Welcome to the Week 3 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 OPL Recap!

Dire Wolves vs Tectonic

 

Game 1

Shok’s Urgot pocket pick was the victim of some serious attention from Shernfire in the early game, falling down to a repeat gank close to the five-minute mark to give First Blood to Shern’s Nocturne. With the taste of blood on their lips, the Wolfpack five-man ganked the botlane from Tectonic to give a Double Kill to k1ng’s Varus as well as the first turret of the game to be 3k gold ahead by 10 minutes. Tectonic knocked their first turret down a minute later in the top lane as well as the Rift Herald in an attempt to equalise as the Dire Wolves secured the Mountain Drake.

A greedy play from the Dire Wolves was turned around by the Tectonic lineup to put a kill onto Papryze’s Camille and the Urgot before Shernfire almost oneshot Sybol to claim his second kill of the game. With the Rift Herald pounding away at the midlane turret, the Dire Wolves seized an opportunity to take things back and traded the turret for 3 kills to keep the gold advantage firmly in their favour. Shok turned a 2v1 around with the timely arrival of Trance for two kills. Baron went the way of the Dire Wolves at 22 minutes, and the end was near in their eyes as they laid siege to Tectonic’s base. After a few false starts and resets, the Wolfpack caught a monstrous fight outside the botlane inhibitor turret, and took the fight and the Nexus a few seconds later.

 

Game 2

The second game was a little more spicy when it comes to team composition, with Tectonic giving Papryze the Darius, and Kennen and Pyke in the botlane for gunkrab and Trance. The Dire Wolves, not to be outdone, gave BioPanther Aatrox, Shernfire taking the surprise Hecarim as well as Mordekaiser for k1ng. After Sybol roamed to the botlane to try and make a play and forced k1ng’s Flash, Shernfire reversed the fight to take down the Taliyah. gunkrab was next as Mordekaiser picked him off, but Papryze perfectly calculated a 1v1 in the top lane to kill BioPanther with the last tick of Darius’ bleed. He did it again a few minutes later as he interrupted BioPanther’s Dark Flight to get his second kill.

Tectonic turned around an initiation from the Wolfpack to kill both Shernfire and Cupcake before moving for the Rift Herald a couple of minutes later and killing off Shernfire again. By 15 minutes, Tectonic were ahead 2k gold after a teamfight in the jungle where they traded Papryze and Trance for Shernfire and Cupcake. Papryze fell again minutes later as the Dire Wolves took their second Drake of the game. The game stalled for a while, kills and turrets being traded in small increments, but at 27 minutes the Baron was quickly secured by the Wolfpack plus a kill onto the overextended gunkrab. The first inhibitor fell with the aid of the Hand of Baron and with a Ghost Dragon as well as Papryze and Trance being dead, the Dire Wolves ended the game almost exactly on 30 minutes to continue their unbeaten run in 2018.

 

Avant Gaming vs ORDER

 

Game 1

After Jayke burnt his Flash on a costly roam in the first minute, Spookz went back to the botlane a minute later to take advantage of that and take First Blood for ORDER. A few skirmishes yielded no fruit. At 8 minutes, two quick plays in the mid and botlanes gave ORDER kills onto Frae and DarkSide for a 1k gold lead. First turret went to AV by all of half a second as ORDER took their own as well as the Mountain Drake. A kill onto Frae yielded the midlane turret, as both teams traded kills to equalise the gold and turrets at 15 minutes. The next few minutes were all the ORDER show, as they secured kill after kill, a second Mountain Drake and another turret to now be 3k ahead at 20 minutes.

Sensing the game slipping away, Avant went in on a sieging ORDER and the Rift Herald to trade 3 kills, however the two surviving members of ORDER made a beeline straight for Baron and secured it without contest. They danced around Avant’s turrets, not picking up any kills but upping their turret count to 7 as opposed to Avant’s 2 and increasing their gold lead to 7k. An Ocean Drake further increased the power of ORDER as everyone across the map took a moment to reset, and as super minions began knocking on Avant’s Nexus, they had to fall back and cede Baron to ORDER. As they laid waste to Avant’s base, FBI unleashed to annihilate AV and pick up Game 1 of the series.

 

Game 2

The game didn’t take long to get started in favour of ORDER, with Praelus getting caught out and dying to Tally’s Ornn while Swiffer solokilled Frae’s Ryze on Lulu to take a very early advantage. Spookz rotated to the midlane after helping Tally earlier to give Swiffer his second kill onto Frae, before taking ORDER’s midlaner with him to donate a third kill, this time onto Pabu. In another massive fight, this time in the botlane, ORDER took 4 kills to leave only Pabu alive on the side of AV, only losing Rogue and Spookz in exchange. With Ryze, Morgana and Taliyah, Avant had the ability for a massive CC chain and they used it as best as they could in the fight to no avail, as Swiffer took another kill onto Jayke a minute after. By 10 minutes, ORDER had an Infernal Drake, a 4k gold lead and were firmly in control of the game.

ORDER kept jumping from strength to strength, as they picked up even more kills to absolutely boost Swiffer to a 6/0/2 scoreline by 15 minutes while the rest of his team had contributed to a 6k gold lead. Rift Herald was dropped to take the inner midlane turret for ORDER, and they had 17 kills in as many minutes, and every minute that went by was more and more gold in the pockets of ORDER. With their second Infernal Drake and 12k gold lead as the game closed in on 20 minutes, all the signs pointed to the 2-0, and with the Baron in their hands it was definitely happening as they stormed into the base to knock down the Nexus turrets, and not long after the Nexus in a dominant 23 kill, 22 minute game.

That’s all for today, check back in tomorrow for Day 2’s Recap, as we see the Chiefs Esports Club go up against the Bombers and Mammoth clash with Legacy as they hunt for their second win. As always, you can catch the games on YouTube or on Twitch at 5pm AEST!