DAY 2 RECAP

Only three teams were left, and OMG was looking as unstoppable as they were throughout Season 3. But the challengers remaining were two of the most intimidating teams they could face: though Invictus Gaming was down in the Loser’s Bracket, they were the only team of the LPL Summer Split to hold a winning record vs OMG. Royal Club Huang Zu, meanwhile, had two dangerous aces up their sleeve: Wh1t3zZ and Uzi’s carry potential has been proven time and again to be the real thing, and must not be left unchecked.

ONLY ONCE

With China’s first World Championship ticket on the line, Royal Club Huang Zu pulled out their strongest weapons, only to learn to regret it. That is not to say that the Bearshark combo between Tabe’s support Annie and Wh1t3zz’s Fizz wasn’t impacting, as it easily swept through OMG’s ranks in Game 1. But much of their success may have had more to do with Godlike’s amazing Shadow Dash across two of OMG during a level one counter-invade back towards Royal’s red buff, securing two early kills and snowballing to a fast win.

Most teams, setting up for game two, would immediately ban out the champions that were crucial to their enemies’ victory. OMG, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch. While a level one defeat might throw a wrench in their plans, they knew what to do against Royal’s signature All-Assassins All-In composition. Annie wasn’t the problem: as a support champion, her only role was to drop Tibbers onto a team with her stun up, and Janna could force the disengage when Tabe tried. Shen wasn’t the problem: they could defend against the level one action that wrecked them last game, and Gogoing’s Renekton could bully him in-lane.

The problem was Wh1t3zZ’s Fizz. But instead of banning the champion, they put Lovelin on Vi, Cool on Orianna, and made his life miserable. Royal Club was sent packing to the loser’s bracket. Team OMG was secured a spot in the World Championship.

COMEBACK KIDS

Morale has been a big factor in the Chinese Regional this weekend, but OMG’s defeat seemed to have only stirred a greater appetite in them. Invictus Gaming took game one cleanly as Godlike’s Shyvana was locked out of farm and game by the threat of illuSioN’s Cocoons and Zzitai forced Wh1t3zZ to blow his Death Mark uselessly against Ahri with Zhonya’s Hourglass. But where Wh1t3zZ was unable to make an impact, Uzi was more than happy to step in.

Uzi’s Twitch was an outright bully to XiaoXiao in Game 2, wrecking iG’s support player almost as fast as he could respawn. He was up four kills by five minutes, and Invictus Gaming surrendered at 20 minutes sharp rather than play it out against his campaign of terror. Game 3 was a more even affair, especially as illuSioN was threatening to go out of control as he landed pin-point Dark Flights onto Godlike and Uzi, but his excessively cautious build order cost him mid-game pressure as Royal Club quickly rallied and recovered. Despite going an early 5-0, illuSioN’s defensive, utility-based build meant that he was doing only as much damage as Lucky’s Jarvan in mid-game team fights, while Uzi and Wh1t3zZ were again snowballing towards an unstoppable momentum.

Invictus Gaming’s defeat was a springboard for Royal Club Huang Zu, and they entered the grudge match for the seeded position in high spirits. OMG should have been careful — the Royal Club they encountered here was a team hopped up on fresh adrenaline and eager to regain their honor. Though Yorick’s worked well in China’s jungles before, and often came out on top of Lucky’s Elise in 1v1 trades, his lack of hard crowd control was felt keenly by his teammates as Lucky set up a buffet for Uzi and Wh1t3zZ. The objectives control offered by a well-fed Gragas and Elise kept OMG locked out of Dragon, while the knockback from Explosive Cask befuddled OMG’s attempts defend their turrets against Uzi’s demolition work.

In fact, while they might have been able to deal with Wh1t3zZ alone, and have figured out a solution to the Bearshark combo between Fizz and Annie, they seemed to have no answers to Uzi’s Twitch. They lost in Game 2 to the same Fizz-Annie strategy they had so meticulously peeled apart at the start of the day, with the only real difference being Uzi’s long-range blitzkrieg. Worse yet, as if to take revenge for OMG’s seeming arrogance in the first set of the day, Uzi stayed on Twitch even as Lovelin locked in Vi.

