Observations from the NA LCS scounting grounds finals

The NA LCS scouting grounds have come to a close. Team Mountain Drake was victorious in the final series over Team Infernal Drake. Now the question is which unproven players have separated themselves from the pack to get a spot on an LCS or academy team?

The NA LCS scouting grounds have come and gone. Over the first few days, several players had strong showings. Even though there was no title money or shiny trophy at stake, the two final teams certainly wanted the bragging rights.

In one corner, the leaders all tournament, Team Mountain led by undoubtedly the strongest player of the tournament in AD carry Jacob “Prismal” Feinstein. In the other, Team Infernal with the quietly impressive top laner Ian “MistyStumpey” Alexander. Who will emerge victorious?

Game 1: Mistystumpey hard carries

You ever have that game in SoloQ when you look around at ten minutes and realize that you are the only chance to win the game? Maybe your bot lane is a combined 0/5/0, your jungler is just hitting level six, and your mid laner has so few CS he might as well be the support? That was game one in a nutshell for Team Infernal Drake’s top laner.

MistyStumpey went 9/2/7 and did an absurd 56,200 damage in game one on Viktor. The next closest player to him, Team Mountain’s mid laner Max “Soligo” Soong, did 20,000 damage less than MistyStumpey.

And make no mistake, MistyStumpey put the rest of Infernal on his back to take that game one victory. He was able to get the first tower of the game, with a 25 CS lead, despite the fact that his team was in a four kill and 1,500 gold deficit at the fifteen-minute mark.

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Yes, you can point the finger at some catastrophic mistakes made by Team Mountain which cost them their near 7,000 gold lead at the 26-minute mark of the game. Soligo and top laner Aaron “FakeGod” Lee badly misplayed a few fights in the mid-game. ADC Prismal, Team Mountain’s undisputed king in the group stages, played extremely poorly and was caught out several times at the end of the game that allowed Team Infernal to close the game.

Finally, Mountain jungler Kristopher “Fragas” Myhal made a disastrous mistake to reinitiate a fight after he had already slain Baron after the team had partially disengaged the fight. If he and a few teammates had recalled and preserved the buff, they might have had a chance to expand their lead even further. Instead, Team Infernal wiped Mountain despite their gold deficit and began to pull back into the game.

But that wipe was all due to MistyStumpey, who put out an absurd amount of damage in that team fight and all subsequent battles. This was a statement game from the young top laner, and pro teams certainly heard it.