GAME 1
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Phase,LBX,RGP
Ban,Ardan,Adagio
1,Catherine,
2,,Fortress
3,,Skye
4,Vox,
5,Taka,
6,,Petal
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Rage Pingers played aggressively right out of the gate, using the early game strength of Fortress and Petal to try and starve out Statusbaked’s Taka. They establish some great jungle control and take an uncontested Gold Mine at 7:40, extending the gold lead to 1.5k. At 8:10, RGP manages to ace LBX in two separate fights, with TheBigDog 1v1ing Statusbaked in jungle and another fight going on in lane; off of the ace, they grab a turret and widen the gold lead to 2.5k. However, LBX starts mounting a comeback; at 11:30, TheBigDog’s target focus was off; he targeted Catherine instead of one of the carries, setting LBX up for a 1 for 3 ace. Though RGP just barely aced LBX at 16:00, LBX managed to continue with their forward momentum, taking turrets, then finishing the game with a Kraken and fantastic push. ttigers demonstrated why he is widely considered one of the best laners in North America, pulling off impressive fights, even 1v3ing RGP at one point.
Result: RGP: 0 LBX: 1
GAME 2
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Phase,RGP,LBX
Ban,Skye,Adagio
1,Catherine,
2,,Blackfeather
3,,Skaarf
4,Vox,
5,Krul,
6,,Ardan
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LBX started off the match by pressuring TheBigDog’s Krul in jungle heavily, starving him out until the mid- to late-game. The game was very back-and-forth, with both teams acing each other multiple times. A huge mistake was RGP’s Krul build: TheBigDog built no damage, only having a Blazing Salvo. Because of this, once Al3X and Statusbaked were taken out in fights, TheBigDog couldn’t clean up ttigers, no matter how low ttigers was. In the last fight in the game, Krul should have easily been able to 1v1 Skaarf, but simply didn’t have enough damage to take him out before being killed himself. LBX closed out the game with a Kraken capture and an excellent teamfight where a few team members fell, but distracted RGP long enough for Kraken to push over the remaining turrets and ultimately the Vain.
Result: RGP: 0 LBX: 2
Despite LBX being able to sweep the series in a 2-0 victory, both games were extremely close. ttigers in particular showed off his excellent mechanics with an impressive 1v3. Al3X’s skillshots in Game 1 as Skye were lackluster, but his Vox play in Game 2 was fantastic. Overall, LBX showed that they were the better team with great decision making and mechanics.
Liberation X takes the series, moving on and knocking their opponents out of the tournament.