UKEL 2020 Spring Split – Week 3 Round-Up

Week 3 of the 2020 UKEL Spring Split saw the very first pentakill, in addition to many displays of absolute dominance in teamfights. The two teams at the top of the table, Absolved and Peak Esports battled it out to prove who rightfully deserves their place at the top, this week had everything.

Game 1: Vector vs NSG

MVP: XtraCheeky

The first game of week 3 saw an 0-2 Vector looking to score their first win against NSG who performed rather dominantly in last week’s game, and boy did they win. The first blood of the game went the way of Vector, as Dunlosi’s Jarvan IV caught out UnknownSwede’s Olaf, putting the J4 ahead early on. Dunlosi continued his early domination by picking up a double-kill in the midlane, putting his team at a steady 2k gold lead at 10 minutes.

This lead accelerated quickly after a teamfight kicked off at rift herald resulting in the death of 3 members of NSG whilst Vector were careful not to lose any. The ultimate from Praevius’ Galio launched him into the fight and swiftly executed a 3-man taunt that left NSG extremely vulnerable to the explosive damage of Splaff’s Ryze. The Vector roster showed no signs of stopping the ruthless aggression after tower-diving in the midlane and securing another two kills, leaving them 10-0 before 15 minutes, with 4 players having a bounty on their head.

NSG weren’t ready to give up and fought back, engaging in a teamfight after and being able to pick up a quick 2 kills, the number advantage was on their side, unfortunately for them, however, the MVP of the game XtraCheeky had other ideas, and picked up a double kill and sent the survivors running, with Praevius alongside picking up his third kill of the game. Vector no longer had a perfect KD, but the gold lead continued to grow up to 4k.

NSG took the momentum gained from the 3 kills taken from the teamfight and forced another fight, stealing the lives of 3 more of Vector’s roster, shortening the gold lead and making the game even harder for Vector to win. An angered Vector took to the mid lane with Rift Herald, looking for revenge with Splaff’s Ryze getting a double-kill after carving through NSG’s team, leaving the Baron to be secured uncontested with an extra kill onto disco dano who was caught out of place.

The final teamfight happened in the red-side jungle, with Splaff hunting down NSG and getting a triple kill, and MVP XtraCheeky tearing his opponents apart and separating them. With baron being taken and subsequently, the 4th drake Vector launched their attack onto the nexus and cut through NSG’s defense with an ace. What a first win.

Game 2: London Esports vs Bulldog

MVP: NoName

The second game of the week saw London Esports, who performed incredibly last week against Mythos take on Bulldog, who unfortunately fell short against NSG. NoName was able to secure the first kill but ultimately handed a double-kill over to Bulldog in the bot lane with an unsuccessful gank. This resulted in the first drake of the game going uncontested to Bulldog. Unlike the previous game, this match had a much needed slower pace with only 6 kills being traded at 15 minutes. Tension around the 3rd drake rose, with Bulldog attempting to acquire their third before 20 minutes. MVP of the game NoName slid in with a dragon steal but there was only a 1 for 1 trade at the pit.

The aftermath of the fight saw a few skirmishes between players who were out of position and being punished with Windz’ Tristana being 3/0. The Bulldog’s roster had a clear focus for complete domination of objectives as they moved to take the second rift herald of the game, additionally getting the kill onto the London Esports support, leaving Windz with a 400 gold bounty on his head. The next teamfight took place just after the 20-minute mark at the mountain drake, allowing London Esports to even the kills to 8 each side but with a 3k gold lead.

With baron being up and both top laners having teleport, the main focus of the match was which team would be able to secure the objective. After a teamfight in the midlane London Esports came up on top with BlueSpirits getting a nasty triple-kill on the Miss Fortune and only Kera surviving on the side of Bulldog. The 700 gold bounty on the head of BlueSpirits was claimed by Windz in the defense of the red side base. The defending team was also able to take out the mid laner of London Esports. Calling in at 33 minutes into the game, London Esports were up by 9 turrets to 1 with an almost 10k gold lead, and were sieging the inhibitors.

