The second day of League of Legends at Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice featured several mind-blowing games. Let's take a look at what transpired on Saturday!
The first game of the day saw Invictus Gaming take on Fnatic in a rematch of their round one standoff. In Friday's match, Fnatic took a big hit in the early part of the game by messing up in the laning phase, and were consequently snowballed upon. This time around, Fnatic wouldn't throw the game away in the first few minutes. In methodical fashion, they focused on taking objectives, most notably dragons, and accumulated an ever-growing gold lead. After a slow game, they pushed in to take the win, clearly showing they can turn the Asian playstyle in their favor.
Next up was a game that was actually supposed to be played on Friday: Gambit Gaming vs. Team WE. Both teams showed disappointing performances in the first round and needed a strong win to not only to keep their tournament dreams intact but also to regain their confidence. Team WE took control of the first half of the game, exerting more lane pressure and generally outrotating the Russians. After some amazing turnarounds of both ganks and teamfights, Genja picked up enough kills to carry his team with some sublime positioning and decision-making. The Russians went on to seize the win in traditional Gambit Gaming style, having opted for comfort picks and some wicked item builds.
The Russians went on to face the AZUBU Taipei Assassins in a rematch of their round one matchup. The Assassins debuted two new champions on the world stage: Zed and Jax. Gambit, on the other hand, took away Lee Sin from the Taiwanese. Diamondprox proved that he is still the one true master of the blind monk by completely dominating the early game and securing his team dragon after dragon. Genja took the team on his back in the late game, ripping the Assassins apart and showing that he has no issues in dealing with a farmed Jax.The Russians went on to take their second win of the day and thus regained their fans' faith.
The rest of the matches of the day were the semifinals. Fnatic and Cloud 9 HyperX gave us quite a show in a nail-biting set that ended 2-1 in Fnatic's favor. The first two games were characterized by slow and methodical pushing and snowballing gold leads by playing extremely safe. The third game had xPeke's Ziggs supporting his side lanes all game with some highly accurate Mega Inferno Bombs, showing a degree of global presence one would rather expect from a Karthus. An honorable mention goes to sOAZ, who showed the world that there is still a place for Malphite in the current meta.
The second semifinal had now-favorite Gambit Gaming taking on the KT Rolster Bullets. The first game had the Koreans show that there are, in fact, counters to Renekton in this world by bringing out Shen. Darien faced major difficulties in the top lane as inSec managed to go even in lane while offering much more utility by providing his team with global pressure and powerful split pushes. The Bullets would show some strong tactical outplays, catching out Alex Ich's LeBlanc on multiple occasions. As such, they went on to accumulate an unovercomeable lead and take the first game.
The second game was perhaps the most exciting one yet. Here, Gambit would show that they are without a doubt one of the most resilient teams in competitive League of Legends. Despite being lacking in gold almost all game, they managed to make sure that this deficit never swung out of control. Against all odds, they managed to pick off Ryu's Kassadin in the very late game and almost clutched a win. They would once against be tactically outplayed by the Koreans, however, and lost the second game as well, this time to a team backdoor. Gambit Gaming left the stage with their names on the lips of the crowd after an amazing showing. Even though they're out of the tournament, we'll definitely remember their performance here today.
Sunday will see the Grand Final between Fnatic and the KT Rolster Bullets. Will Fnatic show that the Koreans aren't invincible? Make sure not to miss this best of five set take place tomorrow at 17:00 CET on twitch.tv/esltv_lol! Additionally, all VODs will soon be available on our YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure.