StarTale and Xenics Storm look to dominate Group C of The Champions eSports Central

Group C of Azubu The Champions started today. The group was set with a really good storyline. First, there is the team, Xenics Storm, that is coached by the Starcraft: Brood War legend, Yell0w. Second, CJ Entus, the multigaming organization that is known for Starcraft: Brood War, debuts in The Champions. Third, StarTale, a very well known Starcraft 2 team, debuts their new lineup that includes Locodoco. Fourth, the European hopeful, Natus Vincere, hopes to shock the world by making it out of this difficult group. Group C is definitely going to be a group to remember.

CJ Entus SPACE SPACE SPACE emboob Kkinsh LongPanda Eryuk Pecko

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Bans/picks Ban Ban Ban Pick Pick Pick Pick Pick

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Xenics Storm SPACE SPACE SPACE Impact ManyReason Nolja SBS May

The action started in the picks and bans with CJ Entus picking Karthus first and then Xenics responding with a Soraka pick to counter the Karthus. Why did CJ Entus pick their AP so early? I have not a clue. The team for CJ Entus centered around good Malphite initiations. Xenics Storm centered around strong farm on [Anivia and Corki while allowing Singed to do whatever he desired.

The game started out with Xenics Storm sending their duo lane to the top lane which left Singed to 1v2 in the bottom lane. The junglers for both teams played really aggressive in the beginning with both picking up kills. Xenics takes down the tower in the top lane and decides to switch to allow Singed to 1v1 against Malphite but during the switch; CJ Entus push down their bottom tower. This moment felt almost like the end of the laning phase and we hadn't even reach 10 minutes. CJ Entus is able to take the first dragon as Soraka has to recall after taking too much damage; it was the last dragon they were going to get all game.

Xenics Storm was untouchable after Singed became an unpenetrable tank. Manyreason and SBS were able to get farmed to their full builds with all the won teamfights and global objectives that not even a good Malphite Unstoppable Force could shut them down. In fact, a lot of the Malphite ultimates were not well timed and lacked a follow through from the rest of CJ Entus.

The lack of damage and good positioning from the CJ Entus team was their demise and they fall in the first game. Xenics storm had 20 kills to CJ Entus's 8.

StarTale SPACE SPACE SPACE MaFa 5cean Locodoco Ryu Joker

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Bans/Picks Ban Ban Ban Pick Pick Pick Pick Pick

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Natus Vincere SPACE SPACE SPACE SAND Antogyn CitizenWayne Kottenx Nesrilas

Natus Vincere was able to get everything they could hope for from the picks. CitizenWayne was able to get his beloved Ziggs and they were able to pick up Graves and Soraka. However, StarTale had great initiation from Alistar and Malphite.

The game was never really close. SAND got picked off at level 1 and they were never able to recover. Urgot was able to get really tanky and his swaps were spot on. Joker was able to have well coordinated Malphite ultimates that set up team fights for StarTale. Ocean was able to do massive amounts of damage on Ryze while Alistar and Dr. Mundo tanked up all the damage.

There really is nothing good to say about Natus Vincere's play and hopefully they turn it around in the next game against CJ Entus. They got behind from the level 1. The lane switch by StarTale really hurt Nesrilas on Darius as he was down a ton of gold by mid game. The same can be said with Antogyn on Graves as he was never able to get close to getting the items he needed. The lack of damage really hurt them and they were not able to make anything happen no matter how well they engaged.

StarTale wins with 23 kills to 4 for Na'Vi.

CJ Entus SPACE SPACE SPACE Pecko Eryuk Kkinsh emboob LongPanda

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Bans/Picks Ban Ban Ban Pick Pick Pick Pick Pick

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Natus Vincere SPACE SPACE SPACE CitizenWayne Kottenx Nesrilas SAND Antogyn

Interesting Fiora and Draven bans from Na'Vi that game. Na'Vi first picked Karthus and CJ Entus, of course, picked Soraka.

The European team had a much better start this game. Na'Vi waits in CJ Entus's blue buff bush for Eryuk ( Skarner) and absolute destroy him and take the buff.

It was odd that there wasn't a lane swap in this game since Na'Vi had such a problem against the lane swap from StarTale. The junglers were active with ganks but the map was covered in wards due to no early Oracle's Elixir from either jungler. In a fantastic play, Nesrilas ( Malphite) chunks down LongPanda ( Irelia) which results in CitizenWayne ( Karthus) using Requiem to pick up the kill while Irelia waits under turret.

CJ Entus decided to push the bottom lane really hard with their Soraka and Graves combo. Since Antogyn Sivir was farming under tower, he was behind by a significant amount of creeps. However, that was the only lane that CJ Entus was winning.

Natus Vincere was able to get a nice lead after some very nice teamfights. The first major teamfight was sparked by a failed ultimate from Malphite that gave CJ Entus the go ahead to engage. Unfortunately for them their teamfighting skills were really bad and they don't kill Karthus quick enough which results in the Korean team getting aced. The game got out of control at this point. Na'Vi attempted a baron after the big teamfight but couldn't pull it off with only 3 people so early in the game. CJ Entus attempts to baron but Na'Vi zerg rushes them in the baron pit and Karthus was able to pick up three quick kills and the baron. The fight results in another ace and a 6,000 gold lead for Na'Vi when the game was dead even two minutes earlier.

The big difference from the first part of the game to the second part of the game was that Na'Vi was able to shut down Pecko ( Graves). Pecko was very much in the lead in the laning phase but lost the lead after the laning phase. He was focused down in teamfights and didn't have the money nor farm to keep up with Sivir in the later stages of the game.

Na'Vi was able to push for the win after another huge teamfight win. Na'Vi wins the game with 25 kills to 12.

The items were standard for this game.

Group C Standings

Team Xenics Storm StarTale Natus Vincere CJ Entus

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Wins 1 1 1 0

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Losses 0 0 1 2

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