Order – Snowball Esports [Legacy] https://legacy.snowballesports.com Oceanic Esports News & Content Fri, 31 Aug 2018 08:55:07 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://legacy.snowballesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-sb-favicon-32x32.png Order – Snowball Esports [Legacy] https://legacy.snowballesports.com 32 32 eXTREMESLAND AUNZ Qualifier – Finals Preview https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/08/31/extremesland-lan-preview/ Fri, 31 Aug 2018 08:55:51 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=3125

The crumbs have fallen into place for the qualifiers, as the four teams for the BenQ Zowie eXTREMESLAND LAN Finals for Australia have been decided over the past weekend.

For the teams who have made it through, their focuses now turn to one another as they look to take out the ANZ spot for the Regional Finals. But before they can book their tickets they have two more battles to fight as they fly down to the Melbourne Esports Open this weekend for more exciting CS:GO action

SEMI FINAL 1: Chiefs (1st) vs Legacy (4th)

The El Clásico of Australian Esports appears once more.

After a tight OPL Gauntlet Final on Sunday, these two orgs will fight again for another grand final spot, albeit on a different field of battle. But for this fight at least, the odds seem just a little clearer.

THE CHIEFS

With a dominant performance closed qualifier, seeing them only drop one map against Tainted Minds, the Chiefs have stormed into the LAN Finals with an unexpected 1st Seed. Flying off the back of an strong month online, they seem to have solidified themselves recently as the constant challenger to ORDER, Tainted Minds and Grayhound. But their biggest strength is their performance on LAN.

Having won three out of their past four offline finals (Gfinity Elite Series being the only exception), the Chiefs know how to perform at LAN, something that has eluded both ORDER and Tainted Minds in recent times.

They come into this LAN as the dark horse, but they are all but ready to cause an upset.

LEGACY

After being called up last minute to the closed Qualifier with the withdrawal of Grayhound, Legacy were able to make it through to MEO with only a few hiccups along the way. In other tournaments, the trees have had mixed results, having lost 0-2 against Grayhound in ESL AUNZ while gaining a few 2-0’s at the start of the league.

But the winds are changing for the trees.

With the recent departure of their coach SnypeR, the players will go into the event relying on the minds of Lons and BL1TZ to guide them through the matches. And without their mentor behind them, Legacy may just lose that guidance at a critical point.

At their last encounter on LAN, the Chiefs put Legacy to bed, defeating them 3-0 (Bo5) in the Grand Finals of the CGPL LAN Finals at the end of July.

However, both maps were decided by a margin of 6 or less, so Legacy may rock the crib once more if the Chiefs aren’t careful.

MY PREDICTION

While the Legacy upset is definitely a possibility, it’s hard to see Chiefs losing this El Clásico fight.

Legacy still need more time to gel, and maybe even a change before they can become a constant challenger for the Top Tier in our region. Meanwhile for the Chiefs, they have fire in their guts, a good chance at an international LAN and are looking to catch their critics flat-footed.

However, it won’t be a cakewalk for them, so don’t be surprised to see the third map being played in this battle.

The Call: CHF to win 2-1

SEMI FINAL 2: ORDER (2nd) vs Tainted Minds (3rd)

ORDER vs Tainted Minds, a combination more common than bread and butter. This will be their 12th encounter this year, but the drama never seems to dissipate.

From the Bo5 reverse sweep for the IEM Katowice Spot to tense LAN finals, this battle will always bring the hype a tournament needs.

So how will this encounter turn out?

ORDER

After making it to the Regional Finals last years when under the Kings banner, ORDER will be looking to make back to back appearances. And after a confident closed qualifier campaign, they enter this tournament as most peoples favourites to win this LAN.

But ghosts do haunt them.

While they have been blistering in recent online battles, ORDER lost their higher seeding game against Chiefs 0-2, and have had some gremlins at LAN in recent memory. However, with more another shot at an international LAN on the line, expect the army of ORDER to come in with all guns blazing as they look for their second eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals.

TAINTED MINDS

The perennial bridesmaids looks for victory once more.

Tainted Minds have had the monkey on their back for the past year, repeatedly coming in the place dividend spots for the past year against the likes of ORDER and Grayhound. But they continue to knock on the door. With every LAN they attend, they seem to get closer with every attempt, edging closer to becoming the bride instead of the bridesmaid.

And with one of their fiercest opponents overseas, this may be the event we see TM break the trend.

At the last encounter between these two, it was ORDER who took an dominant 2-0 win over TM in the ESEA Mountain Dew League Playoffs.

But this seems to be the outlier.

Most games against these teams have been thrilling and tight, with no quarter asked nor given by either side. Yet it is ORDER coming into this fight with the historical advantage, holding a 7 – 4 match advantage over Tainted Minds this year.

MY PREDICTION

This game is the closer of the two Semis for a reason.

Both of these teams can get the victory on their day, but the question will be who will turn up. Will it be the overconfident ORDER, who overextend and have to rely on individual plays to save them from potential embarrassment? Or will we see the army at their best, waiting for the opportunity to pounce, giving the respect that their opponents deserve while punishing their slightest mistakes?

Similarly, what version of the brains will arrive at MEO come Saturday? Will it be the the bridesmaids, who can’t get out of the shadow of the Top 2? Or will they finally break their curse and finally get their LAN monkey off their back.

I expect a three map thriller with multiple overtimes and ORDER coming out the battered victors.

But never doubt those with Tainted Minds, as they will be coming out with all guns firing.

The Call: ORDER to win 2-1

GRAND FINAL PREDICTION:  CHIEFS v ORDER

So, if I am proven to be the all-knowing pundit that I am and the favourites make it through, how will the final play out?

The Grand Final will be a Bo5, meaning 3 maps are needed to qualify for the Regional Finals.

But who will be in the box seat in the favourites scenario?

For most, it’ll be ORDER to take home an easy victory.

But as I stated earlier, this iteration of the Chiefs have been looking good at LAN and have defeated ORDER before at a LAN Final before. However, if ORDER don’t get cocky, and get the early control of the game, then I expect it to be ORDER taking the win and booking their seats to Shanghai. If the Chiefs stay calm, survive the open salvo and force ORDER to make mistakes, then the Chiefs may just have it.


