FACEIT Invitational: RG vs NiP

Game 1

Bans – Reason Gaming ban out Vi, Kayle and Lee Sin. Ninjas in Pyjamas ban out Kassadin, Elise and Heimerdinger.

The Action.

With no level one action, dance off aside, both teams head into a standard 1/1/2 lane setup. Relatively even in farm, the entirety of the Summoners Rift remains calm until the 10 minute mark rolls on, where a quick towerdive from nukeduck allows him to take down Sencux for the first blood of the game. Over in the top lane ZoroZero is taken very low, popping sadism to escape but is almost finished off by a cross map snipe from Krislund’s Super Mega Death Rocket. With Amin camping around the Top Lane Reason Gaming decide to grab the first dragon of the game uncontested, Trashy and Sencux then choose to rotate around to the Mid Lane, chaining the CC from Steel Tempest and Cyclone to take down NukeDuck under his turret, pushing the gold lead into RG’s favour.

Beansu and Zorozero have a skirmish in the top lane, and although it looks like beasnu has the upper hand, Amin leaps in to give the kill over to Mundo. Krislund gets caught in a Death Sentence in the bottom lane, but Mithys hook is questionable as it allows BarneyD to take out Freeze, which in turn allows Reason Gaming to take away the second dragon without and resistance.
After a small fight in the midlane, NiP attempt to sneak a Baron, but RG catch on and dive into the pit, trading Sencux for Amin. With no Smite on the side of NiP RG manage to secure the baron, before taking down Dr Mundo, a pair of top lane turrets and a dragon for good measure, extending their gold lead to 7k.

As the Baron respawns 30 minutes into the game, RG manage to catch Zorozero who is seemingly over confident in his ability to tank a whole team, but NiP manage to turn the fight around , picking up a triple kill for NukeDucks’s Fizz. As RG attempt  to push up the midlane, BarneyD is caught warding by NukeDuck, who obliterates him in the blink of an eye. With the threat of a Tibbers stun momentary gone, NiP decide to take bait a fight around the Baron Pit. Beansu dives too deep, leaving RG to pull away letting him die. Not wanting to let NiP take a Baron, 2 more members of RG get caught in front of the pit, giving the baron buff over to NiP along with decreasing the gold lead to a mere 2k.

RG take out Freeze, and it looks bleak as they are caught between NiP and their Base. With the AD provided by the composition, Reason decide to just ignore NiP and destroy their base while beansu holds NiP off for as long as possible. Despite being against a Baron Buffed Team, RG manage to take out the Nexus before Nip can take their lives, picking up the first win in this Best of Three.

MVP A Tough choice in this game, with everyone on the winning team playing equally well, I have to give the MVP of this match to beansu. Despite being a little behind in lane he manage to take away the baron at NiP’s first attempt, and as the rest of the team went for the game winning push successfully held off NiP for long enough to pick up the win.

 

Game 2

Bans – Reason Gaming ban out Vi, Kayle and Elise. Ninjas in Pyjamas ban out Kassadin, Kayle and Annie.

The Action.

Again starting with a calm game, the first hint of action arriving in the bottom lane, as NiP lock down Krislund with a Solar Flare combined with a gank from Amin’s Lee sin giving Freeze First Bood on Jinx. With Reason Gaming taking down the dragon, Amin heads top to assist Zorozero in taking out the first turret of the game.

NiP take the second turret of the game in the bottom lane, and then catch out krislund in the bottom lane. NiP look to take extend their lead, taking a dragon uncontested before applying pressure to the midlane. NukeDuck gets hooked, but NiP turn the situation on its head taking out BarneyD and Trashy, still without giving up a kill, and taking a turret.

As RG respawn they manage to take out Mithy, but Mithy is tanky enough to live long enough for NiP to take two kills in exchange, before grabbing another kill on BarneyD. Now 8-1 up in kills and 6k up in Gold, NiP are now starting to snowball this game out of RG’s control, thought they fight back by taking out Mithy and the bottom lane turret that he was defending.

Around the wolf camp of RG’s half of the map NiP engage with a Solar Flare onto BarneyD, who gets taken out by freeze which procs the Get Excited passive to take out Krislund. Trashy at least manages to take out Zorozero and jump out with the reset, but it is still a 2 for 1 trade in NiP’s favour.

NiP attempt to take a Baron, but abandons it as Zorozero spots RG heading for the pit. Completely caught out RG fall to NiP giving up an Ace including a quadra-kill onto Freeze. With NiP free to take the baron and already having a huge advantage in teamfights, RG choose to surrender, making the series 1-1.

MVP – Freeze played brilliantly on Jinx this game, using the passive to perfectly reposition himself in the early teamfights and pick up a quadra-kill in the game winning battle.

 

 

Game 3:

Bans: Reason Gaming ban Vi, Kayle and Lee Sin. Ninjas in Pyjamas ban Kassadin, Elise and Yasuo

The Action:

Both NiP and Reason Gaming play a safe level 1 and head into regular lane matchups.  Trashy and Beansu make the first move at top lane and pick up first blood at 4:50.  Sencux kills NukeDuck in a 1v1 which allows for the first dragon of the game to go to Reason Gaming uncontested at 10:11.  A skirmish initiated by Reason’s botlane gets turned on it’s head from a gank by Amin.  Beansu and Trashy force down the first tower of the game at 12:45 and pick up Zorozero in the process.  Beansu survives a gank from NukeDuck which allows for Reason Gaming to push down a tower at mid.

As the game transitioned into mid game, the game was very close, with Reason Gaming only having a 1.5k gold lead.  A strong push from Reason Gaming results in the mid inhibitor tower going down and NiP losing a fight on top of it.  Reason’s pressure and map control leads to another tower and baron control.  A 2 for 1 fight in favor of Reason turns into a dragon as well for them.  Reason was in control of the map and lanes but a fight in NiP’s red jungle goes wrong for Reason Gaming and results in a 4 for 1 fight and the Baron for NiP.  Reason’s 4k gold lead turns into an even game and a Baroned NiP.

While Reason Gaming had control of the mid game, NiP succeeded in stalling and their patience was rewarded with map control as they made the transition into the late game.  NiP does not take too much while they had the Baron buff and Reason attempts a fast push into mid. Zorozero gets caught by Reason but manages to burn a few ultimates and flashes in the process.  Since Reason managed to stall out the Baron, they were able to stabilize the game again.   After a long standoff at the mid lane between both teams, NiP wins a fight 4 for 2 and takes down Reason’s mid inhibitor as well.  After NiP attempted to take the Baron, a very messy fight broke out but NiP barely edged out the fight 4 for 2 with all the HP bars bleeding.  Following the fight, Zorozero and Mithy catch Trashy allowing for a safe Baron pickup by NiP.  With NiP having the Baron buff again, they secured a 10k gold lead and begin to push on the bottom lane.  NiP forces down the bottom inhibitor through brute force and kills for 4 members of Reason, ending the game and series at 2:1.

MVP – with a commanding score of 7/1/9 and 377 cs, Freeze earns the title of MVP this game.  Freeze had excellent positioning all throughout the game and never allowed Sencux or Trashy to get near him.  Every teamfight, Freeze safely fought from the back, which forced Reason to use the majority of their damage on other targets which led to him cleaning up most fights.

Game 1 & 2 Coverage: tomwantsrez, Game 3 Coverage EnderNess