly started to swing the gold back in their favor. TSM blew their lead wide open when Daydreamin grabbed Regi in what he thought was an ideal situation. Regi died far away from the main fight, but Requiem lowered them enough for Dyrus to clean up a with triple kill that would have been an easy quadra kill if it hadn't been for Turtle's “assistance.”


Coast thought they had established enough of a lead, but they were mistaken as TSM was actually stronger than anticipated. Coast attempted to grab Baron and turn the game around, but TSM was waiting in the wings and won the fight four for one as Coast was too hurt to fight back. TSM simply crushed Coast in every ensuing fight and made the win look easy in comparison to how it started off. It is really hard to shut down Regi on Karthus, even if he gets killed several time he's just going to keep farming and farming. As for Dyrus he proved his mechanical efficiency on Jayce as he went 13-0-11 with him for the week. Once Regi and Dyrus get in the zone with these champs it is very hard to shut them down. It's not impossible as CLG beat them while they were playing both champs, but giving TSM any sort of advantage is never really a good idea. In a game with only three bans, it seems worth it to use two of them on Karthus and Jayce against TSM. While teams have won against Reginald’s Karthus, Dyrus proved that he indeed can carry as Jayce – and the combination of the two allowed TSM to dominate the late game.

After another thrilling week of games the standings of the Summer Split are finally starting to round out. Cloud 9 continued to separate themselves from the pack holding onto a solid two game lead lead while Vulcun proved they deserve more respect securing second place outright. These two teams will face-off again Week 5 in which should be the most hyped game of the week. TSM vs CLG might have a lot more history, but both Cloud 9 and Vulcun are hot and if Vulcun can manage to move the overall series to 2-1 they will be one step closer to overtaking that number one playoff seed. This could be the beginning of an LCS rivalry for the ages. Fan favorites TSM recovered from their 0-3 performance in MLG Anaheim going 2-0 in Week 4, but they have one of the toughest Week 5 schedules having to play against Vulcun and CLG who sit in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. And lest we forget Curse and Dignitas who had promising performances at MLG, but returned to lackluster form in Week 4. This is a critical week for both teams as they play each other and time is running out as this week marks right over the halfway point for the split. It's crazy to see two teams that looked so good last split fighting for their lives to stay out of 7th place. Only four weeks remain in the season and it's time for these teams to pull out all the stops to prevent getting relegated and to secure the best seed possible for the NA Regionals.