Team SoloMid has won first place in the North American regionals at PAX Prime and have picked up the prize of $40,000! Team Dignitas and Counter Logic Gaming have taken 2nd and 3rd and won $30,000 and $25,000 respectively. Also, Team SoloMid, Team Dignitas and Counter Logic Gaming have qualified for the season 2 world championships! These top 3 North American teams have also qualified for the Season 3 Championship Series. What a great weekend for these teams. They have officially secured a stable income and a legitimate 'job' in the League of Legends eSports scene! Let's take a look at the matches played today starting with the third place match:
Counter Logic Gaming vs. Curse
This match began this morning at 11:00am PDT and was won by CLG 2-0! The match was cast by Jatt and Jaws.
Game 1
CLG vs Curse
Gragas AP Mid Morgana
Graves AD Carry Corki
Sona Support Blitzcrank
Olaf Top Vladimir
Dr. Mundo Jungle Maokai
The game started with a very different setup than we normally see. Curse was running Corki/Blitzcrank middle, Morgana top and Vladimir bottom. CLG responded with following suit. They also had Graves/Sona middle, Olaf top and Gragas bottom. Take that meta game! CLG ran a triple teleport combo with promote. You can see this strategy often in teams that want to push towers quickly, and you can be sure that CLG took advantage of those teleports. Curse, with their always perfect timing on map objectives, always seems to put a lot of weight on Dragon. CLG took advantage of this by pushing towers down hard while Curse took dragons. CLG started Baron at a perfect time and Nyjacky took that time to initiate with his Flash Morgana ult. She melted unfortunately for Curse and it resulted in CLG taking the first Baron of the game at 29:25. I think CLG had an advantage all game simply because Voyboy's Olaf never had to be with the team. He had that teleport to turn things around immediately. Curse just couldn't seem to keep up though, and CLG took the game. What do you think of this triple teleport strategy? I kind of like it!
Game 2
CLG vs Curse
Orianna AP Mid Karthus
Graves AD Carry Corki
Lulu Support Sona
Jax Top Shen
Alistar Jungle Shyvana
Game 2 was a much more standard meta play with everyone going in normal lanes. CLG only took one teleport that game so no triple teleport ganks! Haha! CLG had a very good start by having both blues on their side from an early invade, opting to giving one to Jax in the top lane and one to Alistar in the jungle. Voyboy on Jax took first blood in the top lane against Curse's Shen, but fell to the tower shortly after. Because of the invade, CLG had timers on Curse's jungle which lead to lots of counter jungling by HotShotGG. If you watched this game, you can tell that CLG has never really cared much for Dragon. Curse really played this game like it was the last thing they would do... Which it kind of is in this tournament's sense and it showed. They had a commanding 9-3 lead by the 30 minute mark. Curse's Karthus and Corki got caught out hard by CLG and they both died, leaving Curse with no AD or AP carry. Saintvicious and Westrice tried their hardest to steal but it ended with CLG getting the first Baron of the game and an unofficial Ace! That comeback was too much for Curse to handle and CLG takes the second game and the match!
Team SoloMid vs. Dignitas
This match began this afternoon at 2:30pm PDT and left us with our FIRST PLACE team of Team SoloMid 2-0! It was cast by Rivington and Phreak.
Game 1
TSM vs Dignitas
Morgana AP Mid Ryze
Corki AD Carry Kog'Maw
Sona Support Lulu
Shen Top Rumble
Shyvana Jungle Skarner
Game 1 began by an early flash being forced out of Kog'Maw by Chaox's Corki. TSM with their classicly aggressive playstyle leaves Skarner with hardly even a jungle and Shyvana with an excess of jungle! First blood went to Crumbzz in the top lane on Dyrus. TheOddOne came in immediately after to get the dead Dyrus second blood. TSM kept it's early lead building with 2 kills on Chaox in the bottom lane and a 2k gold advantage. TSM continued to show their dominance in this first game by extending their lead to 7-1 and 3 towers up by 17:40. There was a beautiful fight by TSM at the 18:30 mark that ended in a 3-1 death exchange in TSM's favour. Xpecial got a awesome kill in that fight by taking out a low health Rumble as Sona. TSM takes a three man Baron and the first of the game at 21:40. TSM then took the SECOND baron with another three man push on it! As TSM pushed for the nexus, with no nexus towers left, Dignitas got 4 kills for 1 death and managed to push TSM out of their base! TSM took the third Baron and eventually the game!
Game 2
TSM vs Dignitas
Morgana AP Mid Gragas
Corki AD Carry Caitlyn
Soraka Support Janna
Vladimir Top Nidalee
Skarner Jungle Nunu
During the interview Scarra was quite downtrodden with the results of the finals and pledged to work even harder coming into the World Championship. It seems like this crushing defeat may put the fire back in their bellies!
Get ready for the World Championships on October 4th! It's looking to be a really great tournament and I can't wait!
Game 2 began perfectly for TSM. A level 2/3 tower dive against Nidalee resulted in first blood for TSM. By 4:30 there were already two turrets down! Both teams were going for a fast game. An almost kill in mid by Dignitas's Gragas onto TSM's Morgana was turned around perfectly by TheOddOne showing up at the perfect time, leaving Gragas dead. By 15:30 the kills were 4-0 in TSM's favour. After a beautiful initiation by Reginald, TSM takes another 2 kills to round the score out to 6-0. Shortly after, Dignitas picked up their first kill on TheOddOne's Skarner. TSM showed their absolute dominance in this game and easily took the match.
