NA Qualifier In-Depth Recap: Day 3

Day three of the competition for the North American qualifiers marked the last chance for previously eliminated teams to come back for a victory and the final available spot in the Season 3 circuit.  With DirtNap Gaming, Azure Gaming, Meat Playground, and Team MRN fighting for their place in the rest of the Riot Season 3 events, all four of the teams looked fairly even.  We saw some great, close games on all fronts.

 

DirtNap Gaming vs Azure Gaming:  

Game One -For the first game of the set, DirtNap Gaming banned out Twisted Fate, Malphite, and Nunu, and chose Shen, Cho'Gath, Ahri, Graves, and Sona.  Azure Gaming banned Jayce, Kha'Zix, and Evelynn, and took Olaf, Nocturne, Ryze, Ezreal, and Lulu.  After some early game dances, neither team came out with any kills or clear advantages.  Both bottom lanes switched into the top lane, making the match ups roughly equal again.  Cris's Shen took an early kill on Nothinghere's Olaf, giving DNG a slight edge.  Soon after, DNG sent four players mid to hard-pressure the turret after they took AG's top turret, but couldn't quite take it.  AG countered with mid pressure of their own, but they too were unsuccessful.  Demunlul and Bloodwater went for a hard engagement in the top lane, picking up a double kill on Ecko and Prophet while AG picked up a kill mid, leaving the score at 2-2 with a 1k gold advantage falling to DNG.  As Cris pushed aggressively at the bottom turret, the entirety of AG headed down to stop him.  Though they were met by the rest of DNG as well, they came out on top of the team fight, setting the game at 4-7 in favor of AG with a 2.5k gold lead.  With an incredibly initiation fron DNG with a perfect Rupture from Cho'Gath and taunt from Shen, DNG evens up the kills in AG's jungle.  They rush for the Baron shortly after, but AG had respawned and raced them there.  In another engagement, AG swung the game back their way against the still-injured DNG.  The kills now stood in favor of AG at 11-9 with even gold.  In yet another near instant engagement at dragon, DNG came out with the fight victory, losing only two players to AG's 5.  

With several back and forth fights, the game became even closer, with both teams taking small edges over the other and then losing them.  DNG came out ahead just barely in a major fight in their own jungle, with several of their memebers narrowly surviving.  This placed them ahead with a slightly more decisive 6.5k gold lead, but the game was still up for grabs.  With a four kill and slowly building 13k gold advantage, DNG pushed into AG's base.  AG tried to defend, but just couldn't stop the DNG's efforts.  DNG took the first game, though the fight was very close throughout.

Game Two -In game two, AG banned out Jayce, Shen, Kha'Zix against their own composition of Olaf, Amumu, Evelynn, Ezreal, and Lulu.  DNP banned Twisted Fate, Malphite, and Nunu and chose Jax, Cho'Gath, Gragas, Graves, and Sona.  Some early game back andd forth left no casualties except a few of DNG's wards.  With a lot of close fights that resulted in no kills, DJ LAMBO's Amumu gank to the bottom lane picked up the first blood.  With Cris getting very denied by Lulu Graves in the top lane, there was a 2.4k gold lead in favor of AG at the 7 minute mark, a huge difference for so early on.  A 2-1 favorable exchange in the bottom lane again turned that lead into 3k quite quickly, with a 3-1 kill score.  Although Cris started to farm more after his tower fell, DNG was still losing engagements due to AG's early lead.  With Azure Gaming holding onto a sustantial mid game lead, they slowly waited for it to grew and for the right engagement to come along.  Instead of forcing the fight, they waited for the opportunity to move in on DNP, and were able to win a big team fight for a definitive lead.

AG continued to take their time, just nursing their healthy lead, not taking any chances of throwing their advantage away.  Finally, they were able to safely push into DNP's base for a nearly uncontested base rush to take the second game and push the series into the full three matches.

Game Three - For the final game, DNG banned Malphite, Nunu, and Olaf, picking Shen, Lee Sin, Karthus, Ezreal, and Taric for their own.  Azure Gaming countered with bans on Jayce, Evelynn, and Kha'Zix, choosing Cho'Gath, Lulu, Amumu, Miss Fortune, and Lux.  AG pushed into the enemy jungle at level one, picking up the first blood for the first real pre-lane kill we saw in the series.  With the kill going onto Miss Fortune, Demunlul started out with a lane advantage.  DNG countered with aggression of their own in the top lane, landing a kill on Bloodwater.  DNG pulled their kill advantage up 2-1, but the gold remained fairly even.  With a few kills given away from AG, DNP took the early lead in this game with a 4-2 kill and 1k gold advantage.  DNG and AG picked up matching double kills to keep the standings relatively close.

