The second game in group A saw iG play against CLG.P. Coming off a loss vs Azubu Frost, iG had a lot on the line coming into this match; another loss here would have put them in a terrible position. CLG wanted to get off to a good start to give themselves some breathing space in a group as stacked as this.
Invictus Gaming Lineup: XiaoXiao (support), kid (ad), illuSioN (jungle), (ap), Pdd (top).
Counter Logic Gaming Prime Lineup: Bigfatlp (ap), Chauster (support), HotshotGG (jungle), Doublelift(ad), Voyboy (top).
Bans
iG: Sivir, Olaf, Draven.
CLG.P: Ezreal, Jayce, Shen
Picks
iG: Alistar, Skarner, Yorick, Vladimir, Corki.
CLG.P Mundo, Diana, Lulu, Cassiopeia, Graves
There was some very aggressive posturing at level one, with Mundo charging into a bush that was full of iG. Some blows were traded and two CLG flashes were burned but no blood was spilt. iG chilled out in a river bush for a bit and then slipped into the CLG jungle to steal their blue while Yorick took the iG blue by himself. A Yorick with a level one blue buff is not something anyone wants to deal with and he began zoning Diana.
First blood fell to iG when Skarner took a stroll down to botlane just after Alistar had traded flashes with Graves. With no escape and an aggressively Valking Corki in his face Doublelift fell and iG walked out without a scratch. Perhaps a little over-confident, Alistar got caught in CLG’s jungle and was quickly butchered, bringing the score back to even. iG almost took out Cass, dropping her to less than one auto-attacks worth of health, but a moment of hesitation cost them the kill and jiji returned to base with less than a hair’s breadth of a bar sbetween him and death.
Denying Cass blue buff and providing their own blue for Yorick seemed to be a key part of iG strategy. They kept CLG’s blue warded and just as Cass was about to claim her first buff of the game, Skarner pulled off the cheekiest of drive-bys and smote it over the wall before skittering cheerfully out of the CLG jungle. There was a short pause in action while iG pulled slowly ahead from farm alone, winning in CS in every lane. The Blue buffs for Yorick, the level one ward deny for Corki and the blue denial for Cass all combining into iG creating advantages for themselves all over the map.
A skirmish near iG’s blue buff ended the bloodless five minutes. Manly flashes were blown, including a very clutch one from Mundo, saving him from certain death. However, when the dust settled only Diana had died and iG had pulled that little bit more ahead. CLG answered back quickly though and caught Ali out of position again, giving him his second death. A short burst of action later iG picked up another kill, Graves falling once more, but a really nice teleport gank from Diana allowed CLG to pick up two kills in response. At 20 minutes CLG had a one kill lead but were still 4000g behind. The farm difference had extended even further in mid and bot lanes, though top had drawn almost even.
Mundo was caught terribly out of place and got turned in purple mulch. This allowed iG to take an easy Baron and while CLG tried to fight and Cass picked up her fourth kill, iG took two more scalps in exchange for their 0/4 support- not a trade they would regret. With Baron and a gold lead that had stretched to nearly 10,000g, iG started to really set the course of the game. Picking up another kill by making great use of Ali’s CC, taking Dragon and starting to move steadily towards CLG’s base.
With momentum as strong as iG had at this point, the game was nearly over and CLG knew it. The GGWPs came out shortly after the surrender vote went through. While the kills stayed quite even until the midgame, iG always looked comfortably ahead. Their three early game successes, despite being bloodless, gave all of their lanes a lead. A team as strong as iG with a lead in every lane is something near impossible to overcome even with a throw of Herculean proportions and iG were resting their arm after their game vs Frost.
A somewhat one-sided game, but still very enjoyable. iG looked great, everyone on their team looked strong. The one thing that was a slight red flag was the number of deaths XiaoXiao had. He plays his supports totally aggressive, always going for blood. This is usually very effective and he sets up a large number of his teams successful kills. However, in both the first two iG games it did lead to him getting caught and dying several times, and the teams they will play later on will be watching and taking notes. CLG’s botlane never seemed to be able to recover from a bad early game but Voyboy and jiji played well. iG went 1-1 in the group and CLG started 0-1, but so had iG and they brought it back. All hope is not lost but what a brutal start for CLG, and what a statement from iG. Be afraid NA, be very afraid.
- Jaszon ‘Lightblind’ Alexzander
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
