Immortals are living the dream in the Spring Split of the 2016 #NALCS. NRG were in the top 5 of most pre-season Power Rankings. After focusing on other teams in Week 1, I doubled down on IMT to see what this performance says about both teams.
Pick/Ban - I really like NRG’s concept of the poke +
tanks. They have a decent bit of teamfight engage but can’t really catch
anyone. I think that comp works really well within the lane-focused meta if
they can be even after 30-35 minutes. This is a comp meant to take down tier 2s
in the midgame. IMT is running the same lineup that's wored for them: an aggressive pick comp with strong laners
and hard engage but no tanks. The need early vision and kills to feed the carries, get to midgame power spikes faster and take turrets. IMT are betting the farm on winning before 35-40 minutes.
16:15 - Great claw and ult from Huni, so much better than
the Lissandra we saw from Huhi in CLG’s loss to DIG. A clutch culling from
WildTurtle (perfect angle and direction) nabs the 2 for 1 for Immortals. Teams have enough to think about vs. IMT but taking Lucian away from Turtle might be another thing they hae to worry about in pick/ban. NRG
are lucky they already poked Pobelter very low or that fight could have been
worse. It's crazy how well Turtle is playing against a legend in Impact.
20:00 - Despite losing a teamfight, NRG’s tankiness and the
low death timers at this point allow them to run up mid with minions. They take the Tier 2 down to half health, which will be huge if they can ever get the map in position to split for Maokai.
27:50 - With the clock ticking on their win condition (just
around 20 min. in game time), IMT punish NRG’s aggressive jungling/warding with
a flash engage from Reignover. I love this guy and how aggressively he plays
his junglers. It starts as a 1v2 but his team are there and they pick up one
kill on Impact who had no choice but to peel for Altec. NRG should have just
disengaged, but they unwisely walk up to help Impact. Moon walks ahead of his
tanky support, ceding another kill. Fantastic coordination from IMT in this
teamfight. Reignover's Rengar was great - it was his most played champion last year and the tankiness + engage fits his ultra-aggressive style well. His chamion pool (Rengar, Elise, Rek'sai, Poppy) gives him so many options.
The casters brought up a good point – 5 of IMT’s kills are
on WildTurtle. They haven’t been able to take objectives yet, but he is turning really
scary, and Lucian is already strong into Corki in the early- to mid-game. And damange from carries scales much better than health/armor on tanks.
30:20 – This is IMT playing their comp perfectly. WildTurtle'w superior waveclear stops NRG from pushing his tower without burning his cooldowns while Huni flanks. The coordination from IMT this early in the year is
impressive. Having both Huni and Reignover helps, as well as flexibility from Lucian - you can leave him alone. WildTurtle pops the culling right as Huni dashes in, taking down
Moon almost immediately. A fantastic Janna ult splits up NRG and
allows IMT to dive the backline. I can't get over how crazy good this was from
the combo of Huni and Reignover – despite walking through wards, they manage to
flank the entire team. NRG are in a tough spot – the carries for IMT are strong
enough to deter split pushing but grouping isn’t working either. The casters
brough up an important point – IMT are playing fearlessly and decisively.
From here, it's a whitewash. WildTurtle was
one-shotting guys and IMT were all over the map. NRG were able to defender
their base for a bit longer with all the poke, but there wasn’t much they could
do to exert pressure on objectives. IMT took another Baron and took down the
base.
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