After taking a win in their debut game of the Oceanic Pro League, our League of Legends team fell to early league favourites Mammoth to go 1-1 in Week 1. With the season soon to kick into full gear, Week 2’s games would be crucial to keeping the team in the early running.
Our first game was against defending champions Dire Wolves, who were still looking to start their title defense after losing both of their games in Week 1. We drafted a strong team fight/skirmish-centric composition, our front line composed of Pabu on Sion and Decoy on his Braum. Our damage, on the other hand, came from Raid’s Lucian and Haeri’s Zoe, with Praelus bringing up the rear with a niche Evelynn pick.
An overextension from DW Corporal’s Alistar as he moved to place a ward was all the opportunity Praelus and our bot lane needed to pick up First Blood 4 minutes into the game. We picked up another kill a few minutes later, this time onto Getback’s Yasuo, but not before he had taken down Haeri and Praelus. We bounced back however, as our jungler returned to the scene of his earlier crime and split two kills with Raid’s Lucian.
Our small gold lead was effectively nullified with the Dire Wolves securing themselves the first Infernal Drake, but we’d also accrued CS leads in the bot lane and the mid lane. Haeri got caught out in the midlane just past 10 minutes and Getback picked up his third kill, but was slain as Praelus avenged his midlaner’s death for a healthy chunk of shutdown gold.
Pabu was next to die as UDYSOF’s Sejuani linked up with BioPanther’s Urgot to take the All-Star sensation down. The Sejuani then rotated and picked up the Rift Herald, at the cost of his bot lanes gold plating as Raid and Decoy picked up a good chunk of gold. The next brawl was as the game was almost at 15 minutes, with Praelus being traded for Anderu, but most importantly the gold lead remained in our favour.
As the team swarmed into the jungle, Corporal got picked off and UDYSOF just got away with his life. The rotation into mid lane led to a chunk being taken out of the outer turret and a Mountain Drake soon followed. The Rift Herald from the Sejuani put the turret count in favour of the Dire Wolves, but Gravitas headed back up the mid lane and the ensuing skirmish gave Praelus a kill onto Anderu, with the outer mid turret taken at 18 minutes into the game.
With 22 minutes on the clock, the Dire Wolves pulled the trigger and took down Praelus before securing a Mountain Drake. This wasn’t enough to equalise the gap in gold that had opened up as we were still 1.5k ahead. The game then died down as both teams danced around the Baron, the only excitement in the nearly 10 minute lull in play being a near kill onto Pabu which yielded a second Mountain Drake for the Dire Wolves.
The dance ended as BioPanther valiantly sacrificed himself in the bot lane to Raid and Pabu as the rest of the Dire Wolves secured the Baron. Corporal was the second sacrifice, but his yielded kills onto both Praelus and Haeri. By 32 minutes, the gold and turrets were tied, and the only real disparity was the amount of Drakes, with the Dire Wolves now having two Infernals and two Mountains.
A somewhat lazy response to Gravitas’ initiation meant that both Corporal and the mid inhibitor had died and both teams reset. The Wolfpack took advantage of the vision around the Baron and allowed Getback and UDYSOF to sneak it away. With the damage boost, the Wolves looked to end but their fight quickly blew up in their face. Decoy did fall as the battle began, but Raid and Haeri stepped up and decimated the Dire Wolves, leaving only their jungler alive.
A brutal game had ended in an epic finish, as we walked into the Dire Wolves’ base and took out the game to go 2-1 up in the OPL.
After the match we spoke with Haeri
Our second game of the week was against Melbourne’s Order, who after a 0-2 Week 1 had upset the Chiefs in their first game of Week 2. A win for both teams would be massive, but a win for us would tie us for first place alongside the Chiefs and the Bombers.
Our composition had both elements of team fight and poke, with Pabu again playing Sion, but Praelus and Haeri flipped the script with Xin Zhao and Syndra picks respectively. Raid and Decoy picked themselves up Ezreal and Rakan to go up against Dream’s Kai’Sa and Jayke’s Braum.
The game started extremely quietly, as both teams just focused on farming up and putting gold in their pockets. Just past the 10 minute mark, Praelus dove into the pit to slay the Ocean Drake, but his presence was sorely missed in the mid lane as Swiffer’s Lissandra and Spookz’s Zac locked down Haeri for First Blood. A bit of excitement in the mid lane didn’t result in a kill but Haeri again fell to Swiffer and Spookz once everyone had returned to their lanes.
Praelus was caught sneaking the Rift Herald, and Tally on Urgot was quick to punish him as well as securing the Herald for Order. A Teleport play in the botlane from Pabu scored a kill onto Dream and let them secure their first turret seconds after their opposition took their first. A lane swap was all the misdirection Gravitas needed to 5-man the bot lane and kill Dream and Jayke to equalise the kills and eat away at the gold deficit.
We traded a Mountain Drake for the mid lane outer turret, and by 17 minutes we were 2k gold down. We slipped a bit further behind as Tally and the Rift Herald knocked down the bot lane outer turret and put a dent in the inner turret. Haeri was again jumped upon by Order’s mid-jungle duo, and his death only heralded three more as the ensuing team fight only left Raid alive.
A bit of a gap in the action was only punctuated by Order securing their first Drake, an Infernal. A couple seconds later, Haeri and Praelus in an eerie mirroring of the earlier fight as Order took five members into the top lane to take them down. A surprise engage from the remaining members of the team dealt enough damage to kill Jayke and draw Order off the Baron, but we had to give up Pabu and Raid as well. By 24 minutes, we were down 6k gold and Order were eagerly pushing our lanes.
A big fight in the bot lane went Order’s way as only Pabu survived the damage from Swiffer and Dream and our base was broken. Pabu finally got caught as we slipped further and further behind. Sensing a victory, Order moved into our base for the last team fight.
Kills went back and forward, with Tally and Dream being shut down in exchange for Pabu and Praelus. A turret falling was the signal to disengage and both teams reset. A brief Baron dance came to an abrupt halt as Spookz leapt in from the side and caught us unawares. The CC ended up blowing us up and a 31 minute ace was all Order needed to put us to the sword and drop our record to 2-2.
We sat down with @SINJuves and @Pabu22 before their flight to get a quick recap of the week ✈️ #GravitasGlory pic.twitter.com/cknVX4AED5
— Gravitas (@GravitasOCE) January 26, 2019
