Welcome to Snowball’s OPL Team of the Week!
It’s Week 3 and we’ve almost closed off the first round robin of the season. This week’s team is the first of the split not to feature a Mammoth team member, with the table-toppers finally dropping a game. It’s also a time where we can start talking about the split MVP front runners and I think there is a name that should come up in the conversation, so without further delay let’s get down to business.
Chippys
Ryan Short – Avant Gaming
We have for my money, as things stand, the leading candidate for the OPL Split 2 MVP. Avant’s first place standing has happened with a myriad of roleswaps and substitutions but Chippys consistent carry performances for the third week in a row has him as the only player to feature in each of the Team of the Week editions for the split thus far.
In Avant’s first game against the Dire Wolves, Chippys was a quiet achiever, ending the game 2/2/8. He landed some big ultimates on Neeko throughout the match, but had to take a backseat role as Shok quickly became the centrepiece for Avant. Nevertheless, Chippys’ performance was serviceable, and he performed his role as required.
Their second game of the week against Mammoth saw Chippys once again on his own island duking it out for himself. For the most part he held his own, but benefitted from his team’s presence around the map. In a volatile match up, things started to swing his way at the 20 minute mark, solo killing Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami, and disrespecting his opponent with an on camera dab.
He showed the strength of his Camille on a beaten down Mammoth as Avant picked up the first baron, gunning down the Mammoth members waiting by the Baron pit hoping to contest. For a player that had a slow start, Chippys once accelerated put on a clinic for closing out the game picking up a Penta kill to close off the game, finishing 9/0/2.
Miru
Park Mi-reu – Avant Gaming
Game 1 for Miru got off a shaky start after unfortunately dying at his enemy’s blue buff around the seven minute mark. Adding salt into the wound, the Avant bottom lane gave up a kill to a three-man dive at the same time. While costly, Miru didn’t do much wrong for the rest of the game. He appears back topside at eight minutes to help get Chippys back into the lane and take down Fudge. At the end of the day though, Miru’s ability to consistently turn and lock down key targets led Avant to victory.
Game 2 allowed Miru a chance to play aggressively early, picking Olaf against Mammoth. While it was a slow start, only taking an early Ocean drake to help Avant’s lane sustain, he was able to up the tempo at around nine minutes into the game. B-lining for Mammoth’s blue buff, he ran over Leo “Babip” Romer and Stephen “Triple” Li, before also cleaning up Calvin “k1ng” Truong on the back end.
Less than a minute later, Miru was on the map contesting the Rift Herald, and managed to turn a relatively quiet first eight minutes into an explosive 3/0/2 start by 11. Miru did his job in both games, and besides for a few lapses of concentration, gave Avant the tools to get another 2-0 week.
Claire
Brandon Nguyen – Chiefs Esports Club
The two time Snowball MVP winner was showing off real clean mechanical play, with Bryce “Egym” Paule describing Claire’s ability to escape an impending gank so clean that it looked like a spectator bug and that you’d be forgiven for providing false “hackusations” against his Akali play.
Claire picked up first blood at 14 minutes against Legacy off the back of a failed bot lane trade from Legacy. He was then able to clean up the scraps later on in the game around objectives, finding picks around the map without much pressure coming back at him. He finished Game 1 with a relatively humble statline of 4/1/3, but his constant pressure was priceless.
Playing Corki against Order on Saturday, he shrugged off more ganks and kept absorbing pressure for the Chiefs. His ability to stay even throughout the laning phase allowed him to explode in the mid game, making his impact known at the Rift Herald contest at around 10 minutes, picking up a swift double kill. His only death for the game came in the aftermath of the Chiefs’ first baron of the game as he put up a 4/1/5 performance.
These two great, consistent outings across the weekend earned Claire a spot on this week’s Team of the Week.
Raes
Quin Korebrits – Chiefs Esports Club
Raes found himself having a very slow start in game one against Legacy. With Chiefs taking a huge advantage in the top lane, Raes understood the situation that he needed to absorb pressure as the Ezreal and just work on poking his enemies down. So patient was Raes with his Ezreal play, the perfect player had to wait until 25 minutes in to pick up his first kill of the game. But, from there, he was a team fighting machine, safely whittling down his opponents and allowing for the rest of the Chiefs to clean up the scraps.
He then had to fight his way from behind against Order on Lucian, after falling down to an early game from Samuel “Spookz” Broadley. However, by eight minutes, a well-timed teleport from Brandon “Swip3rR” Holland allowed Raes to gain level pegging, picking up a kill on Jayke “Jayke” Paulsen’s Lux.
Within two minutes, the Kiwi bot laner picked up another couple of kills, and snowballed the game out of control from there. Solo killing Ronan “Dream” Swingler at 12 minutes, he kept flexing his muscles throughout the mid game, looming as a menacing threat over Order’s head as the Melbourne boys tried to contest objectives.
While he had a few mishaps with a bit of overaggression, Raes ended the game with a 9/3/6 statline and a quadra kill next to his name. The Chiefs have found something special with the Claire-Raes carry duo, and are looking to threaten the likes of Mammoth and Avant at the top in the next few weeks.
Decoy
Daniel Ealam – Gravitas
It’s always hard as a support to find your footing in a loss, but Decoy managed to put up solid performances from ahead and behind in Week 3. Against the Bombers, the Gravitas support went deathless, while participating in all four of his team’s kills across the game. It wasn’t a game to remember for Gravitas, but Decoy can hold his head high after his own performance.
However, fast forwarding to Gravitas’ game against Legacy, let’s set the scene. It’s 13 minutes in, the gold relatively even, and first blood hasn’t been picked up. Both teams are contesting Rift Herald. With Decoy’s Lux being able to approach the pit where Legacy are trying to take down the Rift Herald, he is able to make an immediate impact on the trapped and confined Legacy, snaring two members in the pit and securing two kills for himself.
From there, the game accelerated quickly, with Decoy helping guide his team to victory by landing big ultimates and finding picks with his Light Bindings. His consistent performances, despite the troubles Gravitas have been facing, has secured him his first Team of the Week spot for the split.
That’s a wrap for Team of the Week! Anyone stiff to miss out? Who is your MVP for the first 3 weeks of the split? Let us know, tweet us @snowballesports with the hashtag #TOTW.
