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It's Superweek again in the LCS, as teams will take next weekend off for IEM Season VIII World Championship. With 15 games over three days it can be easy to miss some games, so we've recapped each game from Day 1 as well as previewed the games coming up in Day 2.
NA LCS Week 8 Day 1 Recap
Right off the bat, Evil Geniuses.NA ( Trundle,  Evelynn, LeBlanc, Jinx, Morgana) matched up with Cloud 9 (Shyvana, Elise, Kha'Zix, Caitlyn, Thresh). EG went with Morgana as their first pick, leaving Thresh and Elise up for C9 to snag immediately. Snoopeh opted to go with Evelynn, making only her second appearance in this NA LCS Split. C9 handled it beautifully, however, warding up the jungle sufficiently to track Eve’s movements. EG wasn’t able to get any successful ganks off, and around seven minutes in LemonNation roamed toward dragon, caught Eve with a Death Sentence, and snagged an easy first blood for Hai’s Kha’Zix. C9 quickly snowballed that into a 3-0 lead as they immediately caught Snoopeh in the jungle once he respawned. C9 took a large early advantage and never let go. EG’s only sign of hope once the game had begun to spiral away was Snoopeh’s miraculous baron steal, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide. Just four minutes later C9 pushed into the EG base, took mid inhibitor, and aced EG ending a triple kill with a beautiful Ace in the Hole from Sneaky. In typical C9 fashion, they controlled every dragon uncontested, EG had absolutely no answers and it was their downfall.
The second matchup of the day saw TheOddOne and TSM (Renekton, Evelynn, Gragas, Caitlyn, Annie) looking to avenge Evelynn’s loss in the previous game against Team Coast (Shyvana, Vi, Nidalee, Lucian, Thresh). TSM was looking for a bit of revenge, having had their 11 game win streak snapped by Team Coast just two weeks ago. Coast came out of the gates running, with Nintendudex’s Vi ganking bottom very early and forcing a flash out of Xpecial’s overextended Annie. Predicting where the flash would land, Nintendude was able to land the Vault Breaker and secure the first blood for Coast. TSM was able to secure their first uncontested dragon just shy of 12 minutes in after a gank from Vi on Reginald’s Gragas went sour, resulting in kill for WildTurtle. The game really took a turn when it came to the third dragon at around 24 minutes when Dyrus chose to come down and join TSM at dragon, while ZionSpartan opted to push top and secure the tower uncontested. This gave TSM the dragon, a pretty standard trade, but the kicker was TSM following up by killing the other four members of Coast, bringing TSM to a 7,000 gold lead. TSM began to secure map control, surrounding the entire Baron area with pink wards, and finally taking it just after 30 minutes. Vi did what she could lategame, but wasn’t built tanky enough to survive for any significant amount of time, even getting killed once before finishing her ult on Caitlyn. Reginald and Dyrus closed the game out at 41 minutes, both individually going 6-0-14. Aside from the first blood and Xpecial’s various misplays, TSM showed just how strong they can be even without Bjergsen.
CLG (Ryze, Elise, Nidalee, Sivir, Morgana) took on Team Dignitas (Dr. Mundo, Wukong, Ziggs, Jinx, Amumu) in the third game of the day, bringing a return of Ryze to LCS play. Nien even took ignite to be able to be agressive against Mundo. On top of that, KiWiKiD decided to break out the Support Amumu! Dignitas knew that Ryze would put a beating onto Mundo, so they sent imaqtpie (Jinx) and KiWiKiD top in a lane swap, the first of its kind in NA LCS since the tower buffs! The Junglers from both teams decided to 3v1 push forward, and by 4:15 both teams were down two towers. Jinx’s incredibly powerful attack speed steroid let Dignitas keep up with the push despite the stronger tower. Half an hour in, Dig had come out on top of team skirmishes, Dragons, and even secured themselves Baron! While rotating bottom, Scarra's Ziggs was separated and at half health, until he caught a Nidalee spear and a Dark Binding, immediately turning it into a 4v5.This gave CLG the momentum they needed to stall Dig’s advances and wait the Baron buff. The next Baron dance didn’t go so well for Dig, as CLG was able to secure it at 35 minutes and kill everyone but Ziggs, easily closing the game out with all five members alive. Ultimately, Dignitas wasn’t rewarded for their unorthodox strategy, and the Amumu pick didn’t work out.