No matter what happens at MEO though, these two days of CS:GO will be packed full of intense action and nail biting moments throughout.

All these teams want to go to Shanghai for the Regional Finals, but only one can make it through this weekend.

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eXTREMESLAND Preview: Invitee Teams https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/08/24/extremesland-preview-open-invitee-teams/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 04:59:32 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2874

Following yesterday’s feature on the open qualifier teams for the BenQ Zowie eXTREMESLAND CS:GO ANZ 2018 Closed Qualifiers, our focus today shifts towards the four invitees.

With a plethora of internationally-proven talent amongst the teams of ORDER, Legacy, Tainted Minds and The Chiefs, these squads and their individual players make up what many would consider the ‘best of the best’ in the Oceanic scene.

ORDER

Form: 2nd ESEA Premier Season 28 (AU), 3rd-4th DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 Asian Qualifier, 3rd IEM XII Shanghai ANZ Qualifier

It wasn’t too long ago that ORDER were making waves across the international scene, with the former Kings Gaming Club core roster often jet-setting overseas, competing against the world’s-best at events such as the IEM XII World Championships and WESG 2017.

ORDER CS:GO Roster

Though we haven’t seen this roster keep up the same level of consistency as was seen since the inception of the ORDER organisation, the unchanged lineup remains a staple in the Oceanic scene, with the ability to fend off challenges from the nation’s up-and-coming competition.

“Coming in to this event, our expectations are, of course, to qualify to the regional finals, and from there to win and get to the main event. We made it to semi-finals at last year’s main event and would be looking to have a deeper run this time, with stronger results against the Chinese teams.”

“Our practice has been continuing as normal; while we haven’t prepared for the other teams specifically, we are focusing on bringing our own level up independently. We have looked at our map pool and made some decisions and generally been working on adding some ingenuity and further structure to our existing maps.”

“Grayhound are unavailable to play due to their participation in DreamHack Stockholm, so our focus moves to TM. As for new teams, I think Ground Zero have the pieces there to get some good results, and Legacy are always lurking for an upset.”

“Overall, the eXTREMESLAND qualifier is very important to us, and was my personal highlight in the Asian circuit last year. Shanghai is a beautiful location, and we would love to travel back there this year. Following this tournament, we will resume training to win any upcoming qualifiers that arise before Christmas.”

– Chris ‘emagine’ Rowlands, ORDER

My Prediction: I don’t think many people expect ORDER to struggle coming in to this tournament. They have the capacity to win against a side such as Tainted Minds, but also risk running close matches against Legacy and AVANT. Their finishing position will be reliant on how the bracket is seeded, but it would be a surprise to all if ORDER fail to make the top 4. 2nd Place.

The Chiefs

Form: 3rd-4th ESEA Premier Season 28 (AU), 1st IeSF World Championships 2018 Australian Qualifier, 1st CyberGamer Pro League Season 14

If it’s a team that’s got to prove themselves here, it’s the Chiefs Esports Club. Once-regarded as the powerhouse organisation in the Oceanic CS:GO scene, Chiefs have somewhat struggled to retain their top spot in the region since losing the likes of aliStair and malta to ORDER and Grayhound respectively.

The Chiefs CS:GO Roster

The former Athletico pickup of Texta and flickz has bolstered this team’s ability to place in regional tournaments such as ESL AU&NZ Season 7 and ESEA Season 28, but the Chiefs still have some way to go in proving that they can challenge and defeat the rest of the top-tier teams in the region.

“Our only expectation is to win the qualifier. Although we don’t feel we’re the best we can be, we are still very confident against ORDER and TM.”

“Preparation for the event has been pretty standard; day-to-day team and individual practice. We haven’t really looked at any of the teams in the qualifier too much, as we know ORDER, TM and Legacy quite well already – we have mainly been focusing on us.”

“I’ve for sure seen some really positive signs from the Dynasty team, who have seemed to come out of nowhere in the last few events and performed quite well. They seem like they understand how to play as a team on a pretty good level, so I’m excited to see their progression.”

“For us moving forward, it’s just making sure we keep getting better and focus on qualifying for the next big international event, then performing well there. For me – that’s everything right now.”

– Tyler ‘tucks’ Reilly, Chiefs Esports Club

My Prediction:  I can see the experience of Chiefs fending off competition from Ground Zero, Dynasty and Surge, but when it comes down to it, I don’t know if Chiefs will be able to topple some of the bigger names. Regardless, we should still be seeing Chiefs progress through to the next stage. 3rd-4th is the most likely outcome.

Tainted Minds

Form: 3rd-4th ESEA Premier Season 28 (AU), 2nd DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 Asian Qualifier, 3rd Asia Minor Championship – FACEIT London 2018

The highest-rated squad on our shortlist of eight teams, Tainted Minds have somewhat slipped under the shadows of Grayhound’s success in the region. The guys in green have a plethora of international talent in the likes of yam, ofnu and zewsy from the days-gone of Renegades and Winterfox, and with the addition of bURNRUOK to the roster, it’s only a matter of time until Tainted Minds are to break through once again to the world scene.

Tainted Minds CS:GO Roster

After falling just short in making it to next month’s Valve-sponsored major in London as a Minor Champion, this might finally be the opportunity that Tainted Minds have been long-searching for.

“We’ve just returned from a boot camp in Poland in the lead up to the FACEIT minor and will use what we learnt and absorbed there to prepare ourselves for this event.”

“We’re looking out for namely the top teams; Chiefs, Grayhound and ORDER. Haven’t been keeping up too much with teams outside the top 4 so really not sure who could be a surprise but I know Legacy are definitely on the rise and the rest of the teams still should never be taken lightly.”

“We are really keen to secure a spot at the MEO LAN finals and will be gunning for the finals seed by taking it out. We’re incredibly grateful to Zowie for making this kind of format that we’ve been longing for a possibility. Only thing I’d want differently is more spots for the international finals held by eXTREMESLAND. I think we’ve earned it as a collective community and definitely are worthy.”

