European Regionals at Gamescom - Day 2 eSports Central

Day 2 of Gamescom had two heavyweights trying to push their way towards the finals. SK Gaming have made a wealth of roster changes recently and are looking for confirmation that they are on the right track, while CLG.EU are taking a break from their busy schedule in Korea to do battle with Europe's best teams.


The games played today were:

SK Gaming Vs Team Acer.pl

CLG.EU Vs Team Alternate

Remember, this tournament is a single elimination style: If a team loses their best of 3 series, they are knocked out.
Without further ado, let's jump straight into the action.

SK GAMING VS ACER.PL - GAME 1

The last time these two teams met was a few weeks back at ECC Poland, with SK Gaming coming out on top. SK has looked very strong recently, with wins over both m5.BenQ and EloHell in the SK Gaming Trophy last month.

SK BANS Karthus Shyvana Orianna

ACER.PL BANS Alistar Nunu Shen

SK Nyph - Janna - Support
SK ocelote - Gragas - Mid
SK YellOwStar - Ezreal - AD
SK kev1n - Gangplank - Top
SK Araneae - Malphite - Jungle

Acer LOLPROqq - Lee Sin - Jungle
Acer Celaverr - Morgana - Mid
Acer SuperAZEE - Sona - Support
Acer 76O - Yorick - Top
Acer Puki - Corki - AD


A common tactic we've seen recently is to force a top lane champion to solo bottom lane, which is exactly what SK kev1n did after he took his jungler's blue buff. This tactic was very successful for SK Kev1n as he was able to farm better than his opponent's top laner, Acer 76O . It didn't work out well for SK YellOwStar , though, as he was behind Acer Puki on minion kills for the majority of the game.

An incredibly brave tower dive by Acer Celaverr and Acer LOLPROqq resulted in a first blood kill on SK YellOwStar at top lane. Seconds after, a gank at bot lane by SK Araneae ended with SK Kev1n picking up a kill on Acer SuperAZEE .

The first teamfight ended with SK Gaming picking up 2 kills. With SK having the numerical advantage, they picked up the front mid turret and took the first Dragon of the game.

SK Gaming was superior in every team fight: Whenever they were jumped on they retreated until Acer.pl started to back off, at which point Sk Araneae , SK Ocelote and SK YellOwStar fired their ultimates into Acer.pl, dealing tons of damage and shifting the fight in their favour.

As with Crs extinkt in the games yesterday, Acer Celaverr had many miscommunicated Soul Shackles and really struggled to impact teamfights as well as we all know Morgana can. Acer.pl weren't able to control any of SK Gaming's members during the Soul Shackles, meaning that every time Acer Celaverr fired his ultimate, his opponents were nearly always able to walk or flash to safety.

SK Kev1n showed why he is such an important member of SK Gaming with his flawless Gangplank play both in the laning phase and in team fights: He kept his gold income high throughout the entire game and was a driving force in team fights due to his high tankiness and strong damage output.

With SK Gaming really showing the viewers how to work together as a team, Team Acer.pl were unable to get a real grip on the later stages of the game and once SK Gaming had pushed into their opponent's base at 38:00, the nexus destruction was inevitable.

With Acer.pl losing the first game, they needed to bring out something special to keep in the tournament.

SK GAMING VS ACER.PL - GAME 2

ACER.PL BANS Alistar Gragas Malphite

SK GAMING BANS Karthus Shyvana Nunu

SK Nyph - Janna - Support
SK ocelote - Orianna - Mid
SK YellOwStar - Corki - AD
SK kev1n - Irelia - Top
SK Araneae - Maokai - Jungle

Acer LOLPROqq - Nocturne - Jungle
Acer Celaverr - Morgana - Mid
Acer SuperAZEE - Sona - Support
Acer 76O - Shen - Top
Acer Puki - Graves - AD


Acer.pl were clearly adamant in showcasing their Sona and Morgana combination, with both champions being picked up very quickly.

SK Araneae was a constant thorn in Acer Puki's side: A gank from tri-bush at bottom lane forced Acer Puki's Flash and left him needing to return to base. As he returned back to lane, SK Araneae returned to bot lane from tri-bush again and landed a root onto Acer Puki . Before dying, Acer Puki somehow managed to score first blood on SK Nyph .

Meanwhile at top lane, SK kev1n was jumped on under his turret by Acer 76O and Acer LOLPROqq , but managed to kite both Acer players for an amazing 5 seconds by using his Bladesurge to jump between minions. This kiting gave SK Ocelote enough time to catch up and turn the fight in the favour of SK Gaming, with SK Kev1n scoring a kill on Acer 76O under the turret shortly followed by a kill on Acer LOLPROqq after SK Gaming members burned both their Flash summoner spells to keep up the pace.