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| Behold the champions of the S2 NA Regionals! |
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| TSM shakes the hands of Dignitas after winning the North American regionals. |
Awards Ceremony
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| Counter Logic Gaming! From left to right: Voyboy, HotshotGG, Bigfatlp, Chauster, and Doublelift. |
HotShotGG took a moment to thank girlfriends and partners every where for the support they show and what they go through being attached to some of the professional players. I totally thought he was going to propose to his girlfriend with how he started things off!
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| Team Dignitas! From left to right: Patoy, Imaqtpie, Crumbzz, I Will Dominate, and Scarra.. |
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| Team SoloMid! From left to right: Reginald, TheOddOne, Chaox, Xpecial, and Dyrus. |
When asked about the finals match, Regi responded it was the "easiest finals of our lives". How deservingly sassy of TSM! Will this bravado be enough to carry them through the upcoming World Finals!?
These teams have won massive prizes! TSM wins $40,000, Dignitas wins $30,000 and CLG wins $25,000!
These teams have won massive prizes! TSM wins $40,000, Dignitas wins $30,000 and CLG wins $25,000!
Did you miss what happened on the earlier matches in this tournament? Check out my previous recaps: Day 1, Day 2, and Semi-Finals!! Be sure to follow me on my twitter to stay on top of League of Legends eSports news.
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/z96bk/heres_my_recap_of_the_final_day_of_the_na/
ReplyDeletei c u on dat reddit
Sew Sneaky
DeleteI know it says the Top 8 teams from NA and Europe will compete in Championship Series (plus the one from each region of Asia)...
ReplyDeleteDo you know
1) If that means 8 NA plus 8 EU, or 8 teams overall from those zones? It logically should be the latter but it was phrased weird so I wondered if you would be able to clear that up :P
2) how they will pick the remaining teams for Championship Series
I want to say it's top 8 teams from each region but I don't know for sure. I can assure you they will be pumping out all relevant info in the next couple of weeks.
DeleteActually, it's Top 3 Eu, Top 3 NA, Top 2 Korea, Top 2 China, 1st South East Asia and 1st Thailand/Taiwan if I recall correctly. At least, that's what I saw on some website I cant seem to find.
Deletehttp://competitive.na.leagueoflegends.com/season-2-world-championship
Delete...and http://riot-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/images/news/May_2012/LOL_infographic_r1.jpg
Deletesorry for spam
Championships will have 12 teams in overall, 3 From USA, 3 From Europe, 2 From China, 2 From Korea and 1 from Southeast asia and one from taiwan/hongkong and macau area.
DeleteOne thing i was bit surprised about is that there wasn't any brazilian teams or South America picked up for as regional.
I assumed he actually meant next seasons Championship series ( http://www.surrenderat20.net/2012/08/league-of-legends-champion-series.html#more ) not the S2 World Championships.
Deletethis person isnt talking about Season 2 finals...
DeleteThey are talking about season 3.
As far as i know it is 8 teams in NA & EU. I dont know how they are gonna do the Asian market
3 NA, 3 EU, 2 CHINA, 2 KOREA, 2 SEA
Delete@WhiteSenji, actually there is a brazilian team who will compete in IEM China for a chance to enter in the S2 World Championships.
Delete'Dig will stomp TSM'
ReplyDelete- HotShotGG
lol
DeleteWhy Nunu, why? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!
Delete"lulululululucawcawcawcaw"
Delete-HotShotGG
"I will now jungle in CLG"
Delete- HotShotGG
Congrats to TSM for the sweet win. Looking forward to see them at the Championship! October needs to be here already...
ReplyDeleteThe second game of the finals Dignitas pretty much got outpicked. I mean, Vlad, Morgana have great sustain and wave clear, Soraka could just heal if anyone else got poked, Corki great wave clear as well, Skarner with hard engage... all that vs a cheesy team with no late game whatsoever, totally reliant on early-mid poke pushing.
ReplyDeleteVoyboy's* Olaf in CLG vs Crs game 1 description
ReplyDeleteYep I caught that a minute ago, I changed it already. Thanks c:
Deleteyou should have also mentioned the horrible casters during CLG vs Curse. I hate these NA casters who probably go to bed with CLG. Oh and Regi is such a dick, you call that friendly banter? I hope M5 does a 20-1 on them to kick them into the looser bracket when the finals come.
ReplyDeletethey're just joking around lol..
DeleteThere's a time and place for everything man. Dignitas havent had well recently, seeing them beat CLG to come in the finals, it's pretty obvious that they had high hopes. You just cant crush that 5 mintues after winning against them. It's just plain wrong.
DeleteReginald has, and always will be a dick. Nuff said.
DeleteAlso, theoddone and dyrus seem to have autism just leaking out of them. It's insane.
OddOne and Dyrus is totally cool! And TSMs cocky style is all part of them.
DeleteI really laughed out loud when regi said it was their easiest final ever. That it was true only made it more fun.
I mean, most of the time Regi just responds to the trash talk of some of other top players (Doublelift, HotshotGG, Crumbzz, Scarra). They respect the teams that beat them badly and announce that they need to work on beating them (M5, Abuzu). But when teams who only beat you once in a blue moon trash talk you by saying things like "I actually think they're team is really weak compared to us", Regi just delivers with a public message of his own.
DeleteDid anyone else get scared when they saw Phreak's face on the first picture?
ReplyDeleteHe's a bit terrifying, isn't he? Haha!
DeleteWhen I saw Dyrus I thought he was a turret :>
ReplyDelete