– Coach Fergus ‘ferg’ Stephenson, Tainted Minds

My Prediction:  It appears the stars might finally align for Tainted Minds. With Grayhound out of the picture, the path is paved for Tainted Minds to finally rise up to the challenge and make a name for themselves. However, they will need to watch out for teams such as AVANT and ORDER if they want to cement themselves on top coming in to the next stage. 1st place.

Legacy Esports

Form: 5th-8th ESEA Premier Season 28 (AU), 2nd CyberGamer Pro League Season 14, 5th-6th IEM XIII Shanghai ANZ Qualifier

Rounding out our four invitees for the eXTREMESLAND 2018 ANZ Closed Qualifier we have Legacy Esports – a last-minute replacement for Grayhound, who could not attend due to schedule conflicts with DreamHack Stockholm.

Legacy Esports CS:GO Roster

The former lol123 lineup has typically performed well in qualifying stages, and now that sterling has had some time to gel with his team, Legacy will need to act swiftly to secure a victory and make a name for themselves, rather than continuing to drift outside the region’s top four. The recent departure of coach SnypeR could throw a spanner in the works, but with plenty of talent on this roster, they should be able to at least put up a fight.

“We’ve been putting a lot of hours in to our game after losing to The Chiefs at CGPL. Our primary goal right now is on improving our own style of play – We’ve changed some roles on some maps (mostly CT side), and we are working on improving our communication as a team.”

“We haven’t had much of a chance to look at how to counter some of the other teams as of yet, but hopefully that will be better in the long run.”

“We are very grateful for the opportunity that eXTREMESLAND has given us. Our goal is to make it to the LAN Qualifier.”

– Egor ‘LONS’ Baranov, Legacy Esports

My Prediction:  If Legacy are to make it through to the top 4, then they will need to make sure they don’t get scalped by teams such as Surge or Dynasty. They have the depth and ability to make the cut, but I predict that if there’s going to be an upset, it will happen in a game which includes Legacy. 4th or 5th place.

 


With the qualifiers now underway, it’s only a matter of time before we see which of these eight teams will make the cut to the top four playoffs at the Melbourne Esports Open in a weeks’ time.

Will the invited teams prevail? Could we see some scalps and upsets perhaps? Be sure not to miss any of the action by following Snowball Esports on Twitter to keep updated with the latest esports news in the Oceanic scene.

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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Ten https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/08/24/mvps-of-the-week-s2w10/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 02:55:41 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2828

Reece “LoLTies” Perry is back this week to bring us the Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 10. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

Avant Gaming: Frae

I thought this was one of the more collaborative efforts, so to speak, from Avant this week. Frae was still leading from the front, but there were spot contributions from players hugely contributing to wins such as DarkSide and Praelus notably in game three. At the end of the day though, Frae has been Avant’s best performer on a week-in, week-out basis for the entire year now and he was still their best in week 10.

Tectonic: Praedyth

Notwithstanding game three, in which it looked like everyone on Tectonic had a bit of a disaster, Praedyth was the major reason this series was close. He was a relevant side lane consideration whenever Avant wanted to do something elsewhere on the map, and he basically single-handedly punked the entire roster on the way to pushing down the nexus in game 2. Hopefully he can parlay these last two weeks into a starting gig and show some consistency on top of these high highs.

Legacy: Raid

Claire might have taken home all the plaudits, but we always knew that Claire was a monster. My single biggest criticism of Legacy (after we get past their sometimes rancid baron play) is that we don’t see consistent stepping up of the other players around Claire. Now, two games does not consistency make, but Raid was remarkable this series.

Historically he has been the poster boy for my issue with Oceanic Ezreals in that he played within the confines of Arcane Shift. But in this series he stepped forward, took risks to secure kills and push around MAMMOTH members, and actually Dared to Deal Relevant Damage, instead of just Q-poking and walking away. This was an Ezreal performance where some of the limits of Ezreal were sometimes pushed, instead of being used as a secure warming blanket, never to be touched.

MAMMOTH: Mash

I thought this was a fairly huge effort across all the MAMMOTH members this week. It wasn’t for lack of effort or production from one standout member that was the reason they didn’t win this match. It was small margins across key moments that turned this series around on them. Even when things started to go south, Mash was the one member who stood tallest and when you secure a pick like Varus for your veteran import, that’s exactly what you want from them. I can guarantee it will be of little consolation, but this was as monumental an effort as any five could have put in for a losing 0-2 series.

Chiefs: Ryoma

Once again, Raes and Ryoma go toe-to-toe here. Two incredibly early towers along with the Babip-assisted whipping that was inflicted upon the Bombers bottom lane cast a strong vote for Raes, and while it was a fairly standard Rakan engage, Destiny did also bring out a clutch teamfight.

But through it all I thought Ryoma played really well in both games. He had a commanding, controlling performance on his signature Syndra pick, and then when the Syndra was picked into him, broke out another fearsome Zed and went ballistic. It’s a really valuable weapon the Chiefs have shown opponents, this Ryoma Zed and gives them an extra element of mind games they can wield in drafts during the gauntlet.

Bombers: Looch

Individually, I thought the Bombers fell flat in this series. They definitely had their good moments, but it was off the back of some good team coordination, rather than individual brilliance. I’m sure they’ll take that though, good teamplay going into gauntlet is definitely A Good Thing.

 

Of the individual performances, I thought that Looch had the best two-game set. Sleeping was okay in patches, Seb had a nicely timed Lamb’s Respite around baron but neither matched Looch across both lanes. Unfortunately the bot lane had a bit of a disaster so hopefully for Bombers’ fans they’ll bounce back against Legacy and maybe beyond.

Dire Wolves: BioPanther

For my money he was manhandled a bit in their loss, but there can be no denying the unbelievably high height that BioPanther hit in game 2. Down 1-0 in the series and with game 2 not going all the way according to plan BioPanther reached…well…not deep into his Mundo bag of tricks, but for the same trick he did last time and cleaned up another mid lane teamfight with a delayed triple kill. Save for Griffin, nobody else in the world has come from their challenger league into their premier league with this apparent fluidity. It’s been wonderful to watch.