Game four was a long and drawn out endeavor with Team Curse (Trundle, Vi, Lulu, Caitlyn, Leona) taking on XDG Gaming (Renekton, Lee Sin, Orianna, Sivir, Morgana). Both teams had relatively new supports for the matchup. It was Bunny FuFuu’s (Leona) debut LCS game for Curse, and Sheep’s (Morgana) third game for XDG. The game started slowly, as first blood didn’t occur until ten minutes in, when Xmithie made his presence known down bottom and IWillDominate’s Vi being just a bit too late to counter gank. Dragon was late to die as well, with XDG finally snagging it uncontested at just over 14 minutes. The first 30 minutes of the game was mostly even back and forth trades, with XDG having a relatively meager 2,500 gold lead. The first significant advantage finally broke out 40 minutes in, when Voyboy put on his carry pants and grabbed a quadra kill with Cop’s Caitlyn stealing away the penta. Curse easily followed through with Baron. The next twenty minutes was a myriad of running and stalling, with Curse struggling to make any significant headway into XDG’s base, and XDG holding onto hope and dear life. After a whopping 62 minutes, Curse was finally able to retake bottom inhibitor, catch XDG mid, and crush their hopes of winning with another ace, losing only Leona in the process.
Day One wrapped up with Team Dignitas (Jayce, Evelynn, Kha'Zix, Lucian, Annie) and Coast (Jax, Elise, Kassadin, Caitlyn, Thresh) looking to finish the day off strong. After his nerfs, Kassadin was finally let through, and Coast snatched him right up at the end of draft. Crumbzz started out very aggressive on Evelynn, taking red and then moving into Coast’s jungle to catch Nintendudex (Elise) off guard at his own red. After forcing Nintendude to recall, Crumbzz secured the red steal and made it out of Coast’s jungle unscathed. At just over five minutes, Crumbzz found Elise again, catching her in her own jungle and snagging first blood without Elise even flashing. Coast opted to grab Dragon in response, at around the 9 minute marker. 23 minutes in, Dig rushed down an early Baron, but at the cost of two bot towers and an inhib. After the game stalled out somewhat, Eve eventually got caught by Daydreamin on Thresh through some interesting warding for an immediate kill, giving Coast the chance to start Baron, but Dig fended them off. Shortly thereafter, WizFujiiN was caught by Dignitas, giving them time to take the two remaining towers and middle inhibitor, as well as full control of the game. After finally securing Baron again at 40 minutes, Dignitas calmly sieged out the rest of the game, never giving Coast a chance to breathe before closing out the victory in 44 minutes.
Day 2 Preview
TSM vs Counter Logic Gaming
In the first matchup of the day, old foes face once more in the battlefield, with a hint of the past as Reginald is back in his middle throne. However, they face a renewed CLG with Dexter performing in the jungle, and coming off a victory against Dignitas. TSM, meanwhile, is coming off a victory over Coast, which while far from clean, was a very one sided game. Yet another installment in the original North American rivalry, expect the hits to come hard and often.
Evil Geniuses vs XDG Gaming
The EG squad face the new/old XDG squad, looking like a much stronger team in recent performances. However, an increase in performance might not be enough when playing against top teams, as XDG is still in the bottom of the standings. In a matchup of the two bottom teams, a victory will be key in the effort to avoid relegation. Will EG’s non-standard compositions grant them the win, or will Xmithie carry the XDG squad from the jungle?
Cloud9 vs Team Curse
C9 and Hai try to reclaim first place from TSM after a commanding victory of EG on Day One. Also victorious on Day One, Curse and Voyboy stand in the way. Will C9’s overall strength be too much for the ever-changing Curse squad, or will Bunny FuFuu continue to turn the tides of his new team?
TSM vs Evil Geniuses
The fourth game of the day features the old against the new , as Dyrus vs InnoX and Reginald vs Pobelter will likely decide the outcome of the game. Will TSM’s experience make EG crumble, will EG be able to take snap their four game losing streak at the hands of their first place opponent?
XDG Gaming vs Counter Logic Gaming
The last match of day features XDG and CLG each playing their second match of the day. CLG will be looking to continue their current positive momentum, while XDG stands to begin a forward push of their own. As CLG adjusts from playing against first place to last place in the same day, XDG looks to catch CLG off guard and even the matchup to 2-2 for the split.
- Written by David "Thorrbo" Gallagher - @imthorrbo and Víctor "Datkros" Rincones - @Datkros
- Edited by David "TheDynasty" Spitler - @TheDynastyLoL
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