The incredible back and forth action that we grew accustomed to between these two teams carried through and through with each team catching the other out and the other countering with the same.  With a great initiation from Amumu and Miss Fortune ultimates in the river, a very close team fight left only Nothinghere's Cho'Gath for AG still alive on the entire map.  Though AG won the fight, Cho'Gath was unable to capitalize much on the ace alone, and the game remained quite level.  When it looked like DNG's team fight victory would be enough to close the game, super minions had pushed into their base, preventing them from making an offensive move.

DirtNap Gaming picked up the Baron buff, and took notes on AG's very careful pushing from the previous game.  Finally they took a team fight for the ace and ultimate victory, moving on to the next round.

 

Meat Playground vs Team MRN:

Game One - At the start, Meat Playground banned Jarvan, Riven, and Anivia, choosing Kha'Zix, Amumu, Nunu, Kog'Maw, and Cho'Gath.  Team MRN decided to take out Elise, Malphite, and Evelynn, going with Ezreal, Shen, Katarina, Sona, and Irelia.  Out of the gate, Arthelon's mid lane Kha'Zix set high pressure against MRN Ecco's Katarina.  The solo top xHazzard Cho'Gath sympathized in a similar situation aganist the lane swapped Ezreal and Sona from MRN.  No kills came out very early, and gold sat perfectly even for the first five minutes.  With both junglers trying their best to alleviate the high-stress lanes everywhere, neither could secure kills against the slippery champions on both teams.  xHazzard lost his tower very early to the lane swap, and Sona and Ezreal headed down to thebot lane to try to apply the same pressure to Nunu and Kog'Maw in an effort to slow down Kog'Maw's scaling into mid and late game.  Both teams aggressively took kills and too aggressively got caught out for deaths.

The score had been tied up when Team MRN engaged into what looked like a bad situation for them at dragon.  The fight turned around when Ecco got his reset, and MRN secured the ace after losing three of their members.  The score now sat at 5-7 in favor of eam MRN, with a 2k gold advantage.  Shortly after, MRN found themselves caught out in the mid lane after MP respawned, and Meat Playground quickly cleaned up several kills to push them into the lead by 4k gold and one kill.  Not long after, MP turned another team fight in their favor, going 5 kills for 3 of their deaths, increasing their gold lead to 6k with Arthelon's huge damage from Kha'Zix.

Meat Playground picked up several more kills and the Baron buff, only pushing further ahead of MRN.  The strong snowball and late game power of MP's team could not be stopped, and they took the first game.

Game Two - Meat Playround banned out Evelynn, Kha'Zix, and Malphite and chose Cho'Gath, Amumu, Katarina, Kog'Maw, and Nunu.  Team MRN banned Jarvan, Riven, and Anivia and chose Olaf, Shen, Ahri, Urgot, and Taric.  Meat Playground picked up first blood, taking down MegaZero's Olaf.  MRN responded by killing xHazzard, tying up the kill score and roughly evening out gold.  MP sent three players to the top lane and took three kills, taking a much larger lead.  Although MP had 4 kills to MRN's 1, the gold was only separated by .3k.  While MP continued to pull ahead in kills, the gold margin stayed quite small, and MRN took two turrets for MP's one.  MRN began to pick up more kills and even pulled slightly ahead in gold, now having destroyed four turrets to Meat Playground's one.  A huge team fight in the mid lane gave Team MRN the ace along with a hefty gold advantage and raising the kill score to 8-7 in MRN's favor.  The ace allowed MRN to pick up the Baron buff, and their position in the game looked better than ever before.

Pushing into MP's base, a perfect charm allowed MRN to take out Arthelon, but they lost their own AP carry in the process.  Retreating to wait for the respawn, they cleared both sides of the jungle, took Dragon, and pulled 6k gold ahead.  With another big charm onto Lemongod, MRN took three kills for only one death, but could not safely push very far before MP had respawned.  With a final aggressive push into MP's base, MRN comes out on top by the skin of their teeth and ends the second game. 