ORDER: FBI

FBI’s ability to deal big damage without standing out as going incredibly aggressive is remarkable. That’s usually the sign of a great positional ADCarry. While he’s known for his Xayah and Ezreal picks this season, I believe he can play basically anything and be incredibly competent on it, which I would suspect is what ORDER were trying with the Kog’Maw – and while it didn’t work out, I’m not looking at the pick or the draft being the main reason behind that.

What’s exciting for ORDER fans is that I think his best suite of champions are being patched back in now – I really enjoy watching his Ashe and Varus, and I predict ORDER fans will as well.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Nine https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/08/15/mvps-of-the-week-s2w9/ Wed, 15 Aug 2018 02:55:45 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2671

Harry “Hispanic_at_the_disco” Taylor is on hand to bring us the Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 9. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

Dire Wolves: Triple

Dire Wolves vs Avant for me was a battle of the mid lane, and Triple put on a clinic on this week, running amuck on Summoner’s Rift, dealing disgusting amounts of damage on both Zoe and Syndra. Game 1 saw him go on a rampage, landing crucial sleepy trouble bubbles and paddle star’s to chunk out the opposition, leading the Wolf Pack to victory.

His game 2 performance on Syndra saw him lay down dark spheres all over the map on his controlling rampage of the game. His efforts led the Wolves to a swift 2-0, securing the team a seat at the Melbourne Esports Open final, as well as keeping him in contention for the Raydere medal.

Avant Gaming: Frae

If I am going to call Dire Wolves vs Avant a battle of the mid lane, I can’t just give the MVP to only one of the mid laners right? Frae’s performance on LeBlanc in Game 1 was able to keep the Wolfpack in check with some sick chains. He kept Avant in the game, trying to salvage their gauntlet dreams.

Whilst he wasn’t amazing in Game 2, he will need to bring his Game 1 performance once again this week if Avant wants to avoid a trip to the Promotion tournament.

Chiefs: Raes

Raes was unstoppable against Legacy on Kai’Sa, going legendary in Game 1 and following it up with a dominating performance in Game 2. He had a large presence on the map throughout the series, finding plenty of kills and dealing over 500 damage per minute during the series. This number would have been bigger, had it not been for his team ending the games before he could hit his final spikes.

He was critical in getting the boys in blue all 3 points and securing second place, whilst reminding his OPL counterparts to ban Kai’Sa or prepare for a lot of pain and grey screens.

Legacy: Mimic

Whilst Friday night might have been one to forget for the trees, Mimic’s performance on Fiora in game 2 is one to remember. He got the ball rolling with a first blood on Swip3rR in the first 2 minutes, and became a walking threat on a map, keeping the Chiefs at bay until mid-late game.

He will need to show up once again next week against MAMMOTH if Carbon’s boys want to be able to make the playoffs.

ORDER: Swiffer

Swiffer defied EGym’s orders against Tectonic, playing the recently reworked Akali less than 2 weeks from her re-release. While it might take him normally 100 games to master a new champion, Swiffer played the rogue assassin to perfection in Game 1 against Tectonic. He gave grief to the emergency substitute mid laner Anderu as well as the rest of the Tectonic lineup with his big roaming plays.

He went on a rampage in Game 1, but on his Game 2 LeBlanc, he took the backseat, allowing the rest of the team to shine. He ended his week deathless, with around a third of ORDER’s total kill count. If he is able to keep this level of performance up, the gauntlet looks bright for the boys from Melbourne (Melbourne BTW).

Tectonic: UDYSOF

In a week of change and chaos for the New Zealand team, there was a shining star in new starting jungler UDYSOF. Joining the team last week after playing the OCS season with the Dire Cubs, there was hype for the new boy, and he made some noise in Game 2, going 6/0/0 on Trundle.

It was a great introduction for him, and if he had been on a carry jungler he would of had the potential to dominantly carry that game into a victory, but alas he couldn’t because he was on a tank. If he can keep it up, expect him to make waves moving forward.

Bombers: Tiger

Bombers were able to secure themselves their first Gauntlet appearance after in a 2-1 win over MAMMOTH. Star ADC Tiger was crucial to the Bombers success, being able to land his shots and giving the woolly mammals the 1-2-3-4 on Jhin in their Game 1 and 3 victories.

The Frenchman was unstoppable, and was once again came up clutch for the team backed by the Essendon Football Club. This week was just another example of his ability to perform in high pressure situations, something the gauntlet rookies will need come the end of the month.

MAMMOTH: Chippys

While MAMMOTH had a bit of a shocker in our Match of the Week, Chippys was massive in Game 2 on what I consider his signature pick, Camille. He went legendary with an 8/1/4 statline, getting a triple kill as the cherry on top.

He was a large part of the reason that MAMMOTH were able to claim a win and a point from the series, which will be very critical in this Friday night’s showdown with Legacy, as they now only need to win a single game to qualify for the Gauntlet.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Eight https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/08/08/mvps-of-the-week-s2w8/ Wed, 08 Aug 2018 02:55:57 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2531

Reece “LoLTies” Perry is on hand to bring us the Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 8. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

Dire Wolves: k1ng

“Long live the King” goes the saying, and long did k1ng live in the Wolves’ victory over Tectonic. k1ng was immortal in this set, turning in an Ezreal performance that was a huge reminder why he is one of only two players on my List Of OPL ADC’s Who Are Allowed To Play Ezreal. (BTW: The number of OPL ADC’s who HAVE played Ezreal this split is 10. Get it together, folks).

He immediately backed this up with a gigantic Kai’Sa game, dealing out immense damage and contributing to 12 of 13 Wolfpack kills. The ADC play at the top of league has been out of this world and k1ng is always there showing us that he’s no less a player than Raes or FBI, who are the focus players on their respective squads.

Tectonic: Value

Much like last week, we have a Tectonic game with a massive single-game performance from Value. Unlike last week, nobody else was good enough over two games to topple Value from the MVP spot.

In fairness to Value, the Varus game was absolutely huge, handing out crushing damage with the lethality Varus build as they pushed the Wolves out to 40 minutes. On the other hand, Tectonic are on an 0-8 run for a reason, and this is less a case of the Most Valuable Player for Tectonic and more a reflection of the Least Bad Performance. While I prefer to save this series for celebration of good play, they’re in a really tough spot right now.

