Domination & Speedy Strategy Come Out On Top In NA LCS Week 3

It was another hot weekend of teamwork, success, and devastation in the North American League of Legends Championship Series. We saw a variety of matches. Some were utter steamrolls with one team dominating the other, while some were tight and exciting down to the final minutes. Who rose, who fell, who dominated, and who was left reeling? This is our breakdown of Week 3 in the NA LCS.

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Echo Fox – OpTic Gaming

The first match of the day an Echo Fox squad looking for revenge against an OpTic line-up with nothing to lose. Echo Fox, perhaps a bit humbled by their previous loss, reached out early to secure several important objectives along with an early gold advantage. Rampaging across the map, the Echo Fox crew seemed nigh unstoppable before some sloppy mistakes in the mid game allowed OpTic to claim some kills of their own. Unfortunately for OpTic, this only delayed the inevitable, as Echo Fox quickly regained control of the game and walked away with the win.

TSM – 100 Thieves                                        

Game two for the day saw a resurgent TeamSoloMid taking on 100 Thieves in a slow-paced game that’s come to be expected from this iteration of TSM. Some minor trades in the early game left both teams sitting relatively even, but then TSM began to make their signature cross-map rotations, allowing them to secure multiple objectives while also providing pressure elsewhere. After an excellent fight at Baron that went TSM’s way, 100 Thieves was able to rally and defend their base, buying them some breathing time. This time was spent well enough though, as TSM was able to continue to pressure the map and eventually force 100 Thieves into an unfavourable fight that left them broken, and allowed TSM to clean up the base for the win.

Golden Guardians – Team Liquid

We’re at the halfway point, and it looks as though Team Liquid is attempting to speed run their games. If not for a single kill by Matthew “Deftly” Chen upon Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong, this would have been a perfect game for Liquid as they stomped their way to victory. They cut through objectives, champions, and the enemy base in a way that left the Golden Guardians reeling and unable to ever truly recover during the match. Between their individual skills, and the speed at which they close out their games, it’s no wonder Team Liquid is quickly becoming a team of which to be afraid.

Clutch Gaming – Cloud9

The second to last game for the day was a match-up that saw both teams never really committing to a full-on brawl style team fight. Clutch Gaming seemed a little lost as Cloud9 managed to out-rotate and beat them to objectives multiple times. Perhaps waiting for a last stand that never came, Clutch Gaming found themselves repeatedly pushed back into their base, playing defense for most of the match. Cloud9 kept the pressure on and the aggression hot, finally diving the Nexus and ended the game.

Counter Logic Gaming – Flyquest

Our final game of the day saw CLG taking on Flyquest in a tie-break match to determine which team would advance to 3 wins / 3 losses, and which team would fall to 2 wins / 4 losses. Unfortunately for Flyquest, though their attack damage carry Jason “WildTurtle” put up a valiant effort, securing some kills and making a few plays, Tran couldn't do it all. CLG was able to maintain almost full control of the map and catch Flyquest members out of position multiple times. With an ever increasing gold advantage, CLG slowly spread out their map control, securing multiple map objectives for minor costs, before finally ending the game with a final push that saw Flyquest fall.

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With another exciting week finished for the NA LCS, it’s time to take a breather and prepare for the coming storm. To see which teams will be fighting next week, have a look at the official schedule here, or perhaps check out the recap from day 1 to see how the teams faired this weekend as a whole.