Our final game of the first round robin was against the high-flying Avant Gaming, whose record of 4-2 was enough to keep them in the top 3 just behind the Chiefs and the Bombers. However, we had an opportunity to take on and prove ourselves against another top team, and ending our first round robin on a high would be a strong finish.
Our draft had initiation aplenty, and the damage to back it up as Pabu’s Urgot and Decoy’s Gragas was complemented by Kha’Zix for Praelus, Akali for Haeri and Ezreal for Raid. Avant drafted League’s newest champion, Sylas, for their superstar top laner Chippys, and he’d be teaming up with Swathe’s Kayn to try and take down our own legendary top laner. Shok would load up on Lissandra and Gunkrab and Aladoric would take on Raid and Decoy with Kai’Sa and Braum.
An early gank onto Pabu was unsuccessful, however the Flash burnt in AV’s engage would be the catalyst for Swathe’s return visit at the five-minute mark to pick up First Blood. The only remaining piece of excitement for the first ten minutes of the game was a singular Ocean Drake that went Avant’s way, as both teams farmed up. However, mere seconds after the ten minutes ticked over, the bot lane lit up with a fight, both teams bringing everyone for a party that resulted in a kill for each team. Raid fell a minute later in the aftermath after Gunkrab’s Kai’Sa leapt on him, and we slipped to a 2k gold deficit.
An overcommit to a dive from Swathe and Chippys in the top lane gave Pabu a kill after Praelus swooped in to help finish the Kayn off. A second Cloud Drake went AV’s way just past 15 minutes, with our gold deficit remaining stagnant at 2.5k. Our opponents had a little more gold banked due to Swathe’s possession of the Rift Herald, as with no towers falling at that point in the game, a charge onto a damaged turret would bring it to the ground and deposit a healthy chunk of gold to AV. It did happen, as the top lane turret fell a minute before the bot lane outer did, the gap between AV’s turret takes punctuated by a failed gank from Decoy and an unlucky kill onto Raid.
Pabu’s Urgot was stuck between a rock and a hard place as his path back to the team in the mid lane was cut off by grouped up Avant, and his life and that of the mid lane outer turret were taken as we slipped a little further behind. We were still in this game, our squad had plenty of potential to take picks with Kha’Zix and Akali with Gragas to initiate. By the 22 minute mark, AV were up a few thousand gold and they were determined to close out the game as they picked off our bot lane duo next the the mid lane inner turret, before wiping that too.
The next eight or so minutes was simply Avant consolidating their lead, as they convincingly won multiple team fights to pick up more towers, Drakes and finally the Baron to storm into our base and take it down. It was a tough game, but Avant are vying for that top spot and there was plenty to take from this match.
Brandon “Juves” Defina and Pabu had a quick chat after the match
This time at the start of the last round robin, Gravitas was playing their first game ever in the OPL, and as we all remember, that game was an amazing victory to kickstart our OPL career. It was time to start the second round robin and we were sure hoping we could repeat our early feat and take the win against the middling Order.
Draft consisted of damage and initiation, with our main damage threats of Haeri’s LeBlanc and Raid’s Cassiopeia being supported by Pabu again on Sion, Praelus on Camille and Decoy on Alistar. They’d be going up against Tally’s Urgot, a return to Old Faithful for Spookz as he took us all back a few years with an Elise pick. He’d be trying to get Swiffer’s Syndra ahead, and also influence the bot lane to put Dream’s Lucian and Jayke’s Braum ahead.
At the 4-minute mark Praelus hookshotted into the bot lane to back up Decoy’s engage onto Dream and Jayke, setting up an easy First Blood for Raid. Order countered though, bringing Spookz into the top lane to pick up a kill onto Pabu with the help of Tally. All was quiet briefly before we set up a massive engage in the bot lane, as Decoy and Praelus leapt in to dive Order’s bot lane duo under their turret, with Pabu ulting and cleaning up the fight for two clean kills.
A Rift Herald take from Spookz set up a turret race, as Order moved to take down the top lane turrets while everyone except Haeri moved into the bot lane to clear away the turrets there. However, Shelly knocked down two while we only managed to get one and as such were slightly down in gold. A Mountain Drake was ceded to Order, but at just past 15 minute a brawl erupted near the Baron Pit and Haeri was traded for the lives of Spookz, Swiffer and Dream as the fight flowed over to the mid lane.
Whilst Order claimed a second Mountain Drake and a third turret, we were just building gold onto our carry, Raid’s Cassiopeia, so when it came to those teamfights we could completely wipe them. At 21 minutes a fight in the jungle ended the lives of Dream and Jayke, but the extended trade meant that Raid and Decoy were killed on the retreat but a whole minute later Haeri managed to sneakily take down multiple members of Order and used the numbers advantage to take the Baron.
With the Baron buff, turrets started to fall and the gold began to creep up in our favour, at 25 minutes we were 1.5k ahead and leading kills 11-6, as well as a tied turret count of 3. The mid lane inner turret didn’t last long after that, and we just rotated around the map picking off members of Order. We’d also snagged an Ocean Drake for a little bit of a regenerative boost, but it was the next fight at 29 minutes as we caught out Order on the rotation and aced them for the life of Praelus. Baron soon followed and we were in full command of the game.
We slowly shoved into the base, and Order desperately tried to defend it, a teamfight at 32 minutes looked good for Order but not before Praelus was traded for Spookz, Dream and Jayke. The Nexus was exposed and we charged past the remaining members of Order to take the win and end our losing streak.
Here’s a quick recap on the game with Brandon “Juves” Defina and Praelus
Here’s a quick recap between @SINJuves and @PraelusOCE about today’s game and what to look out for tomorrow against @ORDER_army. #GravitasGlory pic.twitter.com/32ybA1LPn4
— Gravitas (@GravitasOCE) February 8, 2019
