There can only be one winner, but there can be some surprises along the way!
Liquid came fighting with their trio of European Zerg with Ret and Snute and TLO always aiming for a podium finish. But I shall get to that later….
Firstly, lets touch upon the bring your own computer (BYOC) qualifier held on the Friday before the event at insomnia 48. There were some great players in the mix, some of who had attempted to qualify during the online stages but were unable to do so. Notably TLO, JonnyREcco, Ourk and Ziktomini were looking to secure their place in the finals and indeed managed to do so alongside some very talented UK players from teams such as Infused, FM-eSports and Roar Gaming.
Moving onto the main tournament beginning with the group stages which were incredibly impressive with a few big shocks. It is worth highlighting that one of the favourites to take the whole event, ForGG, was caught in an awkward 3/4th place tie in a group where the top 3 advance. It started off well for him, but BabyKnight and JonnyREcco both managed to beat him 2:1. BabyKnight and ForGG were both tied with ForGG slightly better on map score. However, the tournament rules clearly stated that in a tie the head to head result would decide meaning ForGG was knocked out in the group stage!
Group stages saw all the Liquid players advance top of their group as well as two Germans in TLO and the up and coming HeRoMaRinE going 5-0.
While I could talk a lot about the games in the RO12 onwards I think it best to just highlight some key results and leave you to go watch the VODs! One of the most exciting games was the QF between JonnyREcco and HeRoMaRinE which went to the 5th and final map. As well as being exceptionally closely matched in skill, both players had a lot to prove. JonnyREcco, on the hunt for a new team after leaving Team Dignitas a few weeks ago was keen to impress potential scouts where as HeRoMaRinE was no doubt looking to make a shock as the youngest competitor at the event. Both had solid play but HeRoMaRinE eventually managed to take it and advanced to the semi-finals where he lost to Sting.
Our two finalists Snute and Sting
The finals were incredible intense, the map score of 3-0 to snute really does not give the full story. Each game was very close, both players putting on an amazing performance. The final engagement for Snute was great, flying overlords in ahead of his army to trigger widow mines that really summed up just how thought out all of his plays had been throughout the event.
The final results were as follows: 1st place: Liquid Snute 2nd place: Western Wolves Sting 3rd place: mousesports HeRoMaRinE
We really hope that you had fun and enjoyed yourselves this event no matter if you were taking part in any tournaments, or you were just here for the social!
As always you can find some of the highlights from the event on our Flickr pages, The VoD’s are available on Fileplay and you can find our general coverage of insomnia48 on the forums and the iSeries website.
The event will be closing at 4pm, so all network and power will be shut off at this point! You’ll be pleased to know there is currently no major travel disruption and all the trains are currently running on time.
Thank you for joining us and see you at insomnia49! (hopefully without the snow next time)
Sunday at Insomnia 48 brings the final of the League of Legends tournament with teams Animate eSports and ‘Eh Ehhhhhhh’ competing for the grand prize of £1500 or being left with the runner up prize of £625.
Coming in to the match the strong favourites ‘Eh Ehhhhhhh’ won all of their games leading to the final, knocking Animate eSports in to the loser bracket earlier on in the day. With this advantage they enter the finals with a one map advantage in a best of three.
Casting the match were @dignitasStress, @Pulsed and @spuddington, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the table.
Lineups for the teams are as follows:
Eh Ehhhhhhh
Animate e-sports
Top:
Nitrix
Tundra
Mid:
Cookmysock
Mayh3M
Jungle:
Taylor
Akilord
ADC:
Shacol0l
Akamezz
Support:
yerrowstarr
Samwise12
First Game:
Animate pick a strong push and disengage lineup with the following champions; Varus, Thresh, Elise, Vi and Twisted Fate. Countering this, Eh Ehhhhhhh chose a team fight oriented lineup with; Jarvan, Zyra, Caitlyn, Renekton and Orianna.
The first action of the game came from Animate eSports invading the lower tri-bush and catching Zyra out of position, first blood to Animate e-sports definitely gave them the confidence to push this game to a two game final.
