Day one of Intel Extreme Masters Taipei brought us plenty of interesting League of Legends action. LeBlanc was definitely the champion to watch as we saw both a dominating AP LeBlanc by TPA and a unique Trinity Force LeBlanc by BKT. Rek’Sai also got through the ban phase multiple times, so there were plenty of reasons not to miss out.

Quarterfinal 1: yoe Flash Wolves vs. Bangkok Titans

If you’ve been watching League of Legends esports for a while now, you might have noticed that four out of five yoe Flash Wolves members were part of the Gamania Bears during the Season 3 World Championship, this experience showing in their dominating performance. The picks and bans for game one were as follows:

GAME ONE

BANS

• yoe Flash Wolves: Kassadin, Lissandra, Jarvan IV
• Bangkok Titans: Irelia, Rek’Sai, Azir

PICKS

• yoe Flash Wolves: Zed, Rengar, Gnarr, Corki, Morgana
• Bangkok Titans: Janna, Sivir, Fizz, Pantheon, Malphite

While G4 managed to secure first blood on Fizz and get another kill shortly after, BKT didn’t manage to get Fizz snowballing, and a well-timed gank in mid evened things out again for Maple’s Zed. After that, yFW were able to secure the next four dragons, and this combined with a lead in CS and kills led to them taking down the enemy Nexus at the 35 minute mark.  

GAME TWO

BANS

• Bangkok Titans: Zed, Azir, Irelia
• yoe Flash Wolves: Jarvan IV, Lissandra, Ahri

PICKS

• Bangkok Titans: Rek’Sai, Caitlyn, Morgana, Kassadin, LeBlanc
• yoe Flash Wolves: Gnarr, Sivir, Janna, Rengar, Lulu

Game two started out very excitingly when it became clear that BKT WarL0cK would be playing the niche Trinity Force LeBlanc in top. Everybody wanted this pick to work out but sadly it was yFW Maple’s in mid who got fed instead, resulting in a 12/5/9 Lulu by the end of the game at 37 minutes. This means yoe Flash Wolves will go on to face ahq e-Sports Club on day two of Intel Extreme Masters Taipei!

Quarterfinal 2: Taipei Assassins vs. Avant Garde

The second series of the day matched up TPA and Avant Garde. TPA have made some changes to the team since their disappointing performance at Worlds last year and weren’t going to let the Australian team beat them in their home town. Let’s take a look at the games...

GAME ONE

BANS

• Taipei Assassins: Rumble, Zed, Dr. Mundo
• Avant Garde: Azir, Gnar, Lissandra

PICKS

• Taipei Assassins: Janna, Rek’Sai, Corki, LeBlanc, Lulu
• Avant Garde: Kassadin, Jarvan IV, Thresh, Ezreal, Irelia

TPA totally outclassed AG in the first game. Chawy got rolling on LeBlanc in mid lane and finished the match with a legendary score of 15/0/8, at which point TPA also had an 18k gold lead.

GAME TWO

BANS

• Avant Garde: LeBlanc, Azir, Rek’Sai
• Taipei Assassins: Rumble, Zed, Dr. Mundo

PICKS

• Avant Garde: Gnarr, Lee Sin, Janna, Sivir, Lulu
• Taipei Assassins: Kassadin, Lissandra, Jarvan IV, Nami, Tristana

Avant Garde tried to fight back in the second game, starting with first blood and a double kill on support Junnie, but in response TPA started picking up kills all over the map, getting both Kassadin and Tristana way ahead. TPA closed out the game after picking up Baron at the 28 minute mark.
Tomorrow we have ahq e-Sports Club versus yoe Flash Wolves as well as TPA versus Saigon Jokers to look forward to! For the full brackets and schedule, check out the Intel Extreme Masters Taipei website, and don’t forget that you can visit our YouTube channel for the full VODs of today’s matches if you missed out.
You can also find our handy Intel Extreme Masters Taipei League of Legends survival guide here.

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