Welcome back to the second OPL Recap for the week, again we’re breaking down the most recent games played in the League of Legends Oceanic Pro League. So if you’ve got a few minutes to spare, read through our Day One recap here.
Avant Gaming v Tectonic
It was the battle of the imports as Tectonic hunted for their first OPL series victory against OPL veterans Avant Gaming. Both teams had brought in new AD Carries from overseas, and this was the first test of their ability. However, Tectonic’s new AD Carry, Value, hadn’t made it to Australia as of yet, so TTC Academy’s Anderu stepped up to play for the side.
Game 1
The game started off with a hiss and a roar as Praelus made a beeline for the bottom side of the map to pick up First Blood onto Trance not even three minutes into the game. Sybol made his own trip to the botlane, donating a kill onto Jayke to Trance’s Zyra a minute later to equalise the brief gold lead that AV had. Praelus getting caught out turned out to be a masterclass bait as the rest of AV turned up to pick up 3 more kills, putting them on DarkSide’s Kai’Sa, who had a KDA of 4/0/1 by 8 minutes. A consolation kill onto Frae evened up the game slightly, but as the game closed in on 15 minutes, the advantage was all Avant’s, especially after a 2 for 1 trade for the botlane duo, losing DarkSide.
The teams traded Infernals, and a hectic 5v5 in the midlane only resulted in a kill for each teams, however Baron was snuck by Avant to enhance their lead to 7k at 25 minutes, with a whopping 16 kills to 4 advantage as well as being 1 turret up. The game stagnated until a fight outside Tectonic’s base gave two kills and subsequently the Baron to AV. With their 15k gold lead, AV began sieging the base, using Frae’s Ryze ult very creatively to exert pressure on the entire of the base. It came to a head as Tectonic went for a last-ditch effort and were wiped from the Rift to give Avant Gaming the first win of the series.
Game 2
The clown fiesta that is the Oceanic meta continued in game 2 as Frae took Graves jungle and switched up with Praelus, placing the rookie jungler onto Braum and into the midlane as a duo lane. Sybol took Taliyah into the jungle up against Frae, and the early game was quite bloodthirsty with 5 kills by 8 minutes. Blood continued to be spilt, as well as chunks of stone as both teams traded kills and turrets. The duo mid strategy didn’t seem to be working, as Shok’s Xerath pulled out a monstrous lead, easily outweighing the advantage Frae had levered over Taliyah.
With an Infernal Drake on each side, the more traditional composition from Tectonic started to take lead after lead, taking Baron after picking off Pabu and Frae to establish a 7k gold lead. After a Mountain Drake went Tectonic’s way, they began moving around the map that much more, with a second Baron going their way after seizing an opportunity as well as multiple kills after a failed teamfight from AV. Sensing the game was slipping away, Avant went for the jugular and were absolutely rinsed by Tectonic, and with the clean Ace, Tectonic stomped into Avant’s base to even up the series and force the decider.
Game 3
The final game of the series was a whole lot more orthodox than the previous one, and a 4v4 fight around Tectonic’s red buff 3 minutes into the game yielded first blood onto Taliyah, with Pabu getting a solokill onto Papryze seconds later. An early Ocean Drake went the way of Avant Gaming, and they slowly created advantages to be 3k gold ahead at 11 minutes. Papryze and Pabu went back and forth, and so did the botlane, but Avant won out the skirmishes again and again to have a 6k gold lead at 18 minutes being 6 kills ahead.
With sustain coming out of their ears, Avant continued their aggression, catching out multiple members of Tectonic to give a clean Triple Kill over to DarkSide’s Ezreal. By the time 20 minutes had passed, AV were ready to start up the Baron and successfully took it with a small contest from Tectonic, who knew that the game was almost over for them. Leading 17 to 5 in kills as well as 10k gold, Avant decided that they wanted to go home and stormed into Tectonic’s base, with inhibitors falling at 24 minutes, and the Nexus turrets followed not long after. With a final flourish, AV picked off Sybol and Anderu before blowing up the Nexus to take their first win of OPL Split 2.
That’s all for this week, be sure to check in over the coming days for this week’s OPL Lowdown! We’ve got the Chiefs going up against Mammoth, as well as the AFL Derby when Legacy go up against the Bombers on Day One, with ORDER squaring up opposite Tectonic and Dire Wolves looking to continue their unbeaten run against Avant Gaming on Day Two.