Our first game of super week was against the high-flying Bombers, and an upset win here would do wonders for our playoff hopes. Pabu went a little unconventional with a Neeko pick, and Praelus and Haeri would try and help him scale up with Jarvan IV and Syndra respectively. Raid and Decoy picked up Kai’Sa and Alistar for late game while FBI and Rogue went for Ezreal and Galio in the botlane. Ry0ma was looking for assassinations as he locked in LeBlanc while Mimic and BalKhan were all about the teamfight with Kennen and Lee Sin.
First Blood went our way just before 10 minutes as BalKhan decided to move in on a recalling Praelus nearby our botlane, and Rogue went into his death to initiate the fight. The only other thing that happened in the first 15 minutes was a trade of objectives, as we used Shelly botlane to knock down that turret whilst BalKhan had slain the Mountain Drake to empower his team a little bit. Bombers also equalled their single kill deficit as Raid was slain in the toplane and Pabu and Praelus barely escaped with their lives. A second kill went our way as Pabu and Praelus snuffed out Mimic.
However, the Bombers had quietly knocked down multiple turrets and were leading that 3-1 as well as being up 2.5k gold. Moving in onto our middle turret just before 19 minutes, Bombers started a fight that killed off four members of our team for only the life of BalKhan to swell their gold lead. The Bombers jungler respawned and made his way to the dragon pit to put down the Cloud Drake and contribute towards the Bombers’ slowly increasing lead.
A teamfight erupted around Baron just before the 22 minute mark and it quickly went south for our team as Haeri and Decoy lost their lives to set up a free purple worm for the Bombers. With the buff, they lay siege to our base for an extended period of time. We held firm until Decoy tried to initiate onto the Bombers’ frontline as he was blown up to open up an opportunity for Mimic to ulti and wipe us off the Rift. It was a tough game but we could lock a playoff spot with a win next over Order.
Raid and Brandon “Juves” Defina ran the numbers after the game
Our boys @SINJuves and @SayRaid sat down, had a chat, ran the numbers and came to some conclusions.#GravitasGlory #GRVWIN pic.twitter.com/KiWUErj5As
— Gravitas (@GravitasOCE) March 22, 2019
Haeri and Raid ran back the previous game when they locked in Syndra and Kai’Sa, but the rest of the team were sporting new outfits as Pabu had Irelia, Praelus picked up Rek’Sai and Decoy would return to his trusty Braum. Order, on the hunt for a playoff spot, gave Tally Vladimir and Spookz Jarvan in order to bring some pressure up top, while Swiffer’s Galio would be devastating in the right position. Dream and Jayke locked in Vayne and Nami for some early pressure in lane.
A low health Swiffer retreated under his turret at the 8 minute mark, but a roaming Pabu saw an opportunity and flashed forward to blow him up and then take down Jayke’s Nami under Order’s two midlane turrets for a clean Double Kill. Order evened up the kill score however, when Pabu finally died to Spookz and Praelus was beaten down by Swiffer in the jungle courtesy of the Order jungler. They then pushed ahead after a solid gank attempt from Praelus was turned around by the sheer luck of Spookz hanging around, but the gold lead was minimal in Order’s favour.
A brawl near the dragon pit was a win for the Order lineup as an initiation onto Dream failed to kill him and he turned around and helped kill off Raid and Praelus, only losing Jayke in the process. However, we took Order’s reset as an opportunity to take the Rift Herald, albeit losing the bot lane turret as a consequence.
Haeri popped Jayke seconds before Pabu ripped Dream to shreds in a midlane fight at 17 minutes to free up space to secure the Mountain Drake. The next few minutes were extremely bloody as Swiffer salvaged multiple teamfights for the Order lineup, but we were still 2k gold ahead at the 22 minute mark. Haeri got caught out in the toplane and Order moved to place vision around the Baron.
At the 26 minute mark, Raid overextended and Order wasted no time in evaporating his, Decoy and Praelus’ health bars to quickly move onto Baron with a Triple Kill in Spookz’ pocket. They slowly shoved up the midlane and Spookz blew a false alarm as he leapt forward and backed out quickly, but the true teamfight came seconds later as Raid’s death was followed by Haeri, Praelus and Pabu as Order took the win and made our final clash against the Chiefs even more important.
Our final game of the regular split was against the Chiefs, and a win here would lock us in to the Gauntlet. Pabu pulled Riven out of his bag of tricks and Praelus again locked in Lee Sin. Haeri had scaling power in Azir, and our AD damage was Raid’s Lucian. Decoy on Rakan rounded out the squad. Swip3rR took Kled into Pabu, while Only and Claire took some strong meta picks in Rek’Sai and Lissandra. Raes returned to his classic Kalista while Eyla picked himself up Braum.
We gave up First Blood to Claire as he roamed top to pick off Pabu, but Pabu had his revenge on Swip3rR when Praelus made his way up top, trading the kill for the Infernal Drake. The game slowed down, and there was no action until 13 minutes when Only attempted the Rift Herald, but Chiefs quickly peeled off in an attempt to fight. It wasn’t to be as we punished their engage with four kills to leave Only alive while Praelus was the only member of our team to go to the grey screen.
Haeri at the 15 minute mark almost 1v2 outplayed Only and Claire but only managed to bring down the Lissandra before a Prey Seeker killed off our Azir. Our gold lead had made it up to 1k and we were looking to keep that advantage going. Objectives was the name of the game up until the 20 minute mark, as both teams knocked down two turrets, those of the Chiefs’ going down with Shelly’s assistance.
A massive initiation onto Haeri ended his life as well as Pabu’s, and the Baron went the way of the Chiefs at only 20:50. With the kill score equalised, Chiefs went on a rampage and knocked down five towers and added to their Drake stash, having two Infernals and a Mountain at this stage of the game. A few more turrets fell as Chiefs finally wiped away our inner layer of turrets and gained free access across the map.
A desperation play from us was countered by the Chiefs as Raid, Haeri and Pabu all died as Eyla limped away from the initiation combo. Praelus attempted to salvage the game, but he fell as Decoy just survived to watch the Nexus fall. With the loss, we were unable to make the Gauntlet but we’ll come back stronger than ever for the next split. GGWP!
