Day 1 of LCS NA Week 2 began with the debut of Team MRN facing the 1–2 veterans Dignitas. Unfortunately, MRN's lack of experience was evident throughout the game and Dignitas took full of it. A Mid-lane ward spotted ClakeyD and Dignitas collapsed on him for first blood. Gaining early control in the lanes, Dignitas took the first Dragon at five minutes for a 1.3K gold lead. The game continued to snowball downhill for MRN as Dignitas secured kills and objectives all over the map. The Season 2 runner-ups, led by imaqtpie’s Draven and scarra’s Kayle, put on a clinic on how to humiliate an opponent, smashing through turrets and MRN players all game. Mercifully, the beatdown concluded around 25:00, when the Baron-exalted Dignitas put the final nail in MRN's coffin. Needless to say, this was not the strongest start for Team MRN; Dignitas, after a mediocre Week 1, appeared to be slowly regaining their pace.


Team Vulcun received a redemption opportunity against Team SoloMid, again pitting the new against the old. However, in the teams’ first week encounter, TSM took a one-sided victory; Vulcun finished the week 0–2. An upset seemed unlikely. Sure enough, TSM started strong with an aggressive 3v2 dive in Top lane, eventually getting a TSM first blood on Xmithie. There were points throughout the game where TSM seemed error-prone, such as TheOddOne's unsuccessful attempt to steal Blue from four members of Vulcun or their frequent ceding of Dragons to Vulcun. On the other hand, TSM won nearly every teamfight by a landslide, typically engaging around turrets and the Dragon pit. This kill lead quickly became a turret lead as well and TSM slowly pushed Vulcun back towards their base, suffocating them with heavy lane pressure and map control. TSM's massive lead came to a head at 35:00, when TSM cleaned up three members of Vulcun and took Baron. By then, TSM was too big to fail and they rolled through the Vulcun defense for a 40:00 victory.


The clash of the old guard and the new continued with compLexity vs Curse. With Curse already with a 3-0 record, compLexity was in for a challenge, but it was one they met with style. CompLexity made the first big play of the game, as jungler Lautemortis employed Vi's Vault Breaker to hop into the Dragon pit, soloing the beast before the four minute mark and garnering coL an early gold lead from under Curse's nose. Curse struck back almost immediately, netting first blood for Voyboy with a Saintvicious gank. However, compLexity kept up the fight, continuing to prosper with Lautemortis' back-door Dragons, Nickwu's impressive resistance of Voyboy's aggression, and superior teamfighting. Throughout the midgame, compLexity maintained a 2-3K gold lead, thwarting the Week 1 leaders, who played sloppily for nearly 25 minutes. However, at 26:00, Curse engaged on compLexity after they had taken Dragon and executed a spectacular teamfight which turned the game around. From that point onwards, in spite of an occasional poor play, they took command of the game, plucking teamfight after objective after turret from the hands of compLexity. At 40:00, Curse destroyed the compLexity Nexus, pulling off a comeback to remain undefeated in the LCS. Despite the victory, Curse's game was off against coL and only the late game mistakes and inexperience of compLexity allowed Curse to close the gap. One must wonder if Curse could have recovered at all against more seasoned opponents. Nevertheless, compLexity played very well in the early stages of the game and if they clean up their end game, we may have a powerful new force in NA.


The final game of the day was another TSM rematch, this time against old school rivals Dignitas. Their Week 1 match concluded in a convincing loss for Dignitas. But after such an effective victory over Team MRN, Dignitas's chances of a repeat performance were unlikely. Sure enough, TSM began the game with a botched 3v1 turret dive; TSM successfully acquired first blood, but it was on Xpecial and Chaox managed to give KiWiKiD's Singed a kill to boot. Not a minute later, TheOddOne's mid lane gank ended in a double kill for scarra due to clever warding, a low health Reginald, and a well-executed countergank by Crumbzz. By 12:00, Dignitas had killed even more members of TSM, secured a Dragon, and demolished all three outer turrets, resulting in a 4K gold lead. The entirety of the game was the Dignitas Show: they never once ceded a single advantage to TSM. After 25 minutes, TSM decided they had had enough and surrendered, granting Dignitas their second one-sided, sub-30-minute game of the day. Dignitas, an entirely different team in Week 2, was simply levels above the one that played in the first week. TSM on the other hand, performed entirely under par throughout, a far cry from what fans have come to expect.