Legacy: Claire

Claire earns another nod here in the face of strong competition from Decoy, who (as i’ve talked about in this week’s Power Rankings) turned in a strong week as he rose beyond his previous peak on a Rakan pick he’s struggled mightily with.

Through this strong play from Decoy, Claire still dealt monstrous damage, had the most presence and was the catalyst for so much about what went right for Legacy that he remains impossible to ignore when you look at Legacy’s play.

When you look at the schedule and the concentration of teams on the gauntlet bubble, we see a situation where Claire is the most important player to the gauntlet picture.

Bombers: Looch

Two strong performances from Looch and Tiger this week were not quite enough to get them over the line in what was a big match for gauntlet standings. They did, however, get a very important point out of it.

That point is where i’m looking to anoint Looch as the MVP. The kills might have gone to Sleeping, Tiger and Seb but Looch was everywhere, elusive and threatening and the driver of the win for the Bombers.

I had Tiger as the best player in game one by some way, and Looch as the best in games 2 and 3 so all in all it’s the nod to Looch with a very honourable mention to Tiger.

Chiefs: Babip

I was so impressed with Babip this series. It would have been all too easy to give this to ry0ma, who went deathless and had a massive 9-kill Yasuo game and call it a day. It would have been just as easy to give it to Raes, who had a FBI/k1ng-level Ezreal game and topped the damage charts in game 2 with a bot lane Orianna game.

But i’m going with neither of them, because Babip had such a complete performance. He barely gave Juves a sniff in both early games – he nearly put a flame horizon up in a 25 minute game two. Out of the jungle, that’s ridiculous. He dealt relevant damage in both games and on top of it all his vision game was understated yet exceptional. As the classic joke goes “Get you a man who can do it all” and in this set, Babip did it all, providing OPL junglers with a Taliyah masterclass.

MAMMOTH: Mash

Another rough week for MAMMOTH, who seem to be playing a gatekeeper role lately. I’m going to put game 2 in the bin and look purely at game one here where they gave The Chiefs their best shot.

In this game, they gave Mash room to work and he put incredible work in. In even situations he was enormous for them and while his damage numbers are amplified by pumping arrows into Swip3rr’s massive Cho’Gath, he was the major reason that some of these fights were even close. His ability to remain safe from damage while handing out this high amount of damage was impressive.

ORDER: FBI

There was a good case to be made for Spookz in this set, who was really good in both of ORDER’s wins but FBI was a cut above everyone this match, even in the loss. His game 2 numbers are a little higher thanks to the lethality Varus build into the low-armour Avant composition meaning that he could remain dangerous with poke, but his numbers are actually just ridiculous.

In both of his Varus games he deals more damage than the next two ORDER players, combined. In game 3 he does 200 fewer damage than the next two players on either side combined. That is a stupid amount of damage. Sure it might be poke, but in this set he was also mixing it up in skirmishes as well, so it’s relevant damage that is actively contributing to the team’s win. A massive match for ORDER’s young stud.

Avant Gaming: Frae

I had a hard time finding someone I was particularly enamoured with across the entirety of the set for Avant. Pabu was close but in the end i’m giving this to Frae for the way he took over game 2. We’ve seen games like this from Frae all year, notably his Ryze has been a signature pick where he’s been oppressive for Avant. He threw the LeBlanc into jeopardy time and again in their win, and time and again came away with kills and territory gained in Avant’s favour. He couldn’t bring them a win, but the point may turn out to be very important for them as there’s a plausible set of events that would see them reaching the gauntlet.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Seven https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/08/01/mvps-of-the-week-s2w7/ Wed, 01 Aug 2018 02:55:14 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2405

Reece “LoLTies” Perry is on hand to bring us the Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 7. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

Dire Wolves: Triple

As the #1 Season Ticket Holder of the “Triple is the best player in the league” bandwagon it wasn’t hard to notice how damn good he was this match. He pushed Remind around, leaving him scrambling for farm and on the fringes of fights, all while remaining highly relevant himself.

The most telling way you can see how well Triple performed this week is in the way his opponent found his openings: Flanking on the back side of fights – ie nowhere near Triple. Because when the two were on the same screen, he was nigh-untouchable. An exemplary performance from one of the form players in the OPL.

MAMMOTH:  Chippys

Hard to find a true MVP for this week in my opinion. I kind of arrived here by process of elimination – Cuden was underwhelming, Mash was really poor in my opinion, Remind had decent damage numbers but it was mostly “irrelevant” damage that didn’t help MAMMOTH when they needed it. Juves was okay at times but as he is wont to do, died a few too many times to truly be MVP. So that leaves us with Chippys.

He died to ganks a time or two more than one would like, no doubt, but he had to fight with a fairly fierce camp in game one and through it all was the one contributing the most to his cause. It won’t feel like a great week by his own high standards, but he was the closest thing to a real winning chance MAMMOTH had this week.

ORDER: Tally

Tally delivered a clinic to his old team this week. His Ornn was impeccable, as it went immortal, and his Cho’Gath was literally and figuratively gigantic in the second game. He gets the melee tank into Gnar matchup twice, and keeps pace well through the early part. Though they do give him two of the easier farming tanks, you’re not picking those two champions for laning strength, you pick it for later on and he played it very well early on. It’s performances like these against players like Mimic that make me think he’s gone past some very strong competition to be the most complete top laner in the OPL.

Legacy: Claire

Claire earns this for his early game on Irelia in the second outing. Only could have won it through some decent early games, especially on his Top 5-winning first blood, if he had just managed to turn it into a bit more as the game progressed.

Claire on the other hand, continued to be stronger for longer as the games went on, keeping his team in some fights and the match overall longer than they realistically had a right to be.

Bombers: Seb

I gotta be honest, I didn’t think I’d ever be writing this. I’ve long said that Seb’s best days are about four splits behind him and I’ve got a lot of crow to be eating after this performance.

Seb was magnificent – he got early kills and then didn’t fumble it. He transferred his advantage where it needed to be, when it needed to be and Tectonic were powerless to stop him. Truly it was as dominating a jungle performance as we’ve seen all split and now I would say to him: Prove me wrong again. And again and again. Your team needs you to in this gauntlet push, and now you’ve shown us all that you can be the hero.

