C9 is the last hope for NA

There have been a bunch of matches the past few days and most of them resulting in losses for NA teams.

Counter Logic Gaming

Counter Logic Gaming got things off on the wrong foot with a loss to ANX.  ANX grabbed first blood but there were points where CLG looked like they could turn things around.  ANX kept up the pressure though and CLG could not match up.

CLG had no time to lick their wounds though as the had the next game in the lineup against G2.

They won their first game against G2 ESports last week and pretty much, they followed a similar formula.  They ended with more kills this time around though and were pretty much in control from the early game.

This gave CLS some hope.  They only needed to beat ROX again to make it into the final 8, but things started off poorly with Peanut grabbing 1st blood on Stixxay.

They traded kills and at 9 minutes, each team had 2 kills with CLG grabbing the Ocean dragon, but that was the last gold lead CLG would really see.   I was kinda surprised aphromoo didn’t go for the Alistar support since he’s done so well with him in the past, but going 1/6/7 on Bard really didn’t provide the support needed to let Huhi and Stixxay carry the game.  With a 23-14 kill deficit, CLG went down and the first NA team was out of the tournament.

Team Solo Mid

TSM was the top seed from the NA region and the best hope of representation in the Elite 8.  Similar to CLG, they came into the 2nd week with a 2-1 record and were primed to move forward into the Elite 8.

It seems that this game was lost in the champion select phase.  While Bjergsen may be a good Zilean player, I’m not so sure Zilean is a tournament level mid laner. He just seemed overmatched by  Crown’s Viktor.  Doublelift and loud crowd cheers did their best to carry the game, but SSG never even looked like they were worried.  They weathered a few charges by TSM but it seemed at times TSM were afraid to pull the trigger and force an engagement.  This was a pretty good game even thought TSM lost.

This game, Bjergsen got Syndra in champ select and the game was pretty much over before it started.  While Splyce was able to grab first kill (though Trashy died shortly after) and knock down the first turret, they never had more gold than TSM.  Bjergsen ran up a 13-1 record and TSM’s bot lane scored a 6-3 to a 0-10 differential.  It was all TSM.

The final game to determine if TSM would make it past the group stage had them face RNG again – the only team to beat them last week.  Well…it was more of the same…while TSM lead with cs gold, Uzi decided to take the team on his back at the 7 minute mark killing Biofrost, Doublelift, and Svenskeren and RNG never looked back.  Bjergsen tried to turn things around for the team on Ryze going 5-1 with a highlight at the 32 minute mark where TSM scored an ACE, but it was sadly fighting around their own inhibitor.  It made the game more exciting, but TSM never really showed that they were gonna win this one.

So there it is…Sunday, October 9th and the NA region only has C9 as it’s hope to make it past the group stage.