SK Ocelote was caught out on his own in the river between top and mid lane, gifting Acer.pl a free Baron Nashor as SK kev1n and SK YellOwStar were at bottom lane, trying to push the turrets of Acer.pl. While they were successful in leaving the inhibitor exposed, they gave Acer.pl a lifeline. Immediately after taking Baron Nashor, Acer.pl rushed straight towards the Dragon, meaning they had already improved on their objective control from the previous game.

Acer.pl then continued to try and tilt the game into their favour after being on the back foot for most of the game. They pushed up to SK Gaming's middle inhibitor turret but they got too greedy and lost both Acer 76O and Acer Celaverr .
SK Gaming immediately responded by pushing the secondary middle turret of Acer.pl.

Acer.pl finally showed us what we had all been waiting for in the next team fight- The combined ultimates from both Acer Celaverr and Acer SuperAZEE caught 4 members of SK gaming and after a few deaths for SK Gaming, Acer.pl took the opportunity to push their opponent's middle inhibitor and then take down the second consecutive Baron Nashor of the game.
The two Baron Nashor kills for Acer.pl really turned the game around for them: Prior to these objectives being picked up, it looked like they would have to concede defeat.

SK's Ocelote was inspirational: With the highest amount of gold generated in the game in addition to saving his team numerous times with his Command: Shockwave, he really is one to watch in the future.

The final fight of the game was dictated by who was able to get the last Baron Nashor. Acer.pl started to kill it with no contention from SK Gaming, but with Acer.pl not having vision outside of the Baron pit, they were unable to see SK Araneae waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
With Baron Nashor getting low, SK Araneae leaped into the Baron pit on his own and killed Baron Nashor with Smite, gifting his team a free Baron Nashor buff, although dying in the process.
Acer.pl looked to find an end to the game and attempted to push SK Gaming's bottom inhibitor, but Acer Celaverr and Acer 76O pushed too far in again and got killed.
With SK having the advantage in numbers and also having Baron buff, they turned the game on its head and stormed into their opponent's base with no minions, forcing SK kev1n to tank both Nexus turrets.

At this stage in the game, the turrets were unable to stop SK Gaming from destroying Acer.pl's Nexus, ending the series with another 2-0 scoreline.

SK Gaming really showed how far they have come over the last few weeks: Their relentless roster changes have drawn a lot of fire but we can see that they work much better now as a unit.

CLG.EU VS TEAM ALTERNATE - GAME 1

Moving onto the second game of the day, and CLG.EU, one of the tournament favourites along with m5.BenQ, were put up against the german Team Alternate.

With CLG.EU flying in from Korea to take part in Gamescom, there was a risk that the jet lag could cause an upset.
ATN have a world class mid laner in their lineup: ForellenLord. As the player with the highest Elo rating in the history of the game, there was much hype on his mid lane battle against the widely renown CLG Froggen.

CLG.EU BANS Twisted Fate Ahri Shen

ATN BANS Karthus Malphite Alistar

CLG Krepo - Leona - Support
CLG yellowpete - Ezreal - AD
CLG Froggen - Anivia - Mid
CLG Snoopeh - Cho'Gath - Jungle
CLG Wickd - Irelia - Top

ATN ForellenLord - Gragas - Mid
ATN unso - Maokai - Jungle
ATN Noaphiel - Sona - Support
ATN Fisch - Corki - AD
ATN rainy - Yorick - Top


Despite CLG Froggen getting his world famous Anivia, ATN ForellenLord managed to score first blood after forcing Anivia's Rebirth very early on in the game.
CLG Froggen seeked to get straight back into the game and managed to lane gank ATN Noaphiel , pushing to score up to 1-1 with 1 kill going to each mid laner.

CLG.EU's Froggen had a few early problems against ATN Forellenlord , but managed to bait his opponent into committing to a kill he could never get, meaning that CLG.EU Snoopeh could create a gold and kill lead for CLG.EU.
Shortly after, CLG yellowPete secured a kill on ATN Noaphiel , further pushing the game towards CLG.EU's favour with the score sitting at 3-1.

ATN ForellenLord continued to be the driving force in his team, picking up a kill on CLG Wickd after a courageous turret dive by ATN. Shortly after, ATN ForellenLord saved his oracle-bearing teammate ATN unso from certain death by using his Explosive Cask to push CLG Froggen and CLG Snoopeh back towards their turret.