Tectonic: Shok

The best single performance was Value by a landslide, his Xayah was immense. But I was bitterly disappointed by his game one – featuring a crushing flame horizon that was ultimately irrelevant in the impact he had on the map and on the game as it progressed.

Shok, while he didn’t reach the same highs, also didn’t hit the same lows – and in this particular case the high is not enough to overwhelm the total package. He was a consistent and stable performer who served as the fulcrum for any success that Tectonic had. Even the base hold at M3 where Xayah scored the triple kill, the play is started by a high-impact Shokwave. I really value the complete performance from Shok here, it was good to see.

Chiefs: Destiny

Destiny has had a quiet couple of weeks of OPL action – not just from appearing as an MVP but also on the rift. He was back to his dominating best this week though. A hiccup in an early 2v2 fight notwithstanding, he got better as each game progressed.

The Chiefs are team that is in their element teamfighting, and Destiny is the best teamfighting support we have. So it was little surprise that if The Chiefs were going to turn around two winning positions from Avant, it would be through teamfighting, and it would stem from Destiny engages. And he duly delivered – giving us yet one more example that while he’s on a playmaker, The Chiefs are never truly out of any game.

Avant Gaming: Frae

Absolutely brutal week for Avant. They came in heavy underdogs, put up two immense early performances, and let it all slip away twice, leaving with the 0-2 many expected but not the result they deserved.

Frae was a big player in their successes this series – I felt like he played really well in this early part, dealing well with Ryoma and contributing to early skirmishes in combination with Praelus, most notably in game 2.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Six https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/07/25/mvps-of-the-week-s2w6/ Wed, 25 Jul 2018 02:55:50 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2261

Reece “LoLTies” Perry is on hand to bring us the Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 6. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

Legacy: Mimic

Legacy might have opted to give it to Raid but I fear I have to be brutal with my assessment here and say that this Mimic was the only player who did not let down their overall match performance with a poor moment, if not significant sections of game two. Mimic had relevant damage, strong overall play and reasonable positioning throughout the entire set and was not actively contributing to the second game going seven-to-ten minutes longer than it should have done. Legacy will have been glad to hang three points on the board but they won’t want to rely on continuing to get away with stuff like that if they want to consolidate a gauntlet place.

Tectonic: Papryze

Another ordinary week for Tectonic and we start to wonder if they hit their absolute-rolled-a-twenty-peak instead of it being a representative performance when they toppled Chiefs and ORDER because they’ve looked really poor in these last couple of losses. Debated giving this to either of the solo laners but in the end settled on Papryze because he had the more impressive highs. It’s easier for Shok to look better in game two as well, because they really threw Papryze to the wolves in that final game.

MAMMOTH:  Cuden

Much like week one, I could very easily have given this to Remind or Cuden, but i’m giving the edge to the support for his overall strong play across both games. He’s played really well this split which has been wonderful to see. I was impressed with his Pyke, and moreover impressed with his presence with his team throughout the match, always being where he needed to be and contributing to MAMMOTH’s fight-heavy style.

Avant Gaming: DarkSide

I really wanted to give this to Pabu who I thought had a good series against a resurgent Chippys, but in the end I can’t go past the raw damage output of DarkSide. This is one time where Pabu’s good play isn’t enough to go past DarkSide’s also solid play, but just simply overwhelming damage numbers. Especially considering game 2, where MAMMOTH don’t have a pure tank (only their poorest member is building tanky in Juves, and he’s still gone Runic Echoes) for DarkSide to boost his damage numbers.

Dire Wolves: Shernfire

This one is going to look a little weird when you consider his game two performance. But I contest that Shernfire is the MVP, and that his game two play exemplifies the reason why this is true rather than takes away from his case. Quite simply, these matches went as Shernfire did. Either he put Seb in the bin, and the Dire Wolves won with ease, or he showed off some Big Int Energy, and the Wolves couldn’t make make up for being one short. He was spectacular in their wins, and the reason they lost, and so he held the most value for his team in this match.

Bombers: Looch

This is a pick similar to the style of DarkSide for Avant in that it is for the overwhelming damage numbers he’s putting out for his team, notably in game 3 on Karthus, rather than being the standout performer. I found it difficult to pick a standout performer for the Bombers in this set because they were not great in the win, and took far too long closing out the game as their lead grew stagnant and began to shrink before the final fight that really sealed it for them.. And there was very little chance to show off much in their losses because they fell too far behind, too quickly.

Chiefs:  Ry0ma

Tough pick here, mostly because I thought this was a pretty even effort from the Chiefs. They were all tugging on the rope together and no one player was clearly better than the rest of them. Once again, Ry0ma and Raes you’d have to put towards the stronger end of the group, but then Destiny was decent and then you realise you’re about to name all of them. Of all the players, I give the edge to Ry0ma simply for the way he took charge when Swiffer handled him quite well early. Previous iterations of Ry0ma would have tried too hard to force plays and lost them the game, but what we saw this week was patient and really good to see. Patience was the theme for the Chiefs this week – I think game 2 in particular was pretty close until they broke it open, and  that took more than 20 minutes to do. I think the Chiefs will be really encouraged that they were able to hold their nerve twice (once from even, once from behind) in this series against a strong-of-late ORDER lineup, especially as they start to answer some of the lingering label of being a front-runner of a team.

ORDER: FBI

I’ve long said that Oceanic players (with two exceptions) just should not play Ezreal because they can’t utilise it properly. FBI is one of the exceptions and he showed it in his game one performance. He was doing huge amounts of work on the pick and it was good to finally see him have a strong game. FBI has had a pretty quiet split I’ve felt and hopefully as we see more traditional compositions play out we’ll get to see FBI exploit the talent gap he has with most lane opponents on a 1-to-1 basis.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Five https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/07/18/mvps-of-the-week-s2w5/ Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:55:35 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2179

Reece “LoLTies” Perry is on hand to bring us the Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 5. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

ORDER: Tally

You won’t find too much here that you won’t get from the broadcast itself. Tally was simply the best player in the lobby from the first “Welcome to Summoner’s Rift” to the last Nexus explosion. His Vladimir was rightly praised for giving ORDER’s funnel comp the life it needed to get it to its critical mass and in game 2 his Darius absolutely ran rampant over the map. Tally has somewhat quietly re-established himself as one of the best handful of players in the league, and the most impressive part about it is that he is more complete as a player than he has ever been.

