Day 1 Recaps
Group A
GE Tigers vs Cloud 9: GE Tigers
The GE Tigers started off the day with a methodical win over Cloud 9. To be frank, today wasn't Cloud 9's day. GE established a solid lead early game and never gave it up. From 12 minutes on, the GE Tigers were nabbing an objective every two minutes. They summarily closed out Cloud 9 in 29 minutes, 11-1 towers, 33-13 kills. Notable player of the game: Smeb (Lissandra: 12/1/9, 286 CS, 21.8k damage to champions).
SK Gaming vs yoe Flash Wolves: SK Gaming
In typical SK style, SK established a gradual lead in the laning phase that snowballed by end game. The early and mid games were pretty uneventful; in the first 28 minutes of the game, SK secured 7 kills to the Flash Wolves 4; SK took 3 dragons, the Flash Wolves took 1. However, in the contest for baron, things swiftly fell in favor of SK, and they were able to close out the game a mere 8 minutes later, just a hair over 36 minutes. 10-1 towers, 17-4 kills. Notable player of the game: FORG1VEN (Lucian: 10/0/5, 387 CS, 31.4k damage to champions).
GE Tigers vs SK Gaming: GE Tigers
Things were looking pretty even between the Korean and European leaders for quite a while in this game; for the first 22 minutes, the gold lead gradually ebbed in favor of GE, but nothing too significant that SK couldn't handle. A botched baron turned things around, though, and the GE Tigers went full force into their rotations to secure a new objective every two minutes. They finished the game with a 16k gold lead in 35 minutes. 11-3 towers, 27-10 kills. Notable player of the game: kurO (Viktor: 11/2/5, 286 CS, 34.4k damage to champions).
Cloud 9 vs yoe Flash Wolves: yoe Flash Wolves
Things didn't fare well for Cloud 9 in their second game either, giving up a convincing lead to only completely throw over the match in the last 7 minutes of the game. The teams traded well in the early game, but Cloud 9 was doing just that much better, accumulating nearly an 8k gold lead over the course of the first 30 minutes of the game. The Flash Wolves proved to be a lot more resilient, however, and managed to crawl their way back into the match, closing it out at 45 minutes. 8-6 towers, 20-21 kills. Notable player of the game: Neverloses (Caitlyn: 8/6/11, 348 CS, 42.2k damage to champions).
Group B
Gambit vs CJ Entus: CJ Entus
Things looked pretty even through the early part of the game--Gambit was able to put up quite a fight against CJ, even securing as much as a 2k gold lead in the early part of the game. Mistakes were made at dragon, though, and Gambit could never quite recover while CJ started to take down objective after objective. After a cascade of kills and objectives, CJ was able to close out the match a little under 45 minutes. 11-6 towers, 20-13 kills. Notable player of the game: Space (Kog'Maw: 11/1/6, 292 CS, 35.2k damage to champions).
Team SoloMid vs WE: Team SoloMid
Team SoloMid was able to secure a gentle lead in the early game, capturing an early dragon and first blood. Things really started to look favorable for TSM at a pre-dragon fight at around 14 minutes (TSM traded 2 deaths for 4 kills), and then the follow up dragon fight at 16 (TSM lost another 2 and dragon for an Ace). WE did a good job prolonging the fight, but it was ultimately not enough. TSM closed out the match just shy of 36 minutes. 9-4 towers, 30-14 kills. Notable player of the game: Lustboy (2/3/26, 44 wards, 93% kill participation).
Team SoloMid vs CJ Entus: Team SoloMid
CJ and TSM kept it fairly even up to 24 minutes, trading a kill here and an objective there but making no noticeable leads either way. Things swung the way of TSM after a dragon fight went their way at around 24 minutes that left CJ Entus unable to recover. After a baron and a strong push at the bottom inhibitor turret, TSM forced their way into CJ's base, wrapping up the game just over 29 minutes. 8-2 towers, 14-5 kills. Notable player of the game: Bjergsen (1/0/11, 255 CS, 18k damage to champions).
Gambit vs WE: WE
Gambit, like Cloud 9, just had a rough patch of games--they seemed to be a little out of sync on their shot-calling, and it seemed that Gambit had the uncanny ability to show up moments too late to make a difference, but just enough time to be tacked on the end of a killing spree. WE was able to wrap up the match around 30 minutes. 10-1 towers, 18-6 kills. Notable player of the game: Mystic (8/2/6, 289 CS, 19.1k damage to champions).
Day 2 Full Schedule and Predictions:
Group A
4:00 AM PST - SK Gaming vs yoe Flash Wolves [Decider Match]
Prediction: SK Gaming. Their first meeting was a pretty convincing win on the side of SK. SK will have quite a bit to think about after their defeat, but eliminating the Flash Wolves shouldn't be too far out of the question.
5:10 AM PST - CJ Entus vs WE [Decider Match]
Prediction: CJ Entus. WE looked to have it all together during their match against Gambit, but will it be enough to take down the #2 team from Korea? Both CJ Entus and WE like longer matches, but CJ has the edge that will tip the scales in their favor.
EDIT: Because the tournament style was not particularly transparent, I made some edits here--including the fact that the yoe Flash Wolves took the match over SK Gaming, and WE beat CJ Entus. Things definitely didn't go the way of predictions this morning in the decider matches!
6:30 AM PST - GE Tigers vs WE [Semi-Finals - Best of 3]
Prediction: GE Tigers 2-0. GE has brought a whole new caliber of game play to Katowice that just isn't adequately prepared for. The Semi-Finals either way will go the way of GE; it'll be notable if WE is able to pull off a win.
9:45 AM PST - Team SoloMid vs yoe Flash Wolves [Semi-Finals - Best of 3]
Prediction: Team SoloMid 2-1. The match between Team SoloMid and CJ Entus was a delightful surprise; it seems like TSM has really done their homework on the Korean teams at this tournament. The odds are in the favor of Team SoloMid, but there's a good chance that yoe Flash Wolves will put up a good enough fight to take one victory off of TSM.
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