Vulcun came into this match with the high hopes of picking up their first win. After Curse's relatively poor performance against compLexity the day prior, it didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility for Curse to drop this match. Curse allowed both GGU and compLexity obtain significant leads before they regained control and capitalized on both team's lack of experience in closing out games. Curse wouldn't let Vulcun get this same chance. Despite the equal kill count and relatively close CS on carries, Curse kept the gold lead throughout the entire game by securing Dragon four times to Vulcun's zero. The real turning point in the match where Curse's gold lead translated into a team fight victory came at 26:35 mark. Vulcun chased Curse a little bit too far down Mid lane and Saintvicious about faced on Jarvan landing an EQ combo onto Zuna along with a well timed Cataclysm, trapping four members of Vulcun inside. Even with a well placed Crescendo coming across the team and interrupting Bullet Time, the damage from Curse was too much for Vulcun to overcome. From there, Curse pushed down Mid lane taking down the 2nd and 3rd tier turrets. Curse retreated to buy, but quickly ran down Mid to Vulcun's Inhibitor and picked off two members trying to defend. With a Teleport from Voyboy, the full five man team of Curse was able to force down the Nexus Turrets and Nexus for the victory.


Dignitas was already having a good week coming into this match, going 2-0 on the first day and generally looking much more solid in comparison to their Week 1 performance. GGU was looking for their first win after coming up short in several Week 1 matches. The game began with GGU initiating a lane switch with Bloodwater on Nunu and DontMashMe on Caitlyn going Top in hopes of pushing down the tower quickly. dig took advantage of this by sending Crumbzz bot and performing a three man dive on Fat where imaqtpi picked up First Blood. Once they secured this lead, dig never really let up. Despite the close kill count throughout most of the game, dig would continue to increase their gold lead by taking free Dragons and heavily out-farming GGU. dig continued to split push and take down towers at their leisure. GGU made a valiant effort to defend their base, but dig's commanding gold lead was too much for the young team to overcome as dig simply walked into the base and killed the Nexus with ease.


Team MRN needed to prove themselves with this match. After getting destroyed by dig in their very first LCS match, many people questioned whether or not Team MRN would be able to stand up against the top LCS teams. This was not the game to prove their critics wrong. TSM immediately took control of the game with first blood at 2:35 into the game on MegaZero who was in the Bot lane after his team initiated a lane switch. To further increase their lead, as well as adding insult to injury, TheOddOne came Bot one minute later and the three members of TSM dove MegaZero under his tower yet again. They would grab the kill with ease and ClakeyD who came down to try and support MegaZero would also fall to Chaox. From this point on Team MRN never really stood a chance. TSM had too much of an advantage and they just slowly grinded out the rest of the game by not taking any unnecessary risks. Turret after turret fell, as well as Baron, then TSM simply pushed their way into Team MRN's base. Even Anivia's wave clear wasn't enough to deal with TSM as their hard engages allowed them to burst down Team MRN before they could really do any damage. TSM ran a clinic on how to abuse weaker teams and if Team MRN wasn't to compete in weeks to come they have a lot of rethinking to do in terms of strategy and preparation.

Bans:       

14        Good Game University        54.5K
vs.
8        Vulcun Command        52.3K

Bans:       

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Week 2 for the LCS was somewhat lackluster in terms of quality games. Most of the matches were total stomps or ended with a team throwing away a huge lead. It wasn't until the last round of the week that we were treated to a match with no foreseeable favorite until the very end of the game. For GGU and Vulcun, this was an important game as both teams were looking to pick up their first win. Since the real objective of the first half of the season is to break into the Top Four to guarantee a return spot for the second half of the season, every win is an important one. In theory, a team could quickly reach a point where even if they won the remainder of their games for the season, they still wouldn't break into the Top Four. With that in mind, it makes sense both teams were so desperate for a win.

