The second stage of League of Legends Season 4, produced by Digital Crusade, started on a Saturday at 7:15 PM. Keta and Holy had reunited, lots of likes flowed on the livestreams, lots of love in the chat and everyone was waiting to enjoy some quality LoL. As was I, for that matter. Were we enjoying it after all? Well, daddy will tell you what happened on the Rift last night.

First match – ONE TAP vs. Cyber MD. Teams that had lost in the first round and were looking for their first point. As Holy said, bans directed at certain players are very effective and that translated into Shaco, Ivern, and Neeko being banned against ONE TAP. We also saw these bans in the first stage, and now I wonder if they’ll ever be let loose and if we’ll ever see T1 Tap. The draft brought a surprise from the Moldavians. Nidalee, Jayce and Viktor for their top side, which I thought was odd, but then again, what do I know, since Jayce, with the help of Nidalee made the first kill in the second minute. By the fourth minute, this cougar had taken another victim on the mid lane. The OneTap boys, with Ryze mid, Irelia top, and Trundle jungle calmed the game down and tried to keep the gold gap under control. With all their effort the gap grew to almost five thousand gold. And it stayed there for almost the entire match, except that the battles were inconclusive and the OT guys playing for dragons, stalled long enough for their comp to get the advantage. Namely, Ezreal, who as you well know, scales as long as he can’t be killed, and he wasn’t. In the 30^th minute, in a fight around the dragon, Ezreal was left alone against four opponents and the result was a quadra kill, a fourth dragon secured, and a baron. And from there, all OTP had to do was destroy towers and play around objectives. OneTap also secured the Elder, then the baron again, and unfortunately for the Cyber MD guys, they couldn’t come back. Big twists and turns and we could talk about Cyber not knowing what to do with the advantage they gained very early on, or OneTap knowing how to manage the difficult position, but one thing is certain: it was a pretty damn good match. And if last time we said that OneTap were in debt, now we can say that they repaid some of that debt.

Second match – Urban Esports vs. Infinite Blue. This one was also shaping up to be a very interesting match. Urban had a very solid, dominant match, capped off with a win. On the other side, Infinite was coming from a loss against Random 5, but the game was promising even so. The draft was good, at least from the Infinite guys. Urban replicated the draft from the last game, Ornn, Nocturne, Zoe, and the variation was on the ADC position, where 2Axes was banned down to Miss Fortune, which isn’t a bad pick necessarily. However, the Infinite guys were brilliant. Sylas against Ornn, Ekko against Zoe, and a Lucian-Nami duo on bot. Hecarim (the pick itself, not the player) almost didn’t even matter in my eyes, but it was extremely useful. The match burst open from the first few minutes, when Lucian and Nami took the initiative, were very aggressive and, helped by Hecarim and by the fact that almost all of Urban’s attempts failed. This meant the match was over before it really started. It was a bloodbath, battles all over the map, with infinite coming on top every time. It was simply a show of strength from them, and I was pretty impressed. Even though the match was dominated from end to end and was over in only twenty-five minutes, it was entertaining because something was always going on. Urban was thoroughly beaten, and it seems that in the first round they were just much better than their competitors at the time; I hope we see something else from them in the future. Maybe the outcome would have been different if they had a bit of luck on their side, but maybe fate wanted them to understand that they have to offer more than Zoe mid and Ornn top in order to get to the top.

Third match – Racquestai vs. Lenovo Legion Honved. Pfuu, another great match! Before the competition started I could see them in the top three teams. While the Hungarian team lost to Nexus KTRL, the Ukrainian team dominated OneTap in the last round. However, I couldn’t say for sure that Racquestai is the favorite and LLH will clearly lose. I was just excited to see them play. About the selected champions we can only say good things. The Hungarians chose a duo for the botlane consisting of Varus and Braum, Cassiopeia mid, Karthus in the jungle, and Fiora in the top. The Ukrainians responded with Jhin, Seraphine, Anivia(very surprisingly), Trundle in the jungle, and Sett on top. And there was action in the first few minutes. Sett managed a solo kill against Fiora, and Fiora decided it was wise to teleport back down the line and die again immediately. This is another moment where I had some questions. You picked Fiora without knowing who the opponent was. I expect you know how to play the champion if you make such a decision, but Kubu, the toplaner, was 0/4/0 in the 12^th minute, 30 minions down, and very behind in experience. The last thing I wanted to see. The only good news for the Hungarians was the two dragons they had, and Karthus was on the right track. A little later in the match, Cassiopeia started to become a monster, and by the 25^th minute had three items. The gold was still in favor of the Ukrainians though, and they started the baron, which although stolen by the LLH, all but the support died. Two minutes later they turned stealing objectives into a lifestyle when the mountain ground was secured from two screens away by a Varus arrow. In the 30^th minute, Fiora became a champion again and no one could match him one-on-one. From here it seemed LLH couldn’t lose, except… Except the top lane and mid lane died while forcing the end of the match, the rest of the team prioritized the baron, and because he wasn’t killed fast enough, they gave up the Elder dragon. A strange situation that prolonged the match by a few minutes, but Lenovo ended it in the 40^th minute with authority. Lots of kills, lots of fights, teams played well, and I think the better champions won rather than the better players, but this is a never-ending discussion. Very nice match and not disappointing at all.

Fourth match – Nexus KTRL vs. Random 5. Another match we were eagerly anticipating. Both teams had won in the first round, and more than that, both teams had beaten very good teams. Random 5 over Infinite, Nexus KTRL over Lenovo. Picking the champions brought us some new ones in the competition. For Random 5, Kha’zix in the jungle for Spooky, Amumu support alongside Ziggs, a pretty unique lineup, and the other picks, Ornn and Oriana, as boring as ever. On the other side, Nexus KTRL responded with Sett on top, Xin Zhao in the jungle, Vladimir, a novelty for most players, but not for Comeback, and the rather volatile bot, Lucian and Sona. The first kill was for the Bulgarian team, where Kha secured the kill, but Morcovel responded with a gank on bot, where Lucian got the rewards, with the gank turning into the first dragon for Nexus KTRL. In the next few minutes, a few battles emerged, and the winners were Spooky for R5, and Lucian piloted by Kisze. However, the Bulgarians kept taking advantage after advantage, and in the 18^th minute, they had a three thousand gold lead. Then there was a battle around the third dragon, where the Romanians managed to win the fight and the objective, something totally unexpected. After another two minutes, another massive fight broke out, where only one player remained alive for each team. After another two minutes, another lost fight for Nexus KTRL, where R5 took the baron. Suddenly, the gold gap had exploded to over five thousand. And from there things didn’t get any better, R5 won every fight and finally put an end to Nexus KTRL’s torment. Unfortunately, choosing Vladimir turned out to be very unwise, as he had no influence, he also took away what little resources the team had but heads up, there are still a few match days to go. On the other hand, Random 5 looks very strong and is the only team that has two wins. It was a good game, maybe not the best of the week, but very close to that.

All the teams had their second chances last night. Some took advantage and some still haven’t managed to clean up their game thoroughly enough. The season is pretty short, there are only five games left, and you have to pick up wins by any method or means. Remember that only four teams are going to fight it out in the LAN in Cluj, and the clock is ticking. See you next time.

P.S.: HolyDiver and Keta were even better and funnier. They entertain the vibe quite well and I see improvement from their side too.

The video can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FCOwYQwLs

Written by LolRN