Game Three- In the final game that would decide who would face up against DirtNap Gaming in the last round, Meat Playground banned Jarvan, Riven, and Anivia for their Shen, Cho'Gath, Nunu, Vayne, and Vladimir team.  Team MRN eliminated Evelynn, Kha'Zix, and Malphite, choosing Olaf, Nocturne, Ahri, Taric, and Urgot for themselves.  Team MRN's early invade into MP's jungle gave them first blood on Nk Inc's Cho'Gath.  Not long after, they went for a second kill on Cho'Gath, just missing it but still stealing the red buff.  By immediately placing a pink ward in the bottom lane tri brush, Team MRN was able to prevent the visionless Vayne from effectively farming.  MRN kept up heavy pressure in all lanes without overextending.  They played with high aggression paired with good discretion.  MP mirrored their good judgment by not allowing the aggression to result in many kills.  MRN took a 1k gold lead at 8 minutes.  MRN refused to relent with some huge tower dives that turned a close game into a 2-5 game and a 4k gold advantage.  In a mid lane fight, MP took three kills for three deaths in a surprisingly even trade for the team that was behind.  The fight didn't seem to slow down MRN, however, and they pressed MP's top tower.  They took out three players and it seemed as though they could continue the base pressure.  They moved on to take the mid lane turret and turned around an MP engage for even more kills.

With the game at 14-5 and 10k gold in between the two teams, it didn't seem as though MP could win a fight.  With an amazing juke by MegaZero, MRN perpetuated their lead with almost no losses after the early game.  At Baron, MP dove in for the steal, but lost four team members in the process.  With 11k extra gold in their pockets even after the Baron steal, MRN became unstoppable.  An even trade came out in MP's base, but it did very little to slow MRN's momentum.  They pushed into the Nexus and earned their right to the very last set of the qualifiers against DNG.

DirtNap Gaming vs Team MRN:

Game One - In the first game of the set, DNP took Shen, Lee Sin, Karthus, Ezreal, and Lulu against MRN's Olaf, Nocturne, Ahri, Urgot, and Taric.  DNP banned Jarvan, Anivia, and Malphite, while MRN took out Kha'Zix, Jayce, and Evelynn.  DNG took the first two kills, both of them on ClakeyD's Nocturne with an early invade and a defense against ClakeyD's attempted invade.  The pair of kills soon had a third to add as MegaZero's Olaf fell in the top lane to a gank.  Continual jungle pressure on ClakeyD transferred the red buff from Nocturne to Lee Sin with a well timed invasion and the help of Pr0lly's Karthus ult.  DNG pulled ahead with a gold lead of nearly 2k at 9 minutes and 4 kills to MRN's 0.  Though they were behind, they picked up the Dragon in spite of DNG's attempted steal.  MRN continued to fall behind in kills, with 8-2 soon showing clear differences between the relative strengths of the two teams.  An equal exchange over dragon turned slightly in MRN's favor with the Dragon picked up by ClakeyD.  The 4k gold difference at 19 minutes did not seem impossible for Team MRN, but DirtNap Gaming did not appear willing to give an inch.

In a huge surprise, a fight in MRN's jungle turns against DirtNap, and Team MRN picked up an ace for only two deaths.  The lead now shrunk to 3k gold adn 4 kills, which turned into 3k when MRN yet again took Dragon.  When DNG went for Baron, ClakeyD redeemed his early feeds with a perfect smite steal and an ideal engage that forced the ace in favor of MRN.  Now with a 4k gold edge of their own, MRN looked like their turnaround would follow the path of their previous comebacks for a win.  In the style we have seen repeated again and again, once MRN took the advantage, nothing could keep them from the enemy Nexus.  They took the first game and only needed one more win to gain entrance in to Season 3.

Game Two - For what MRN hoped was the last game of the tournament, and what DNP hoped they could turn around, MRN chose Olaf, Jarvan, Sona, Ezreal, and Ahri to DNP's Riven, Cho'Gath, Lulu, Graves, and .  MRN banned out Evelynn, Kha'Zix, and Jayce to DNP's Urgot, Anivia, and Malphite.  With an odd ban on Malphite, ClakeyD finally got to pick up Jarvan, the jungler he is most known for.  A relatively uneventful early game left jungle ganks with no successes, and everything sat equal at 9 minutes.  At last, MegaZero picked up first blood for his Olaf in the top lane, and some bottom lane action went 2 kills for 1 in favor of MRN again.  Now at 11 minutes, MRN had a 2.5k gold and 2 kill buffer between themselves and DNG.  In a slower paced game than we saw in the first round, MRN slowly nursed this lead into more than 6k and 4 kills.

As MRN started to pick up the steam they seem to need to dominate in the late game, DNG pulled off a Baron steal and three kills to the MRN players who overstayed at the base.  MRN still held a 10k and 6 kill lead, but DNG had made the first fight back in quite a while.  It looked like DNP had slowed down Team MRN, but one strong final push took out four of DNG's members and Team MRN, largely considered an underdog team, secured the last position in the Season 3 Circuit.

 

Congratulations to all five qualified teams: Curse Gaming, Team FeaR, Good Game University, The Brunch Club, and Team MRN!