GAME 1
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Phase,GSS,NemH
Ban,Ardan,Adagio
1,Vox,
2,,Catherine
3,,Glaive
4,Blackfeather,
5,Fortress,
6,,Skaarf
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The draft was somewhat questionable for Nemesis Hydra; taking Glaive over the almost strictly better Blackfeather as a WP jungler seemed like an oversight. Although NemH started off with great rotations from Hardek and LostBoyToph into lane, NemH seemed to fixate too intensely on attempting to take down a turret, giving up jungle farm and allowing FooJee’s Blackfeather to gain a significant gold advantage over Hardek’s Glaive. GSS continued expanding their gold lead and pushing methodically, taking a turret every few minutes. GSS finished the game off at 15:50 with a clean ace and a win.
Result: GSS: 1 NemH: 0
GAME 2
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Phase,NemH,GSS
Ban,Adagio,Catherine
1,Vox,
2,,Blackfeather
3,,Ardan
4,Fortress,
5,Krul,
6,,Petal
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In the second game of the series, GSS maintained a fantastic early-game advantage, pushing hard against the NemH’s late-game comp of Vox and Krul, especially after Hardek was caught overcommitting to a gank and punished hard. By six minutes, GSS had a 2k gold advantage, and 5k by 13:00. However, at 15:20, despite the gold disadvantage that they were at, the late-game power of Vox and Krul began to kick in. NemH picked up three infusions across their team, and GSS had none, giving NemH a clean ace and putting them right back into the game. NemH captured Kraken and pushed, leaving just one turret for GSS at half health. At 19:15, GSS was aced once again in return for a kill on Hardek, and NemH pushed to the win.
Result: GSS: 1 Nemh: 1
GAME 3
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GSS,NemH
Vox,Fortress
Blackfeather,Adagio
Adagio,Ringo
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GSS pulls out a surprise Roam Vox, which synergized extremely well with Adagio’s Agent of Wrath. By the mid- to late-game, a single buffed up Sonic Zoom was taking out half of Hardek’s health. Despite NemH having a great early-game, destroying a turret at 2:30. However, NemH’s macro play was extremely questionable; instead of rotating through jungle and securing farm, they constantly pushed up lane and allowed FooJee to steal an insane amount of jungle farm. By the end of the game, FooJee on jungle Blackfeather had 100 CS to Chicken123’s 42 CS. Using this gold advantage, GSS catapulted themselves into the late-game, repeatedly annihilating NemH in teamfights and ultimately winning the game.
Result: GSS: 2 NemH: 1
After an intense three-game series concluding with a surprise Roam Vox in the third game, GSS wins 2-1. NemH showed their fantastic mechanics and teamfighting in game 2, but in both games 1 and 3, NemH often gave up kills and farm in favor of pushing turret, which ultimately led to GSS gaining a gold advantage and snowballing from there. GSS will move on to the semifinals and NemH will have to play a rematch series against HHK to get out of the elimination bracket.
GSS shows off their “IraqiZorro.”