Team of the Week: OPL Split 1, Week 9

This column looks to name five of the highest performers across the competition each round, from a hyper-carry performance from the mid lane to a rock-at-the-top outing from a top laner or a perfectly played supporting role.

Swip3rR

Brandon Holland – Chiefs Esports Club

In textbook Big Swips-fashion the king of the north started off slow with Urgot in his first game against Legacy Esports’ Daniel “Papryze” Francis (playing Yorick), and before you knew it he was taking over the Rift with an unofficial quadra-kill in a bot lane skirmish. His robot crab finished with a lazy 1,000 gold bounty and a 10/0/4 scoreline.

Swip3rR is also going to give teams a drafting headache in the lead-up to playoffs after once again having a great showing on Jarvan IV, dunking his way to victory with huge ultimates and ending the game with a 1/1/14 scoreline.

BalKhan

Choi Hyun-jin – Bombers

BalKhan felt like he was running rings around Samuel “Spookz” Broadley when they came face to face on Jarvan IV and Lee Sin respectively in the Bombers’ first game of the weekend. BalKhan snagged a 30 cs lead 11 minutes in, and added a kill to take control. Impressively, he wasn’t just making an impact dunking, but also made quite the impact sieging before 20 minutes. Rounding off game one at 7/2/11 with an 85 percent kill participation, BalKhan had a massive presence.

He kept his momentum going into the second game, with a great dive gank executed three and a half minutes into the game of Elise, before repeating the gank 30 seconds later on Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander in the top lane. BalKhan plays most games a little shaky in the mid-game, but understands his role throughout the rest of the game and this time he played around Tommy “ry0ma” Le’s Ryze to win the match.

Ry0ma

Tommy Le – Bombers

Building a small and incremental farm differential in game one, ry0ma didn’t really put a foot wrong in a supportive role once the Jarvan IV/Orianna synergy came online. He finished the first game with 10 assists.

Different story in game two however, as ry0ma found himself on the Ryze, and in a vintage performance focused on farming mid lane before getting his time to shine on a roam 13 minutes in. The move resulted in a game-changing quadra kill. From then on ry0ma dictated the game, leaving a wake of destruction wherever he walked on the Rift with no one able to contend with his strength. He closed out the game with a triple kill in a 2v4 skirmish and ended with a 7/0/0 scoreline for his efforts.

Gunkrab (MVP)

Vincent Lin – Avant Gaming

Before I get into the details of Gunkrab’s fantastic performance this week, can someone promise me they can get him to wear a Super Mario hat on broadcast next week? He was jumping on champion’s heads with his Tristana pick like they were goombas.

Gunkrab had to bide his time in the first game, happy to play the slow scaling game on Tristana and had to wait 11 minutes before he could record his first kill. He did help his team secure two infernal drakes however, not long after the Avant Gaming bot lane had managed to take down their outer turret before plating dropped. At 20 minutes, Gunkrab had a 4/0/2 scoreline with a 1,000 gold bounty. Stomping around the Rift, Gunkrab was instrumental in his team’s victory with a 79 percent kill participation, finishing the game deathless.

Game two saw the Gunkrab show continue as he sealed first blood against Order at 3 minutes and fifteen seconds. Knowing he was in control, Gunkrab executed a great 1v1 dive bot lane against Ronan “Dream” Swingler’s Kalista after Avant picked up a string of kills top side, with this one-on-one battle signalling it was all over for Order. Guiding Avant to a quick 26 minute victory, the ‘krab capped off the most dominant display of the weekend and crowned himself Most Valuable Player for the week.

Eyla

Bill Nguyen – Chiefs Esports Club

Eyla had a strong first game, landing some crucial ultimates in lane as Braum against the Legacy duo’s pick of Kai’sa and Galio. The Chiefs’ support allowed Quin “Raes” Korebrits’ Ezreal pick to flourish and control the game.

Followed up by a big performance on Galio in game two, a slight misstep at the 27 minute mark marred an otherwise strong performance. Not much else went wrong for him as he finished 2/2/15 and had a strong presence with almost 95 percent of the Chiefs’ total kills. Eyla was in the thick of it as the Chiefs scored a victory over Mammoth.

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The Oceanic Pro League returns on Friday afternoon to begin the final week of regular play, two contenders in Avant Gaming and Chiefs will kick off the Super Week at 4pm AEDT.

Disagree with the list? Feel another player had a stronger performance and deserved the recognition? Feel free to voice your concerns to @awray7 – he loves chatting about the best players of the week.