The Azubu teams battle to find out who is a finalist for Azubu The Champions Summer eSports Central

The Korean scene is synonomous with Azubu Blaze and Frost, so it was only fitting that the brother teams fought each other in the semi-finals with a lot on the line. Azubu Frost got out to a quick 1-0 lead in the best of 5 series with extraordinary play from RapidStar on Diana. Azubu Blaze was able to even it the next game by taking away Diana from RapidStar and having excellent early game turret control. Also, helped that Ambition got really fed on Vladimir. Azubu Frost was able to take the next game with amazing play by RapidStar on Lux. However, Azubu Blaze would not lay down and took game 4 with good decision making and getting Cpt Jack fed early in the game.

We went onto the controversial blind pick and an interesting one from Cpt Jack who got Sivir instead of Graves. Azubu Frost looked like they got their dream team, as they should since it is blind pick, RapidStar had Diana, Templar had Nocturne, Shy had Malphite, Woong had Graves, and MadLife had his beloved Alistar. Once again we were all witnesses to the amazing RapidStar play with Diana. Frost was able to take down Blaze in a quick 28 minute game and Diana proved to be less the scorn of the moon and more The Scorn of Azubu Blaze.

Season 2 World Championships

I'm hoping Google Translate doesn't fail me since I'm getting all this information from the kr.leagueoflegends.com website.

The win gives Frost the automatic birth into the Season 2 World Championships while Blaze will now have to battle it out in a playoff in order to make it. There is still a chance that both Azubu teams will qualify for the Season 2 World Championships but Azubu Blaze will have to play their best to make it. Blaze will have the advantage in the playoff because the way it works is #5 challenges #4, the winner challenges #3, and then the winner of that challenges Azubu Blaze. The teams will consist of: #5 CJ Entus, #4 LG-Incredible Miracle, #3 Xenics Storm, and #2 Azubu Blaze. The playoff will take place over a couple of weekends in September starting on September 12th and ending on September 21st.

Diana and Zyra prove to be really effective

The tournament realm for The Champions was updated to the Diana patch which meant that we could see new champions like Diana and Zyra in high level play. Zyra has seen some play in IPL Elites but we haven't seen her in very many professional games. Personally, I haven't seen Diana at all in a professional game. That all changed today. Diana was either picked or banned in every single game and Zyra was picked in one game as a support.

Overall the new champions look really strong. No, not overpowered strong but strong if in capable hands. For instance, Diana was vastly different in the hands of RapidStar than in the hands of Reapered. RapidStar is a god on Diana going something like 12/3/20 over two games with the new champion. Reapered wasn't near that.

The sheer joy you get when watching RapidStar land a 4 person Crescent Strike and then Lunar Rush into the 4 enemy champions is incredible. The skill shot of Crescent Strike is one of those abilities that is alright in the hands of someone like an average joe player but you give the ability to one of the best AP skill shot players in the world and awesome things will happen.

When MadLife had Zyra it all came down to her ultimate, Stranglethorns, which can be just as good as an Unstoppable Force from Malphite. In the 2nd game, everytime MadLife landed a huge Stranglethorns, Frost would win the team fight but they were really behind when he started to land them. Fast forward to the end of the game where MadLife was unable to land a good ultimate and Blaze wiped the floor with them.

RapidStar is god-like

I've already touted RapidStar for his play on Diana but his play on Lux was just as extraordinary. He absolutely abused Ambition during the Lux game, getting out to a very quick lead and having presence all over the map with the strong Finales Funkeln. RapidStar was able to 100 to 0 champions with the combo of Light Binding, Finales Funkeln, and Lucent Singularity. It was truly an awesome thing to watch.

Ambition was not able to keep up with RapidStar at all throughout the best of 5. Azubu Blaze had to rely on Reapered, Helios, and Cpt Jack to carry the team to victory and they did in game 2 and game 4. The only game that Ambition really had a strong foothold was game 2 with Vladimir where he was able to get out to a 3/0/0 and huge creep score lead.

All in all, RapidStar proved that he is the best AP mage today.

Frost now waits

Azubu Frost now eagerly awaits their challenger in the finals. Who will it be? Will it be the lone foreign team left in the tournament, CLG EU? Will it be the surprise of the tournament with NaJin e-mFire Sword? We will find out next week, August 24th, at the same time (6:30 EDT) and same place (www.ognlol.com).

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