Bombers: Looch

Without Looch’s play the match against ORDER begins to look really ordinary for the Bombers. Both games hinged on how he went. As game one went on, the fights went worse and worse as the more ORDER pulled ahead and settled into their comp, the faster Looch was blown up – if Looch couldn’t get towards a second spell rotation, Bombers were never going to win a fight. In Game 2 he went blow-for-blow with Tally right up until the final fight, where, make no mistake, he absolutely blew it in the top lane, but without him, they were done long before that.

Dire Wolves: BioPanther

BioPanther makes the graduation from being “surprisingly Dire Wolves-ready fresh out of OCS” to “genuinely the reason his team has won this match”, and he’s done it against arguably the best opposition he can play against in The Chiefs and Swip3rr straight out of Big Swips’ amazing performance just one week earlier. BioPanther single handedly saved the first game which looked like a near-formality for the Chiefs. In Game 2 he turned in a performance which was reminiscent of Swip3rr himself during Split 1, turning aside gank after gank, nullifying the Chiefs at every turn. This was showing the most important and hard to develop skills at the pro level, against the highest quality opposition. Even at the risk of calling it early, this was BioPanther’s coming of age party.

Chiefs:  Ry0ma

It’s impossible to split Ry0ma and Raes for this match. They contributed almost equally in both gameplay and statistical production. If i’m being brutally honest with you i’m picking Ry0ma just to break it up a bit as i’ve given it to Raes two weeks in a row and I didn’t really have anything better to break the gap between them.  His Zoe in game 1 in particular looked really strong up until the match turned around.

MAMMOTH:  Chippys

“This week brings a salivating matchup against Tectonic and their rampaging top laner in Papryze – this could be as big as it gets.” – This is how I closed last week’s MVP for Chippys and so it should come as no surprise that he earns this weeks’ MVP. Chippys put Papryze to the sword, heaping misery upon him in game one in what was a dominating performance. You could tell that the swagger was back in Chippys’ game for game two, as he picked Gangplank blind into Tectonic for game 2 (after protecting it with two bans, to be fair) and nearly top-damaged with it. Top laners beware, Chippys looks like he’s back.

Tectonic: Gunkrab

Not a lot to write home about for Tectonic in this series, as they were fairly comfortably handled by Mammoth. Trance could have taken it again, but that would have been giving someone MVP for one flash-devour which doesn’t thrill me. In the end i’ve given it to their young stand-in ADC bot laner in Gunkrab, who piled on the damage over two Heimerdinger games. His Stopwatch use in game 2 was less than ideal, but i’m confident they’ll have handled that in review. I’ve been an on-the-record believer in Gunkrab since watching him in OCS last year so i’m glad to see him have another decent performance.

Avant Gaming: Frae

Frae finally takes home an MVP after being a top-2 player for Avant almost every single week. He’s been by far their most consistent player and it showed up against Claire who arrived to the match after having displayed some of his best-ever form. When you’re looking to break a losing run, and you’ve suffered a shocking loss as Avant did last week, this match was undoubtedly a must-win for Avant. In this situation you need your best players to be your best players, and Frae was so today. Especially on his Lucian, which I thought was superlative.

Legacy: Raid

As i’ve often said, you won’t find a bigger fan of Raid than me, but it’s been a quiet split for him. While he hasn’t yet hit his stride I thought he was the best out of a not-great bunch for the trees this week. He had the best underlying numbers and save for being the third death in that spectacular set of three kills for DarkSide’s Caitlyn, he wasn’t a huge contributor to the reasons Legacy lost this match. I’m hoping to see Raid’s name back in this page soon, with a win for Legacy so we can see that he’s unlocked his best once again.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Four https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/07/11/mvps-of-the-week-s2w4/ Wed, 11 Jul 2018 02:55:48 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=2058

Reece “LoLTies” Perry is on hand to bring us the Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 4. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

Tectonic: Trance

I think so far we’ve been able to make fairly compelling arguments that this could just be Papryze every week but this is the first week I think that Trance has been equally as responsible for Tectonic’s wins as Papryze has been. Oddly enough it’s a week where his scoreboard doesn’t reflect his level of play. He really makes the play that seals game one with a critical lone Fiddlesticks flank and the Fiddle pick overall denies what the Chiefs wanted to do. The Split 1 2017 Chiefs placed a high ban priority on Syndra for a similar reason, looking at the overall strategical picture and it’ll be interesting how they adapt to what picks like Fiddlesticks do to what has made them so successful. It’s a credit to Trance’s execution and Tectonic’s leadership that they’ve so exposed this.

Chiefs:  Raes

Another week and another impressive showing from the Chiefs’ star player. He’ll be frustrated by the loss but he’s just in such a clean vein of form that he looks sublime on everything he touches. For my reckoning, Raes is the “any champ, any time, any place” player and it lends such flexibility to what the Chiefs want to do that he can show up and Be Excellent on anything he touches. It’s immensely valuable in the current metagame and his performances have been commensurate with this value.

Dire Wolves:  Triple

Could very easily have given this to k1ng this time around, but Triple is the reason they’re able to really take Legacy out behind the woodshed and give them the ol’ Lassie treatment. As those of us who went to Rift Rivals got to experience first-hand, Claire has the capability to be destructive in the mid lane and Triple has shown a repeated ability to shut down the enemy mid while being highly influential in his own right.

Legacy:  Only

Hard to find a positive point in this match that went really wrong, really quickly, in really a lot of areas for Legacy. Once again, when a team has a bit of a roughie, we look for the positive points about the map when things go this badly. And not for the first time this split, the best things happen around their jungler Only. He didn’t get much of a chance to do what he wanted to do but the few times that Legacy was able to mount resistance, he was on hand to be a contributor to that.

