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0-2 weekend but positive signs for Gravitas boys

Game 1 – Chiefs

Our first crack this week would be against the Chiefs, who after a 0-2 week would be hungry to bounce back against us. We had damage aplenty in our draft, with our initiation duo of Praelus’ Jarvan IV and Decoy’s Galio being complemented by Pabu on Aatrox, Haeri on Syndra and Raid on Xayah. The Chiefs based their composition around picking off members of our team, with Swip3rR and Only on Urgot and Lee Sin giving huge opportunity to bring the pain to a member of Gravitas. However, with the defense our comp offered, hopefully we’d be able to stifle that aggression as well as that of Claire’s Ryze, Raes’ Tristana and Eyla’s Thresh.

Only ganked early and picked up an easy First Blood onto Raid, but Praelus countered in the top lane, not getting a kill but Swip3rR’s Flash. Praelus returned at 5:30 to help Pabu with the kill, and playing the long game worked out wonders as he cruised to the midlane to take a kill of his own onto Claire. A gank in the botlane at 7 minutes from four members of the Chiefs ended up in a trade of Decoy’s life for Claire’s.

Haeri was hungry for blood as he roamed to the botlane to try and kill Only, but some quick thinking from Eyla was all that separated Gravitas from the kill as Only leapt away on a lantern. The game fell into a lull, as both teams roamed around looking for picks, but nothing eventuated as the only action prior to 15 minutes was Gravitas trading Rift Herald for the Ocean Drake, as the Chiefs picked up that extra regeneration.

At 18 minutes, Praelus was killed in the toplane, trading his life for Claire but Swip3rR arrived just in time to take down Haeri. Haeri was killed again a minute later in the botlane and gave the Chiefs the opportunity to take another Drake. Only got caught in a skirmish at 21 minutes, but we were still down roughly 2.5k. The game again stagnated, and at 25 minutes the Chiefs had a 2k gold lead, and were up four turrets and six kills to our single turret and five kills. Pabu got picked off seconds later and the Chiefs then rotated to the midlane to knock down the inner turret.

A third Mountain Drake was the catalyst for a Baron attempt, but it was Gravitas who ended up securing it, trading an inhibitor for the worm’s buff and a kill on to Only. Shoving into the midlane, we got another kill onto Only a minute later, but Claire was relentless in his split pushing and was slowly knocking down our base while we were fighting. As the clock ticked past 35 minutes, a teamfight in the midlane was ferocious, but it was only a singular kill onto Haeri as well as an inhibitor.

The gold was even, but Gravitas had to face up to the Chiefs with the Elder Dragon and in a teamfight in the midlane at 37 minutes the Chiefs evaporated our lineup, leaving only Pabu to limp away. They charged into the base and Pabu fell alongside his Nexus as the Chiefs took us down.

Full Match Stats & VOD

Brandon “Juves” Defina and Haeri had a quick recap after the nail biting game

 

Game 2 – Mammoth

We had a second shot at taking a win this week, and it was against the middling Mammoth roster, who were now looking on the up after a four-game winning streak. The draft was a little unconventional, with Kennen making an appearance for Pabu, as well as a Yasuo for Haeri.
Praelus and Decoy were once again on Jarvan and Galio, while Raid was on the Sivir. Topoon for Mammoth picked himself up Urgot, and Babip returned to his Kindred while Triple pulled out the Azir, a champion not seen in the OPL for a while. K1ng and Destiny would be playing Kai’Sa and Thresh respectively.

An initiation from Gravitas handed over a kill to Decoy for First Blood, but the price was his life as k1ng took him down. Haeri ulted Triple to take him down, but Azir outplayed him completely and his Sand Soldiers shredded the Yasuo’s health bar to take Mammoth’s second kill of the game. There was no other action until the ten minute mark, where Praelus got blown up as he face-checked a bush and was caught by Destiny’s Death Sentence before Babip ended his life. An Infernal Drake followed for Mammoth and they’d now established a small gold lead of approximately 1k.

Mammoth used their priority to claim the Rift Herald, but as they searched for an opportunity to use it, the game died down, with only a Cloud Drake falling to Mammoth. At 16:30 a monstrous fight erupted in the midlane as Haeri and Decoy flew in, but it was only Triple and Raid dying, as well as the midlane turret falling to the Rift Herald. Mammoth continued their demolition duty, taking all three outer turrets by 20 minutes, whilst Gravitas had knocked down the top and mid outer turrets.

Continuing their run of Drakes, Mammoth took an Ocean Drake and locked out the ability for a Mountain Drake to spawn. At 23 minutes, Gravitas started up the Baron, but unluckily Topoon stole it away to up Mammoth’s small gold lead. We struck back however, as we traded Haeri for k1ng and Destiny and a hectic midlane fight to completely equalise the gold at 25 minutes. A second Infernal melted under Mammoth’s damage, and Praelus’s initiation didn’t connect as his E-Q combo was interrupted and he quickly went to the gray screen.

Raid got caught out and was brought low, but after Topoon broke Mammoth’s frontline as he flashed forward to try and take down our ADC, Praelus leapt in and the damage chained to kill Topoon, but Decoy fell on the retreat. Unfortunately, we were chased up the river and it was extremely easy for Mammoth to secure the Baron and three kills onto Haeri, Praelus and Raid. Mammoth darted in and out of our base with the Baron buff, but as they fell back Gravitas attempted an initiation, but it was turned around as Haeri and Decoy died in exchange for Babip. With the numbers advantage, Mammoth killed the rest of the team as well as the Nexus, leaving us needing some big wins soon to keep ourselves in the playoff hunt.

Full match stats & VOD

Quick recap (or a weird flex?) with Brandon “Juves” Defina and Praelus