We’re well and truly into the final stretch of the OPL season, and the shenanigans never stop! In this week of the OPL, the Chiefs bounced back from their loss to Legacy, Abyss picked up their second win of the season, and Legacy continued their reign at the top of the ladder.
All this and more in Respawn Ninja’s OPL Week Seven Recap!
Chiefs eSports Club (2) def. Sin Gaming (1)
The Chiefs bounced back from a thumping loss to Legacy with a solid victory over Sin Gaming. We saw both teams come into the game with clear gameplans. Sin were fully focused on forcing Raes off his best picks with four ADC bans, and the Chiefs were in no mood to give Juves his best champion, banning out his Elise and targeting Sin’s mid and top lane champion pools.
The standout performer in this series was without a doubt, Swiffer, who was outperformed by Legacy’s mid laner, Claire, but came back with a vengeance to tear apart Sin in every game. He ended the series with a KDA of 30/6/20 with fantastic performances on Ahri, Jayce, and Zed.
The Chiefs aren’t looking quite at their best just yet, and there were noticeable holes in their game plan. And with only a short while before the end of the season and two-week bans handed out to four of their starting roster, they’ll need to improve off stage with no true understanding of just where they are at.
Abyss eSports Club (2) def. Exile5 (1)
In the battle of the bottom teams. Abyss came out trumps against Exile5 to pick up their second win of the season and leave Exile5 marooned at the bottom of the ladder. Game one saw X5 pick up their first game win of the season as Guts went legendary on Graves to lead his team to victory. It was a very comfortable draft for X5, as they picked up Tgun’s Nami and Midbeast’s Ahri and while Abyss tried to counter their pick comp with a somewhat surprising Kayle support pick, X5 managed to find the early kills and close out the games.
Once Guts was off the Graves, however, it was a whole different ball game. A greedy call to do a four man Baron while Zed was off in a side lane led to X5’s demise in game two as Seb stole the Baron and Abyss picked up the cross map ace to end the game. Guts managed to create early game advantages for his team again, but their inferior laning meant they were always a step behind and after some poor attempts to end the game by Abyss, they eventually closed the game out in 40 minutes.
Legacy (2) def. Tainted Minds (0)
This was Tainted Minds’ first weekend with the same roster as their last in over a month, but that didn’t amount to much as a barnstorming Legacy took the series with little trouble. Despite losing Claire for two weeks to a ban, Legacy looked comfortable playing with Chuchuz and for good reason. He was Legacy’s long-standing mid laner before this season, and it looked like Carbon was still very familiar with his playstyle.
The first game was a relatively easy game for Legacy as they picked a similar composition to the one they defeated the Chiefs with, but the second game was an absolute demolition derby. Legacy pulled out a perfect game as they picked up 27 kills in 20 minutes and didn’t give up a single tower, dragon or death. Any questions raised over how Legacy would fair with Chuchuz were well and truly put to rest this week, and they’ve solidified their lead at the top of the ladder and look to hold that position going into the playoffs for the second time in a row.
Dire Wolves (2) def. Avant Garde (0)
Despite a roster swap earlier in the week, Avant Garde continued their slide in the second half of the split as the Dire Wolves picked up a comfortable 2-0 win. Sybol’s first game in Avant Garde colours was against his old team, and it didn’t go quite to plan for him as Phantiks went 8/1/1 on Ekko with the help of King’s Ashe.
Sybol looked far better in the second game but it still wasn’t enough for Avant to pick up the win as once again Phantiks outperformed his opposing mid laner and Shernfire pulled off the right initiations on Lee Sin to eventually close out the game and keep Dire Wolves within touching distance of the top two. Avant Garde, on the other hand, have lost their second series in the last three weeks and this leaves them dangerously close to a rejuvenated Sin. It also opens up a mouth-watering match in the final week of the regular season, when they take on Sin in what could decide the final team in the playoffs.
Player of the Week: Swiffer (Chiefs)
This week was all about the mid laners, and the best performer was without a doubt Swiffer. Although he didn’t play poorly against Legacy, questions were raised as to whether he was still head and shoulders above the rest of the mid laners in the league. This performance was a statement more than anything for the Chiefs mid laner as he played three different champions to lead his team to victory.
Last week he was criticised for falling behind Claire on the roams and this week he played Ahri, Zed, and Jayce, all champions which excel in roaming and he showed it, dominating all sections of the map. Unfortunately, Swiffer will have to sit out for two weeks after he and three other teammates, Swiffer, Raes, and Egym, were found to have account shared during their boot camp in Shanghai at the start of the season. How this affects the Chiefs season is yet to be seen, but with only three weeks remaining in the regular season, it could prove disastrous to the Chiefs chances of lifting the OPL trophy for the fifth time in a row.
Want to catch the action? You can watch the games on the OPL YouTube here.