Welcome to the first instalment of OPL Recap, where I’ll be breaking down the games played this week in the OPL super quickly just in case you don’t have time to watch them. There will be two Recaps for every week of play, so be sure to tune in Saturday and Sunday for updates. Now, sit back and enjoy the first ever OPL Recap!
Mammoth v Bombers
The first game of the split was set to be a good one, with the rebranded SIN Gaming going up against the Bombers. Both teams have put in massive improvements over the off-season, and so they both come in as relatively unknown qualities. Mammoth seem to have the edge on player skill, but the fact the Bombers remained unchanged from Split 1 means the chemistry is in place and why I opted to give them the win in the OPL Lowdown this week.
Game 1
The game started relatively quietly, the first piece of action coming almost 9 minutes into the game when Juves linked up with REMIND to deliver first blood to Mammoth’s new midlaner. That led to first turret half a minute later and the gold lead leapt into Mammoth’s favour. The botlane turret fell not long after as Bombers traded for the toplane turret. Objectives kept falling MMM’s way, the gold lead being 4k in their favour at 20 minutes.
4 turrets and 5 kills later, Mammoth found a pick onto Rosey after peeling off Baron, quickly returning to it and taking it with a kill onto Seb thrown into the bargain. Sieging the base, Mammoth forced super creeps in, and slowly pressured Bombers into more and more desperate plays. Finally, as the timer threatened to tick over 30 minutes, Mammoth counter-engaged off Rosey’s Braum ultimate to ace the Bombers without losing a single member, and stormed in to take the first win of the OPL split.
Game 2
Bombers weren’t going down without a fight, and drew First Blood onto Juves with REMIND following not long after to give a lead to Seb’s Skarner and Sleeping’s Jayce. Mammoth took first turret, but was immediately responded to as Jayce took the top tower. Multiple skirmishes gave a lead to the Bombers, who had a 3k gold lead at 20 minutes with 3 kills and a turret in hand.
They got ahead of themselves though, and overextended near the Baron pit to give over kills on Looch and Rosey and were forced to concede the Baron after a failed contest attempt from Sleeping and Seb. Mammoth were rewarded for their discipline with the Baron and more turrets to swing a 2k deficit into a 3k lead. They went from strength to strength, shoving in wave after wave and forcing Bombers onto the defensive. As Baron spawned again, Mammoth lost Juves, and the Bombers attempted to make a play, but some stellar play from REMIND kept them away from it, and in the ensuing skirmishes, Mammoth aced Bombers to take the win, and the series, and screwed up my OPL tips in the process.
Chiefs v Legacy
The scheduling gods really are putting on a show for the first day of the split, with the always enjoyable El Classico between Chiefs and Legacy following the fantastic first series. Chiefs remained unchanged rosterwise over the offseason, only changing coaches as Phantiks moved to the OCS to coach Intuition while Legacy took on Avant Gaming’s former jungler Only to replace Sybol. The Chiefs took out Legacy in the Gauntlet of Split 1, so they come into this series favourites.
Game 1
The champion select for this game was the spiciest we’d seen in a long time, with a Taliyah jungle coupled with an Ornn ADC as well as a Dr. Mundo top for the Chiefs, whereas Legacy stuck to safety with the only interesting pick being Kalista for Raid. Claire got caught out poking his head into his jungle and Babip set up ry0ma’s Yasuo for a clean First Blood. Mimic got a solokill onto Swip3rR minutes later, but the Mundo got his revenge when Babip rotated top to kill the Gangplank and take first turret. A second one followed at 13 minutes after Claire got picked off to give a 4k gold lead to the Chiefs.
An initiation in the toplane onto Mimic would have given Chiefs a singular kill, but Legacy decided to fight and 2 more members were killed to push the lead even further into the Chiefs’ favour. Swip3rR has managed to build 50 CS lead on Mimic, and helped exert pressure as the advantages kept going Chiefs’ way. With two Infernal Drakes, the Chiefs began nocking on Legacy’s base. With a crisp initiation, Chiefs took a clean ace and smashed through the midlane turret, the midlane inhibitor, and the nexus turrets before 20 minutes before the triple-tank composition swept aside the Nexus to take Game 1 with one of the most unorthodox team comps ever.
Game 2
The draft for the second game was a bit more normal, with the only surprise being Babip’s signature Nidalee being locked in for the young jungler. First Blood went over to Babip when he ganked the botlane, taking down Decoy, and followed minutes later with a kill onto Claire to put the Chiefs 2k in front. He didn’t stop there however, linking up with ry0ma and Swip3rR to kill Mimic with Claire being taken down by the Vladimir seconds later. By 15 minutes, Chiefs were up 6 kills to 1 with a 5k gold lead with a 2 turret advantage.
21 minutes into the game, the map exploded with kill after kill as Chiefs won a 4 for 3 trade in the midlane and took a Mountain Drake to boot. Picks onto Decoy and Claire around Baron turned it over to the Chiefs as the long siege began, with the boys in blue rotating around the map taking objective after objective to push their gold lead to over 10k. Swip3rR got picked off in the toplane, but Chiefs decided to fight the 4v5 and came away with an even 4 for 4 trade, leaving only Babip alive. Heading into the botlane to pressure the last objectives standing, the Chiefs took a clean ace inside Legacy’s base to win El Classico 2-0 and start their OPL campaign on the right foot.
That’s all for today, check back in tomorrow for Day 2’s Recap, as we see Avant Gaming go up against Tectonic and the champion Dire Wolves go up against ORDER. As always, you can catch the games on YouTube or on Twitch at 5pm AEST!