Eh Ehhhhhhh spent a lot of the early game pushing Animate eSports back to their towers, keeping up the map control without much contest. A counter gank from Jarvan in top lane and a Twisted Fate ultimate gank in the bottom lane took this game to a 4-2 lead for Eh Ehhhhhhh at the 10 minute mark.
Eh Ehhhhhhh kept up the pressure and managed to take down all three outer towers of Animate e-sports, whilst Animate eSports concentrated on picking up the occasional kill. With a 4k gold lead for Eh Ehhhhhhh they looked for team fights where they could, Nitrix on Renekton was the player to watch keeping Animate eSports at bay. 25 minutes in, Eh Ehhhhhhh managed to take a good advantage and turn it in to both a dragon kill and 4 kills on Animate eSports. No more than 5 minutes later Animate eSports turn the tables and steal Baron Nashor from Eh Ehhhhhhh giving them the boost they desperately needed to stay in the game.
Eh Ehhhhhhh were still in a good position objective wise in the game, 34 minutes in they were 5 towers up to 2 and 7k ahead in gold. As a team, they made a push behind the creep waves to take down the last inner tower in top lane and give them the map control they wanted to close out the game.
At 40 minutes both teams were dancing around the centre of the map looking to pressure objectives as they spawn. Nitrix on Renekton made an ambitious initiation deep in to the team of Animate eSports, which Animate eSports managed to turn around and ace Eh Ehhhhhhh allowing them to not only push through the towers in the middle lane but take down the inhibitor also.
Not 3 minutes later Eh Ehhhhhhh are pushing through the middle to counteract the supercreeps coming toward their base when Animate eSports again catch them out of position. A second ace by Animate eSports allowed them to push to the nexus towers and win the map for a 1-1 result so far.
Second game:
Animate this game aimed for a safer line up than before, with the confidence they received from winning the first finals map, they aimed for a more conservative team to have a better shot at taking the title.
Animate eSports pick; Varus, Lulu, Vi, Irelia, Twisted Fate versus the Eh Ehhhhhhh team of; Jarvan, Thresh, Ezreal, Jayce, Kassadin.
Eh Ehhhhhhh had appeared to be going for the early to mid game assassination lineup where they would aim to establish dominance and prevent Animate e-sports from gaining a foothold.
To start the game, Animate invaded again to secure first blood to their jungler Vi. This allowed them to switch top and bottom lanes secure in the knowledge that Irelia can handle any lane thrown at her. This proved more than successful, with Irelia escaping Eh Ehhhhhhh’s various attempts to keep her in check, leaving her at tiny fractions of health and staying ahead of her competition, Jarvan.
A series of ganks at the top lane, involving AD Carries and Supports for both teams, brought Animate eSports to a 4-3 lead in kills. The pressure then let them take down the middle turret, a key objective in the early-game plan.
In an attempt to regain control of the games momentum, Eh Ehhhhhhh made a show of attempting the dragon objective in order to bait out Twisted Fate’s ultimate, successfully catching him in a trap.
Mere minutes later, Animate eSports pulled off the same strategy and caught Eh Ehhhhhhh in an off-balance team fight, where they managed to ace the team, taking the dragon and pushing themselves to a 36k to 29k gold advantage and 9-7 kill lead.
Next Animate eSports again put pressure on the dragon objective, forcing Eh Ehhhhhhh to initiate a fight in an attempt to stay in the game. Animate eSports won the fight with an ace and the majority of their team still standing, allowing them to push through the middle and take down the inhibitor. Using the pressure of the supercreeps, Animate eSports methodically take down a second inhibitor to grant them map superiority.
Finally Animate eSports feigned an attempt on the Baron Nashor objective forcing Eh Ehhhhhhh to respond. Animate eSports switched to the top lane and the remaining inhibitor, steadily pushing until taking the nexus and the game, finishing with 22 kills to 13 in favour of Animate eSports.
Impressive teamwork from both teams in an amazingly close final here at i48 and hopefully we’ll see more of these teams at future Multiplay events and also online in the RIOT League of Legends series. A very well done to Animate eSports coming through as the underdogs to take the title and the prize money.
Liquid Snute
Western Wolves Sting
mousesports HeRoMaRinE
Shed and a_spec round up an awesome, if snowy event. Insomnia 49 Earlier Bird is on for one week only, so don’t forget!
