Tyler1 Championship Series Finals – Recap and Analysis
Game 1 – Team Polar Ace vs. Team E Turner
This game was the first of a best-of-five series, as well as the first game on the preseason patch, so we were sure to be in for a treat and see how the meta has been affected during the preseason.
Team compositions saw PA aiming to target ban TT’s top laner TF Blade, with bans used on Akali, Jax, and Irelia respectively. This onslaught of targeted bans, however, allowed for TT’s bot laner Prismal to acquire his signature Lucian pick.
It should be noted that KatEvolved’s Aatrox chose to go with a Smite pick in the mid-lane. Definitely, an interesting choice and reminiscent of the Ezreal mid smite days. The use of the summoner spell in this game, however, proved to be quite lackluster and although he pulled ahead of his mid lane counterpart, he never really achieved full potential.
Having a different summoner spell such as Teleport or even Ignite may have proved to be more useful in the Lissandra match-up where there is really no chance of being assassinated.
In perhaps a showing of nerves, bans, or both, TF Blade’s inflexibility of his champion pool also seemed to prove an extremely effective strategy to target and it shined through his inexperienced Urgot play, with many missed ultimate abilities, poor farming which overall led to him being bullied around in the early stages of the top lane.
The seasoned skill of TT and their sheer resilience after giving up an early lead was put on display by winning some key team fights in the middle game.
However, the continued pressure of PA on objectives was way too much for TT to handle and they were able to close out a tightly scored game. Late game scaling prevailed with Caitlyn, Camille and Lissandra all contributing to deciding teamfights as PA were able to push to victory after winning a decisive teamfight in the base of TT.
Game 2 – Team Polar Ace vs. Team E Turner
TF Blade was still the very much subject of the second game and saw the same three targeted bans directed at him as before.
Instead of Urgot, a champion which TF Blade admittedly wasn’t accustomed to, he found himself on a very comfortable and reliable pick in Shen.
Prismal retained his strong Lucian pick and he was paired alongside a much more aggressive pick in Braum as opposed to the defensive Morgana we saw in the first game. This led to a commanding edge in the bot lane and Prismal ended the game with a score of 10/2/10.
LeBlanc also appeared to be much more dangerous in KatEvolved’s hands than Aatrox did and The Deceiver was able to net herself multiple solo kills on Julien’s 0/8/8 final score Lissandra. This time opting for summoner spell cleanse over the previous Smite.
Although TT once again seemed out laned in the second game and saw themselves in a familiar gold deficit, all of these factors mentioned above contributed to Team E Turner pulling back ahead in the mid game and late game and achieving a victory to tie up the match at 1-1 apiece.