ORDER: Swiffer

Swiffer takes this on the back of some superlative Galio play. Some may cynically call that an oxymoron but I love Swiffer on this pick, and I love how ORDER plays when Swiffer is on this pick. He’s such a smart player that it really allows him to bring all of Galio’s kit exactly where it needs to be, exactly when it needs to be there. I think it brings all of their strength in fighting around objectives to the fore when he can be handling lanes and then come to the fight whenever he’s needed. Rogue deserves a shoutout too for playing a pair of very strong games to open the set, but as the third game played out it became clear that Swiffer had pulled ahead as the stronger player on the day and the MVP for ORDER as they continue their recovery from the first couple of weeks.

MAMMOTH:  Chippys

Hopefully Chippys has shown MAMMOTH fans this week that he has acclimatised to life outside the Wolfpack, as he turned in easily his best set since departing the Dire Wolves. It wasn’t him at his dominating best, and it  wasn’t enough to get the W, but it was three really hope-inspiring performances from Chippys. This week brings a salivating matchup against Tectonic and their rampaging top laner in Papryze – this could be as big as it gets.

Bombers: Tiger

There are those that may want to give the glory for this set spread across the roster, and indeed it takes a full team effort to hand out a beating like the Bombers did, but Tiger was the catalyst in every sense of the phrase this week. He’s been a top-2 performer for them all year and he was at his dominant best. Perhaps he’s finally comfortable in Oceania, perhaps he took this week a little personally paired up against another European import in DarkSide…whatever it was, we saw a complete Tiger, one we hadn’t yet seen, one that had only been teased to us off of a few encouraging early performances way back in Split 1.

Avant Gaming: Pabu

This has been two straight beltings that Avant have been on the end of and this match was almost without bright spots. When it comes to perhaps finding the player who least leaked things over to the Bombers, i’d have to give it over to Pabu. He won’t feel great about the first blood death in game 2, but other than that his faults were not of his own making. Until it became untenable, he was at least a bother to Bombers on the Singed and his Aatrox after the aforementioned first blood diverted the Bombers’ attention to other parts of the map, and he managed to take turrets in the split push, which at least kept the Bombers honest. Pabu did well into Mimic in split one, so Avant fans will be hoping he continues that form up now that the Rift Rivals break is done with.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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MVPs of the Week: Split 2 Week Three https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/06/27/mvps-of-the-week-s2w3/ Wed, 27 Jun 2018 02:55:13 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=1770

Reece “LoLTies” Perry is back again with the best players from the last round of OPL action in Snowball MVP’s of the Week for Split 2, Week 3. Check out who put in the best performance for your team below!

Dire Wolves:  Shernfire

Return of the king. No, not that k1ng. King of the Jungle, Shernfire. After what I thought were two fairly ordinary performances to open the split, we saw a return to the dominance that we know Shern is capable of, and wouldn’t you know it, we see a return to 2-0 Dire Wolves results. He’s at his best when he is on the front foot, and his proactivity was too much for Tectonic to handle.

Tectonic: Shok

Not a whole lot to write home about for Tectonic in this match, about their only positive point was their mid laner in Shok. He handed out relevant damage over both matches, though one wonders if his free reign was on account of the Wolves not looking to push an edge through Triple. It’s true of many mid-laners but Shok looks better when he’s on strong laners, so it will be interesting to see if he can get a beneficial lane moving forward and how he would plan to parlay that towards what ought to be strong side lanes.

Chiefs:  Raes

Babip was exceptional yet again, but you cannot go past the exemplary performance of Raes this week. He was their best player in the first two games, and even despite the (relatively) quiet game 3 was the best player overall for my money. Some might say it’s really easy to look good when you’re the beneficiary of a funnel strategy but I say that it comes with it a lot of pressure to perform as you have no choice but to be perfect when you fight. Now, the Chiefs had a different twist on this as they used a double-funnel strategy but Raes stood head and shoulders above the Graves funnel in his execution of that strategy.

Bombers: Looch

Looch is warming to this split, ever so slowly. Week 3 was a great step forward for him. I want to key in on his game 2 here, as Sleeping took the plaudits and most of the champion last hits, it was Looch doing the hard lifting. Sleeping’s Quadra Kill that you can find on our Top 5 Plays of the Week is set up almost entirely by Looch – he hits his Outplay Button on ry0ma, getting one reset for Sleeping, and hits a gargantuan two man Scatter the Weak in the middle of the chaos that secures the fight for the Bombers. Every week Bombers find a little bit more of an element of a complete performance which should be encouraging enough that they can string together a full match win sooner rather than later.

ORDER: Spookz

This was really difficult to pick given that ORDER fired on all cylinders. I could have picked four of them, and agonized over Spookz, giving Swiffer two in a row, and FBI, who was immortal this set.

In the end I went with Spookz because everything that went right for ORDER did so off of the back of Spookz being successful in his early game. The clever early pathing that he has combined with the fake leash start that ORDER creates gets him first blood in game one, and they’re off and racing. He gets it for Tally in game 2 and then almost immediately after gets third and fourth kills for ORDER and they’re off once again. Exactly what you want from your jungler in this kind of a meta.

Avant Gaming: Praelus

Trying to find a standout among this result was a real challenge. There wasn’t too much to speak for here, but Praelus was involved in basically every single moment that went well for Avant. He’s been decent so far this year, showing that his start with the Dire Wolves was no fluke and that he’s a prospect worthy of spending time on. It may be hard to draw any encouragement when the match went so bad so early on, but Praelus did his best to make something of the horror start in each game.

Legacy:  Mimic

I was inches from giving this to Raid but in the end, Mimic bopping Chippys in game one secures him as the best player in this series for my reckoning. It was a statement of intent for Legacy and while they drop the next game, his teleport was huge 15 minutes into the third game and his two-man knockup secures the teamfight for Legacy and gives them first brick, which turns that game around after it looked like Juves had set MAMMOTH up.

MAMMOTH:  Remind

I thought Remind played really well after what was a super-disappointing series against the Chiefs. He’s by some distance their best player in their win, and he’s offering the strongest resistance in the game one loss. I was really happy that MAMMOTH went back to the mid Irelia after I thought he was ordinary on the pick against the Chiefs – it shows faith in their new import where others may have been gun-shy to put him right back in the saddle, and Remind paid them off in spades in that second game.

Player images courtesy of Riot Games/OPL
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