The third week of round-robin play begins today for LCO Split 2, 2023. After a fortnight’s play, each team’s place in the league is starting to be defined and the next month will be about maintaining their place or improving on their current position.
The second day of week two saw Chiefs face Kanga, with the defending champions extending their lead in what can only be described as a one-sided affair. Both games lasted roughly the same time—23:25 in game one and 23:35 in game two—with almost identical kill totals.
What was far from the same was The Chiefs player lineup between games, as they saw Leo “Babip” Romer stepping into the jungle for the opener with a more supportive gameplay style with a Maokai pick, before Shane “Kevy” Allen stepped in for Game two: a more aggressive carry performance on Kindred. The team has shown they are once again one of the most formidable lineups in the league, and now one of the most flexible as well.
The second series of the day saw the WA Derby take place. Ground Zero faced Pentanet in a series many—including Snowball’s own Callum Matthews—saw as a quick 2-0 for the OG’s in Pentanet. What we got instead was a split series, with Ground Zero claiming the win in a 38-minute opener, with Mong “Eiko” Dai Phu flawless on Zeri.
Game two went in the favour of Pentanet in a 24-and-a-half-minute affair that saw the squad never look back. Pentanet has seen some flux in their player lineup recently, with support Yao “Apii” Jian-Jing stepping away for personal reasons. Jeremy “foreigner” Lim, most notably a Jungler, has stepped into the support role for now, but it is unknown when Apii will make his return or if another native support will be signed to step in.
Week three is the final week of play before the start of the two Super Weeks, which will see each team play three matches. The second series of the day will see Mammoth take on The Chiefs. Having had two draws to start the season, Mammoth will be looking to be able to take the first series victory for the split, whilst The Chiefs will look to keep their perfect record alive.
Game of the day will be today’s first series between Vertex and Kanga as both look to kickstart their split.
Harry’s Game of the Week — Vertex vs Kanga
Life in the LCO hasn’t been easy for the league’s newest team.
Having joined the league this split as the replacement for Peace, Vertex has struggled to get started thus far this split. Their week one affair was a trial by fire against CHF, a matchup no one expected the Wolfpack to come close to. They were able to put on respectable contests in both games, but the clear gap between the two teams was obvious and Chiefs were able to take both with ease.
Week two saw them take on Dire Wolves in the first Battle of the Cubs. The original Wolfpack in the Dire Wolves took this series with ease also, with Mark “Praedyth” Lewis reminding everyone why he is one of the League’s premiere bot lane players with a pair of 10-kill performances and dying just once in game two.
The Vertex lineup has seen some early instability, particularly in the bot lane. The teams’ coach, Gian “styled” Leon returned to his playing role in week one before the team’s starting top laner Tomas “Tomasino” Pereira stepped into the duo lane, with debutant Kim “Woodon” Doo-won moving to the top lane island. This instability should cease going forward following the confirmation of Alvin “Danteh” Jing Zhe joining the lineup.
Kanga has also had a slow start to the split. Week one saw them split the honours with Ground Zero on the back of a carry performance of Dmitry “fighto” Botov Cassiopeia’s performance, which saw him go 7/0/5 in the series’ first contest.
The champion has earned respect bans in every game Kanga has played since, seeing the team struggle because of it. They faced the Chiefs in week two in a one-sided affair, with nothing much to write home about regarding Kanga’s performance.
Coming into this week, both teams will want to win to kick-start their split two campaigns. Getting a 2-0 here today is a must for both teams, as the three points will be extremely valuable for pushing one of these teams up the ladder into the playoffs, which both sides obviously find themselves out of right now.
Vertex will be able to show a much stronger, more complete team today with the addition of Danteh and will go far to improve their play on the Rift, but I do not think it will be enough for them to obtain the 2-0.
I predict this will end up a 1-1 draw, with both teams showing improvements from their play in the first fortnight, but will ultimately be pretty evenly strengthened rosters.
Week 3 Day 1 Predictions
The LCO resumes tonight at 6pm AEST opening with Vertex against Kanga, followed by Mammoth taking on The Chiefs. Keep up to date with the split schedule, stream, and more via our ultimate coverage hub.
Follow our prediction team @CDMLoL, @ImHarryTaylor, @NadetteOCE, and @Ties_AU on Twitter.
