This week we saw a huge standings shake up! TSM fell in the quarterfinals for the second week in a row, while teams that were on the brink of qualifying for the Unified Live Championship had good opportunities to move up and control their own fate.
Day 1
Day one started with TSM and Immortals facing off. Immortals substituted Xelciar in the Captain role for MaxGreen. While both games were close, Immortals was able to take the series 2-0. In the next series of the day, GankStars took the early lead over Tempo Storm going up 1-0. Tempo Storm then turned around with two decisive victories to win the series 2-1. In the offline series of the day, Hollywood Hammers kept their momentum rolling with a 2-0 win over Rogue. The last series of the day pitted NOVA vs. Cloud9. After Cloud9 went up 1-0, NOVA came back and took game two. In the final game of the series, Cloud9 was able to claim victory and move on to the semifinals this week!
Day 2
In the first semifinal of the day, Immortals started quickly in game one of the series, taking three of Cloud9’s turrets. Cloud9 scaled into the late game, evening the score with a substantial Kraken push. Cloud9 eventually took game one and followed that up with a victory in game two as well to take the series. Game one of the second semifinal was won by Hollywood Hammers in an absolute bloodbath of a match! The second game of the series was taken by Tempo Storm with a last second Vain Crystal defense. The third game saw Hammers picking up another win and moving into the finals. In the third place match, Immortals claimed a 2-1 victory over Tempo Storm. For the second week in a row Hollywood Hammers and Cloud9 met in the finals. This week Hammers was able to take one game off of Cloud9.
Matchup of the Week: Hollywood Hammers Vs. Tempo Storm
In the matchup of the week, Hollywood Hammers and Tempo Storm had the opportunity to claim third place in the standings. As teams in the middle of the pack are grouped so closely together, this semifinal matchup proved to be immensely important. The first match of the series proved to be a slugfest. Between both teams there were 33 kills with Hammers taking the game. After a last ditch save of their Vain Crystal by Gaspy, Tempo Storm marched down the lane to take game two. Hollywood Hammers, in the third game, was able to get ahead early and took the series victory. This win moved them into the finals as well as third place for the season.
Picks and Bans
This week saw four different heros receiving double digit bans. These was: Catherine, Grace, Idris, and Baron with 14, 13, 13, and 12 bans respectively. Idris, while being banned second most this week, was only picked one time when he made it through the ban stages. Some heroes that were frequently picked are: Baptiste, Glaive, Kestrel, and Lyra. These four heroes all received double digit picks, and the highest win percentage was 40% by Glaive. The worst of the four was Kestrel with only a 17% win rate. Another hero of interest this week was Krul. After several weeks of seeing lots of play, he was only picked twice without winning any games.
Be sure to catch the action this weekend on Vainglory’s Twitch to see which teams claim a spot in the Unified Live Championship! Matches for EU begin at 5 PM BST, and NA matches to follow at 2 PM PDT. Will TSM and GankStars rally, or will Tempo Storm, Hollywood Hammers, and Cloud9 continue to surge ahead?