Despite CLG Wickd having a death on the scoreboard, he still continued to out-farm his top lane opponent by 40 minions at 21:30. CLG.EU managed to destroy both top and middle turrets but only had a gold lead of 3k at 24:45, as ATN had picked up the first dragon kill earlier in the game.

The second Dragon of the game was picked up by ATN, but at the cost of losing ATN Fisch and ATN Rainy .

After a long quiet period, a team fight erupted outside of the Dragon pit in which a 2-2 exchange took place, with CLG Wickd picking up a double kill on ATN Rainy and ATN unso , before dying alongside his teammate CLG.EU yellowpete .

Once dragon had spawned, a 'dragon dance' began with both teams unwilling to give up the global gold it offers. ATN ForellenLord got caught out by an CLG Froggen Crystallize wall once and was forced to flash out. Shortly after, ATN ForellenLord got caught out by another wall and was unable to escape due to the silence cast by CLG Snoopeh . With ATN ForellenLord falling quickly, CLG.EU made the most of the numerical advantage and CLG yellowpete picked up a double kill. CLG.EU then proceeded to take the Dragon that they had fought for so valiantly.

Another excellent Crystallize wall by CLG Froggen locked ATN unso away from his team, allowing CLG Krepo to stun 3 members of ATN, shortly followed by a perfect Trueshot Barrage from CLG yellowpete , hitting all members of ATN. The teamfight ended in a 5-0 annihilation by CLG.EU.
This paved the way for CLG.EU to take the first Baron Nashor of the game. With CLG.EU having a strong grip on the game, all that was left to do was to confirm the ending of the match: CLG.EU marched into their opponent's base and forced another team fight. CLG Snoopeh initiated with a fantastic Rupture and CLG Krepo followed up with his Solar Flare directly on top of 3 members of ATN., stunning all of them.

CLG.EU went on to destroy the enemy Nexus, ending the first game with a very convincing score of 21-4.

CLG.EU VS TEAM ALTERNATE - GAME 2

ATN BANS Karthus Malphite Anivia

CLG.EU BANS Twisted Fate Ahri Shen

CLG Krepo - Nunu - Support
CLG yellowpete - Ezreal - AD
CLG Froggen - Gragas - Mid
CLG Snoopeh - Maokai - Jungle
CLG Wickd - Renekton - Top

ATN ForellenLord - Orianna - Mid
ATN unso - Nautilus - Jungle
ATN Noaphiel - Alistar - Support
ATN Fisch - Corki - AD
ATN rainy - Irelia - Top


CLG yellowpete picked up Lizard buff right at the start of the game, stealing experience and removing a lot of the gank potential of ATN unso . Despite this, ATN unso managed to catch out CLG Krepo as he left bottom lane to ward the Dragon, resulting in a first blood kill for ATN.

ATN Rainy's Irelia pick did not prove to be a strong choice for early game: With CLG Wickd knowing Irelia like the back of his hand, he did not have any problems during the laning phase and at the 12:00, CLG Wickd was ahead by a huge 34 minion kills.

Meanwhile in mid lane, a fight between CLG Froggen and ATN ForellenLord suddenly became a 2v1 in ATN's favour with ATN unso coming in to help: CLG's response was to send in CLG Wickd and CLG Snoopeh , but the teleport from ATN Rainy caught out CLG Snoopeh who eventually died, losing his oracles elixir buff.

With CLG Wickd going straight for a The Bloodthirster, there was very little that ATN Rainy could do to keep up in lane. The early dominance by CLG Wickd translated into an incredible 75 minion difference between the two top laners at 20:00.

A gank from ATN unso on CLG Froggen backfired hugely as CLG Snoopeh appeared out of nowhere to turn things around and secure a kill on the aggressive jungler, who lost his oracles buff in the process.

CLG Froggen scored two back-to-back kills on ATN ForellenLord and then went on to kill ATN Fisch at top lane.
This was another game where CLG Froggen really showed his technical prowess: After scoring a double kill on ATN while they were trying to take Baron Nashor and forcing them to retreat, he then went on to get a triple kill in the next team fight and chased down ATN ForellenLord to land an unofficial quadra kill.

The next team fight supplied two more kills to CLG Froggen and CLG Wickd landed a triple kill: At this stage of the game, these two members of CLG.EU were so strong that ATN were unable to put up any sort of resistance.

The game was finally put to death by CLG.EU, with CLG Froggen ending the game with a breathtaking score of 13-1, while his teammate CLG Wickd finished on an equally impressive 8-0.



That just about wraps things up for Day 2 at Gamescom. Tune in tomorrow to catch the results of the two semi finals: SK Gaming vs CLG.EU and m5.BenQ vs FnaticRC.

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