With Katowice on the horizon, there was a lot at stake for the League of Legends teams at Intel Extreme Masters Taipei - only one team could go home with a ticket to the World Championship. This translated into some beautiful plays, niche picks and epic comebacks. Let’s take a look at our top five!
Bangkok Titans and Trinity Force LeBlanc
As far as niche picks go, AD LeBlanc is definitely one of them. The build originated in the Korean solo queue, but it now looks like it’s found its way into mainstream competitive play as well. The pick didn’t work out for BKT WarL0cK due to the dominating performance given by the yoe Flash Wolves in their second game, but it was quite a rush to see Doran’s Blade get picked up as a first item as well as Trinity Force later in the game!
Chawy’s bittersweet pentakill
Have you ever got a pentakill but weren’t sure how to feel about it because you were absolutely dominating the enemy team? That must have been how Chawy felt in the closing moments of the game versus Saigon Jokers after dominating the enemy team for a little over 25 minutes. Nonetheless, this was a great moment for Taipei Assassins in front of their home crowd!
Sivir plays by Taipei Assassins’ Lupin
Sivir was key for TPA in the second half of the tournament. The champion got picked in their 25 minute domination game against Saigon Jokers as well as in the first two games of the grand final. It wasn’t until yFW started banning out the champion that they found a way to beat their opponent. However, before that happened, Lupin’s Sivir was responsible for what was probably the most beautiful play of Intel Extreme Masters Taipei.
TPA used Sivir’s ult to speed up the entire team, after which they ran all the way down mid lane, shielding yFW Morgana’s binding and eventually catching the enemy team completely off guard with a final flash/Tibbers.
The 0-2 comeback by yoe Flash Wolves
yoe Flash Wolves managed to stay undefeated until the grand final, where they started out 0-2 against a more organized TPA. Things changed in game three, however, when picks and bans went in favor of yFW as a nice answer to TPA in games one and two. Banning out Sivir for TPA and picking up Kassadin in games four and five resulted in an impressive comeback for yFW, taking the series 3-2 and exacting revenge on TPA for beating them in their League of Legends Master Series matchup earlier this year.
The four-man bottom tower dive by yoe Flash Wolves
We don’t often see four-man dives in the early game any more but that just makes them special when a team decides to go for it. yFW was that team in game three of the grand final and the pulled it off perfectly, juggling tower aggro between all four members and picking up two crucial kills because of it.
If you’re looking for an overview of the event, you can check out our day one, day two and day three recaps respectively, and don’t forget that tickets for the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Katowice in March are already on sale! It’s the biggest Intel Extreme Masters event of the year, so make sure you don’t miss out!
