C9 and FlyQuest are alone at the top of the LCS ahead of their game tomorrow.
We started out the second week with a clash at the top as C9 took on the CLG who started the split by surprising everyone once again. The other big games of the day were FLY vs GG in which we got to watch Prince shine once again, and a struggling EG facing off with a 2-0 TSM.
Week 2 was also the debut of Golden Guardians mid laner Gori, who couldn’t play with his team last week due to visa issues. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for all teams as some of them still did not have their full starting rosters playing. FlyQuest and Dignitas support players Eyla and IgNar haven’t joined their respective teams. For a second consecutive week, we saw Winsome and Biofrost on the stage.
This week of the LCS was also the first time a major region played on the newest patch, 13.1b, which included some massive changes to ADC and bruiser itemization. Thanks to the patch some champions like Yuumi dropped from the pick/ban stage, and we saw some new faces such as Caitlyn and Sona.
C9 vs CLG
LCS finally completed its transformation into the LCK as we saw the Kalista support, first debuted by T1 Keria, get picked by Zven. And CLG’s answer to it was their patented Seraphine/Karma bot lane from the last split.
C9 had a great early strategy around their bot lane with Fudge invading the top side jungle and Blaber diving the CLG bot lane. CLG managed to defend the play somewhat by teleporting Dhokla, but the play gave C9 over 1k gold lead and pressure for the first drake and Herald. CLG tried to delay C9’s snowballing by contesting drakes, but C9’s early game lead let meant they were in an advantageous position even against CLG’s teamfighting comp. As his usual self, Blaber with a lead was a menace on the Rift as he kept making one aggressive play after another. C9 secured a Baron with a mid lane play and ending the game after that was just a formality.
- Teams: C9 1 – 0 CLG
- Time: 26:20
- Kills: 17 – 5
- Turrets: 10 – 0
- Gold: 53.2k – 38.8k
- Dragons: 3 – 1
- Barons: 1 – 0
GG vs FLY
We got to see Gori make his LCS debut in the second game of the day, and the Korean mid laner found an early kill for his team with a great gank from huhi. Despite the gold being dead even when plates fell, FLY managed to control early drakes thanks to their bot lane winning the 2v2. Teams kept trying to find picks on side lanes and dancing around the Baron during the mid game, but neither team find a situation where they could’ve taken the big objective. But FLY was still stacking drakes among all this activity.
As the game went on, FLY started to control the game more and more as GG couldn’t get close to Prince or Impact. With their two fed carries, FLY secured both the Dragon Soul and a Baron to further their lead. GG made their move when FLY went for a second Baron, but their teamfighting was uncoordinated, they couldn’t get to the opponent Lucian and lost the game by getting aced.
Despite the loss, GG support huhi hit an impressive milestone during the game as he hit 3k career assists in the LCS.
- Teams: GG 0 – 1 FLY
- Time: 38:05
- Kills: 6 – 9
- Turrets: 3 – 9
- Gold: 61.2k – 71.1k
- Dragons: 1 – 4
- Barons: 0 – 2
100T vs DIG
Closer started out the game with an unfortunate mechanical mistake on his first gank, but it pays off as he gets the first blood at the mid lane with a repeat gank. Unfortunately for DIG, the early game just went downhill from that first blood as the 100T mid/jungle kept moving around the map consistently and finding side lane kills, with most of these going to Doublelift. The game felt like DIG didn’t have too many options as we scaled into the mid game and they started to group for a classic NARAM. But 100T carries were so far ahead at this point, and the fights weren’t even close. With the Baron and Soul in their pockets, 100T just pushed toward the enemy base and closed out the game in a clean fashion.
Another big LCS milestone was hit during this game, with Bjergsen reaching 2.3k kills.
- Teams: 100T 1 – 0 DIG
- Time: 31:03
- Kills: 16 – 4
- Turrets: 11 – 4
- Gold: 60.9k – 49.3k
- Dragons: 4 – 0
- Barons: 1 – 0
IMT vs TL
We got a very interesting bot lane matchup as both teams tried to out-draft each other. Naturally, both teams focused bot side early on, and Yeon/CoreJJ duo not only managed to find first blood once again but they also got another double kill in a 2v2 dive. Despite finding two kills back on Summit, IMT was behind over 4k gold, 2 drakes and 50 cs in the bot lane when plates fell at 14 minutes. Except for one close mid lane fight when Revenge caught out Yeon, the fights weren’t close as TL run all over IMT, and get their first win of 2023 on Haeri’s birthday.
- Teams: IMT 0 – 1 TL
- Time: 26:29
- Kills: 7 – 11
- Turrets: 1 – 8
- Gold: 43.1k – 51k
- Dragons: 0 – 4
- Barons: 0 – 1
EG vs TSM
Another disastrous start for another Draven lane as the EG bot lane camped the river bush level one for a very quick first blood. But Jojopyun’s unfortunate Week 1 seemed to continue into this game as well. TSM targeted the young mid laner of EG and got two kills back. TSM managed to hold the gold close until they decided to 5v5 the second drake, and EG won the fight decisively with a quadra kill from FBI. During the later fights, TSM kept focusing on Jojo’s Ryze and even when they managed to kill him, they didn’t have enough damage left to kill the other two EG carries, so EG was able to slowly siege the opponent base and fight their way to end the game.
- Teams: EG 1 – 0 TSM
- Time: 27:24
- Kills: 18 – 7
- Turrets: 11 – 3
- Gold: 54k – 44.6k
- Dragons: 4 – 0
- Barons: 1 – 0
Image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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