But Lovelin can’t be everywhere, and it’s excruciatingly difficult to take anybody down, even with Assault & Battery ensuring he’d close in, if they’re being protected by Stand United and Wild Growth. Uzi was merely the bait to lure OMG into his team’s kill-box.

In a surprising turn of events, it would be Royal Club Huang Zu to sweep OMG in three perfect games. Though both teams are confirmed for the World Championship, Royal Club now represents China as their seeded representatives, guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals.

DAY 1 RECAP

China’s the last of the regions to hold their qualifiers for the World Championship, and with the last of their visa issues resolved it seemed that it was going to be smooth sailing for them to join the rest of the world on the season’s biggest and final stage. But there was one last patch of rough waters for them: each other, as the four top teams of the region square off to determine which two was worthiest of representing Asia’s last league.

DANCING TO THEIR DRUMBEAT

OMG, the undisputed ruler of the LPL’s shown crucial weaknesses in the time running up to the Chinese regionals: they seemed unusually mortal outside of the LPL’s best-of-one formats — a potential weakness to be leveraged by the more veteran Invictus Gaming. At least, so it seemed until the match actually started as OMG jungler Lovelin put Yorick’s oversized shoulders to work, shoving down iG’s first and second top lane turrets in quick succession. IG scrambled to respond accordingly down bot lane, but Gogoing’s Renekton was having none of their guff, deftly avoiding skill shots and clearing out the minion wave to force iG to give up the lane or take lethal turret damage.

Instead of OMG balking at the greater pressure of multi-round events, it was iG working desperately to keep up. Though most regions had banned out Rengar, due to a bug granting him excessive damage in certain circumstances, China had not seen it fit to follow suite. PDD was certainly proving to be a terror, eradicating san and substitute support comA with sudden leaps out of the bushes, but apparently nobody told OMG they were supposed to be afraid of him. Though the team wavered, giving up two aces to iG, they quickly rallied to strength again as comA smacked down the enemy team’s ambitions with crucially-timed Crescendos, locking up even PDD down for san and Cool to dismantle at their leisure.

It was demoralizing enough for iG to lose Game 1 after acing OMG twice in a row, but Game 2 was pure punishment. ComA was allowed on Sona again, and his Crescendos haven’t lost their impact. But the real star of the show was Gogoing’s Renekton: when he was able to fend off iG 1v3 and take two kills in the process while the rest of his team was taking Baron Nashor, iG surrendered on the spot.

RUN AND GUN

Heaven’s mandate seemed more favorably inclined towards Royal Club Huang Zu as they faced off against Positive Energy. They started out on a strong foot and never let pressure off the gas pedal: Wh1t3zZ’s Fizz was allowed to run rampant almost right from the start with a fast kill on Ziv near Dragon, a Chum The Waters kill on JoJo, and a close 1v1 shave against Canines’ otherwise well-equipped Jax, winning by a hair as Playful/Trickster allowed him to dodge a single, crucial auto-attack.

With the burst power from Wh1t3zZ and Uzi, who was demonstrating the renewed might of Trinity Force on Ezreal, Royal Club was free to rampage through Positive Energy’s base, securing the first game. Game 2 was even more dominating. Both teams opted to send their junglers off to assist their top laners against 2v1 matchups, preventing an early push from either side. But doing so helped Royal Club’s Uzi far more, granting him time to farm Vayne up to strength. It also helped that Tabe proved to be a great Lulu player, punishing Canines heavily until a Flash-Glitterlance fed Uzi a critical First Blood.

Not only was Positive Energy seemingly unable to recover from Uzi’s onslaught, but the loss apparently crushed their spirits. They were the first to be knocked out of the tournament as Invictus Gaming trounced them 2-0 in the Loser’s Bracket match.