CLG EU and Azubu Frost battle to be crowned champion eSports Central

Updated: 8:30 Eastern, Final

Today is the day that a champion will be crowned in Korea but the champion may not be a Korean team. Counter Logic Gaming EU and Azubu Frost battle it out in front of a huge live audience in outdoors Seoul, South Korea. The winner here takes home 50,000,000 Korean Won (~$43,000 USD) and the right to call themselves the champion of one of the most difficult leagues in the world. The winner also gets 400 Korean circuit points, while 2nd place only gets 200 points. Azubu Frost had to win this to clinch first in the Korean Challenger Circuit, otherwise they are in the Korean playoff.



Azubu Frost went into the first game with RapidStar not having his big champions and after his performance versus Azubu Blaze in the semi-finals, Frost was going to need RapidStar to carry. He didn't get much help from the rest of the team mostly due to the pressure that Snoopeh put on every single lane, he gave first blood to Wickd in the top lane. Wickd and Snoopeh continued to get further ahead and eventually Froggen and Yellowpete followed suit.

The game really got out of hand after a couple of dragon fights, where CLG steamrolled Frost and sent them on a downward spiral. Wickd was able to get a Guardian Angel before the 30 minute mark and already had a Trinity Force, so he was able to just dive into Frost and not care. CLG baits a very successful baron fight where they destroyed Frost. The camera panned, the nexus blew up, and Frost surrendered game 1.

1-0 CLG EU



It is not everyday the play from the support is the obvious reason that a team wins a game. Of course, it is not everyday that Krepo plays Leona. Numerous times Krepo was able to catch someone from Frost out of position with a well timed Zenith Blade or Solar Flare. When the laning phase ended, CLG was losing, but the pick-offs from Leona were able to turn the entire game around and ended up getting the CLG carries fed.

On the other side, Frost had trouble getting their carries fed. CloudTemplar got a rather good score but no one else on the team was able to keep up with CLG, which made them get more behind for teamfights. Also, the choice of Wriggle's Lantern and not Ionic Spark or a Sunfire Cape is a little suspect since split-pushing Shen was a big part of their strategy.

Ultimately, the teamfights were too much for Frost to handle. They lose the game with a score of 20 to 10.

2-0 CLG EU



Azubu Frost tricked us into thinking we would see RapidStar's Lux but instead we saw his Karthus and MadLife's Lux in the support role. CLG also brought out an interesting composition with Leona and Ashe mixed with Jayce, Vladimir, and Malphite. Obviously, the European squad went for an initiation composition but it may have been overkill.

CloudTemplar barely let Froggen breathe throughout the laning phase. The relentless pressure put the extraordinary mage player behind going into the mid-game.

Frost did a great job of objective taking and that put them in the lead for a while. However, CLG was able to grab a lead after a really good 3 for 1 teamfight in the middle lane.

The game took a dive for the Europeans when they were baited into a baron fight while all their initiation was on cooldown. Frost was able to pick off Wickd quickly and also grabbed Krepo. After that fight, Frost got the baron buff and started to aggressively push. They grabbed more kills while they pushed up the top lane ramp and CLG surrendered.

2-1 Azubu Frost



Azubu The Champions Finals: A showcase in how to play support champions. Seriously, this feels like a workshop on how to play aggressive supports. First in game 2, we had Krepo on Leona. Now in a pivotal game 4, we have MadLife on Blitzcrank. MadLife had some of the dirtiest Rocket Grabs ever seen. He constantly grabbed people to pull them into bad positions and netted kill after kill for his team.

With all that said, CLG hadn't really lost the game. They were able to keep the game close despite playing recklessly. A lot of this was on Froggen. At one point, Froggen was able to dodge a Blitzcrank Rocket Grab with Flash and then turned around killed CloudTemplar. Without Froggen in this game, CLG would have lost it a lot sooner.

Two times in this series we saw jungle Cho'Gath from Snoopeh. The ganks were lackluster, the farming wasn't anything special, and the map presence just wasn't there on Cho'Gath. Maybe Azubu Frost had a specific plan to counter it or maybe jungle Cho just is a bad pick.

Frost was able to take their small advantages here and there to eventually grab an uncontested baron. The baron allowed them to push down the middle inhibitor. At that point, CLG looked to be going for a base race but backed out a little too late because Frost was already knocking on the top inhibitor while super minions were pushing the nexus towers. Needless to say, CLG couldn't hold on and Frost tied the series up.

2-2 Azubu Frost



Blind pick make for exciting games.

Something must have happened between game 2 and game 3 for CLG EU. The team that entered game 3 lacked the confidence that they had in the first 2 games. On the other side of the coin, Azubu Frost looked like a completely different team in games 3, 4, and 5.

Frost jumped out to a very quick 6 to 1 lead and never let up. CLG just played extremely cocky and got burnt for it. The game was sealed during baits by Frost. Frost baited baron while Froggen was in the bottom lane. Frost engaged while Froggen was on his way to the fight. CLG was doing fine until RapidStar died because then he used Requiem and the secured a quick quadra-kill. However, they were unable to pick up Baron Nashor since they lost three people in the fight.

The teams continued to dance around baron for the next few minutes. Frost was able to get another great 4 for 2 teamfight in another baron bait. Froggen was unable to get the kills he needed after he survived from a clutch Zhonya's Hourglass. CLG got the initiate they could dream of with a great Malphite ultimate and Leona ultimate, but they both died quickly. From here Frost would get something like 9 unanswered kills and even when CLG answered with a kill, Frost got 5 more and secured the game.

The game was a stomp and did not do justice to the ability that CLG EU possesses but it did show just how resilient Azubu Frost could be.

Azubu Frost not only get the top prize but they also are able to set in stone their ticket for the Season 2 World Championship in Los Angeles during October. CLG EU can't be too disappointed as they get 2nd in one of the hardest tournaments in the world.

3-2 Azubu Frost
Final Standings:
1st: Azubu Frost
2nd: Counter Logic Gaming EU
3rd: NaJin Sword

The win for Azubu Frost means that Azubu Blaze will be in the playoff for the 2nd team to go to the World Championships. The playoff will take place in a few days.

The Season 2 Regional Finals for Korea

5th place tie-breaker:
LG-Incredible Miracle vs. CJ Entus

Round 1:
Tie-breaker winner vs NaJin Sword

Round 2:
Xenics Storm vs Rd 1 Winner

Finals:
Azubu Blaze vs. Rd 2 Winner

Matches start on September 12th at 19:30 KST / 6:30 EST

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