Azubu Blaze continue blazing a trail to the finals of The Champions Summer eSports Central

Azubu Blaze comes into the round of 8 fresh off their incineration of the North American and Europe scene at MLG Summer Arena. Standing in the way of the semi-finals for the accomplished Korean squad was YellOw's team of Xenics Storm. The teams both had a difficult round of 16 group but Blaze was able to go undefeated taking out both NaJin Shield and World Elite. Xenics Storm was able to go 2 and 1 in their group with the only loss coming to StarTale. Could Storm take out the favorites to win Azubu The Champions Summer?

Azubu Blaze
Bans: Alistar, Rumble, Karthus
Picks: Janna, Sivir, Maokai, Olaf, Twisted Fate

Xenics Storm
Bans: Shen, Ryze, Vladimir
Picks: Malphite, Urgot, Skarner. Leona, Morgana

The game starts out fast with a level 1 fight in the jungle of Xenics Storm. Azubu Blaze go on the offensive but get caught with a Dark Binding that hits Ambition and Storm take him down quickly. The fight leads to an early 2-0 lead for Xenics Storm. In reaction to the 2-0, Blaze send Cpt Jack and Lustboy to the middle lane in an effort to quell the advantage that ManyReason had going into the laning phase. Ambition had a much better time against Urgot and Leona than ManyReason had in his 2v1 lane. The lane switch proved to be a very good idea because it kept Blaze close in gold and eventually in the lead despite being down in kills.

The game stayed even with neither team able to get a decisive advantage until around the 40 minute mark. For every dragon Xenics Storm would take, Blaze would take a tower which kept the game insanely close. The longer the game went though, the more Blaze was able to get the damage they needed to take down the tanky team of Xenics Storm that featured two early Guardian Angels. One of the things that Blaze did to gain an advantage was have aura items like Aegis of the Legion and Zeke's Herald on their non-carry champions while their carry champions had Quicksilver Sashes.

The teamfight that decided it all started with Xenics May on Malphite as he got caught out of position checking baron. From there, the rest of the Xenics team dove in and were destroyed by Azubu; a fight which gave them the lead and the baron buff. Xenics Storm would never be able to come back. The next teamfight saw Cpt Jack go undisturbed and allowed him to dish out all the damage was needed to ace the Storm team. The result was a game winning team fight for Azubu Blaze.

ManyReason's build for Morgana

Xenics Storm
Bans: Maokai, Vladimir, Urgot
Picks: Twisted Fate, Singed, Blitzcrank, Shaco, LeBlanc

Azubu Blaze
Bans: Rumble, Alistar, Shen
Picks: Nocturne, Ahri, Wukong, Graves, Morgana

The game to end all games! Xenics Storm brought out the most amazing champion composition ever scene in an attempt to break the meta with split pushes and assassins. Their team consisted of:

but Lustboy took Morgana in the bottom lane for the support champion and the Black Shield was the MVP of the game. The shield blocked Rocket Grabs and saved from Shaco ganks and neutralized all the threats that Xenics Storm could throw their way.

Yet again, the game was close for a long time. However, despite the game being close, ManyReason was able to get out to a big lead on Ambition through multiple assassination attempts. The truth of the game was that the longer the game went, the more it got out of Xenics Storm's control because they had no sustained damage from an AD carry. All Azubu Blaze had to do was get their Graves farmed enough to carry the game and then group up and push and that is exactly what they did.

The assassination composition from Xenics Storm didn't do it's job. The composition was supposed to jump in, take out Cpt Jack and Ambition, jump out and then take the rest of the team fight. However, the Black Shield alleviated the damage that the assassins were suppose to do to kill Cpt Jack and Ambition, leaving the two carries alive and Xenics Storm scrambling to survive. So, OGN couldn't have been more right when they gave the MVP to Lustboy for his play on support Morgana.

The win puts Azubu Blaze into the semi-finals along with NaJin Sword and Counter Logic Gaming EU. The last semi-finalist will be determined on Friday morning between Azubu Frost and Counter Logic Gaming NA. Who will get two of their organization into the semi-finals? Azubu or Counter Logic Gaming. If Azubu, it will be an Azubu Blaze versus Azubu Frost semi-finals. If Counter Logic Gaming, there is a chance for a CLG EU vs CLG NA final. The stories are unfolding at The Champions and it is looking like the end of the Summer tournament will be amazing for everyone from Korea to the United States.

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