In contrast to many of the games we saw during Week 2, both teams decided to forego a lane swap and instead just have their players lane in their standard positions. The first real action of the game would come around the 4:00 minute mark. GGU had pushed up pretty far to Vulcun's turret but were relying on some early wards to keep them safe. What they didn't consider was some clever play by Xmithe on Jarvan. By performing an EQ combo he was able to position himself in the Bot lane river bush without being seen by any wards. From there, it was just a matter of waiting for his cooldowns to come back. Once this happened Xmithe made his presence known and engaged on the unsuspecting Bot lane duo of GGU. Even after burning his Flash and Cleanse, DontMashMe wasn't able to escape and fell to Zuna for first blood. In addition, Bloodwater on Lulu burned his own Flash and Exhaust trying to escape.

Aside from a failed gank Mid that only resulted in Mancloud Flashing to safety, the game remained relatively calm. The next big conflict would occur as Nintendudex came to gank Mid lane yet again. Luckily for Vulcun, Xmithe was ready with a counter gank. ZionSparten was able to get the first kill of the fight onto Mancloud, but a combination of Requiem and an EQ combo from Jarvan secured the revenge kill on Zion. In addition to this, Psycho Sid was able to pick up a solo kill on Fat Top lane and due to the Requiem damage Mancloud was also awarded an assist. This would give Vulcun a solid 1K gold lead.

Things were starting to look bleak for GGU as Vulcun further expanded their gold lead by securing Dragon as well as taking a lead in turret kills. Then GGU started to play to the strength of their team comp. Just after 30 minutes into the game GGU would start the team fight that would turn the tide of match. With a great Trundle Pillar, GGU was able to separate Vulcun in half. Nintendudex charged in head long drawing a lot of focus and baiting Vulcun into the fight. Off of this they were able to catch Sycho Sid out of position in an attempt to retreat. This set up GGU up for a team fight under tower where their superior poke was able to drop three more members of Vulcun and allow them to pick up Mid Inhibitor with no deaths. From there the game was firmly in GGU's control. For a poke comp both their engage and disengage was incredibly solid. A combination of Trundle’s Pillar and Ezreal’s Iceborn Gauntlet was able to prevent Vulcun from engaging, even after popping a Shurelya's.

GGU's superior siege was just too much for Vulcun to overcome and in what seemed like a desperation play they tried to force an engage Bot lane leading to a 4-1 trade in kills in favor of GGU that would also secure them the win. At the end of it all this was a well deserved victory for GGU. Vulcun simply outplayed them in the early game, but with superior team coordination and utilizing the strengths of their team comp they were able to come back. This game proved that GGU had a lot of raw talent, and could easily be a dark horse to break into the top four come the end of the first half of the season.

Week 3 marks the return of NA favorites CLG to the LCS, while bidding a temporary adieu to TSM. Week 3 will be a throwdown in the lower half of the bracket, with most of the matches between compLexity, Vulcun, MRN, and GGU. Many teams are still looking for their first wins, so each match should be a slug fest for a higher rank in the standings. If there's a time for Vulcun and MRN to bring their best games to the table, it's now, for neither team wants to come out of another week without a single victory. The most interesting matchup of these teams will likely be the final match of the week: GGU vs compLexity. While both teams have more losses than victories, each played well in their respective games against opponents like Curse and TSM. As such, they should be good challenges for each other and a good way for the spectators to map out a hierarchy of the lower bracket teams.

However, the match to watch this week is certainly Dignitas vs CLG. In Week 1, CLG went 2-1, losing only to the still-undefeated Curse. They've had a week to relax, practice, and observe their opponents, which may give them an edge over the possibly-weary Dignitas. Dignitas, on the other hand, had a tough time in the first week, but dominated Week 2 with a whopping 3-0 record. With Dignitas crushing their recent opponents, will CLG be able to survive the dig onslaught? Only way to know is to tune in to NA LCS Week 3.

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