London Esports decided to take both baron and mountain drake before deciding to charge towards the red side nexus at full speed, cutting through the Bulldog defense and scoring an ace, allowing London to pick up their 2nd win of the spring split.

Game 3: Absolved vs Peak Esports

MVP: Flex King Tyrin

Well, well, well. Game 3 saw the clash of the titans with the two teams at the top of the table, Absolved and Peak Esports, competing to demonstrate who the better team in the UKEL is. The game kicked off with rapid kills in the midlane, Thomas Goh, the first-blood prince, managed to his third with a kill on Alcove Andy’s Fizz, however, he and Flex King Tyrin were unable to survive the attack from Peak Esports’ sub-jungler Kybet.

After a few skirmishes leaving Absolved in an early gold deficit to their opponents, Gould finally securing the 300 gold bounty on the 3/0 Kybet’s head made it a lot more even, especially with the kill forcing the rest of Peak Esports away and allowing them to take rift herald uncontested. An aggressive play from Peak played right into the hands of Absolved after regan and Thomas Goh were able to clean up 2 easy kills from the out of position opponents, sat beneath two turrets. Unlike previous games, the objectives had not initially gone the way of Absolved, with Peak picking up 2 drakes prior to the 20-minute mark.

As the minutes ticked up the early game lead established by Peak Esports appeared to be slipping as Absolved managed to tie the gold difference and were pulling ahead with the kill lead. As the game went on the pace of the game also increased, with a huge teamfight launching Absolved ahead, the 4 kills for the loss of 2 as well as the infernal drake obtained from the fight set Absolved back on track and made up for their weaker early game. The high octane fights (commonly seen in the UKEL) showed no signs of stopping in this game as a fight at the baron pit not only allowed Absolved to secure the objective but also find themselves another three kills, propelling them ahead of their opponents.

For Peak Esports the challenge was now to try and regain the early game lead they had, however with the 3k gold deficit they were facing it was definitely an uphill battle, but far from impossible for the 2-0 team. What made this even more difficult was the third infernal drake taken by Absolved, giving them the damage to score 4 kills in the top lane before sieging the base, with only Curly Fry left to defend. With the second baron on the map, it was a high priority for Absolved to secure it. Peak Esports was, unfortunately, moments too late to contest the baron and were subsequently aced. The battle of the two top teams ended in the surrender of Peak Esports, allowing Absolved to sit alone at the top of the table.

Game 4: Vipero vs Mythos

MVP: Rowelly

Week 3 Game 4. Viperio vs Mythos. The debut match of Mythos’ super-sub Rowelly. This game saw the 0-2 Viperio hungry for their first victory demonstrated by VIPER picking up the first blood however Wambo felt the consequences when Diakou killed him in the top lane. The game had an unusually slow start, and for the first 15 minutes, only a few kills had really been obtained by both sides, with the kill difference remaining fairly even the entire time. Just before the 20-minute mark though the action kicked off again, with a teamfight at the pit of the mountain drake, the third drake of the game. Viperio started the dragon but were closed in on by Mythos, with 4Shore able to steal the drake away from them. The fight ended in a 2 for 1 trade for Mythos, not as bloody as other fights seen this week but it certainly does not set the precedent for the rest of the fights in this match.

The game returned back to its slow and laidback tempo for a short period of time before a teamfight in the midlane erupted and brought Mythos ahead of their opponents. With the tension building around baron, it was only a matter of time till somebody struck and it was Viperio that engaged onto Diakou’s Renekton, however, they were unable to kill him and in their attempted retreat were faced with Potetsalat’s beautiful ultimate on the Azir to launch them right back into the jaws of a hungry Mythos roster allowing them to clear enough of the enemy team to clear the baron without worry, or so they thought as VIPER dived into the pit alone, and was able to sacrifice his life to steal the baron away from Mythos, giving his team some breathing room and an extra lifeline. The baron was used extremely effectively to push in a lot of Mythos’ lanes.

With Mythos having claimed 3 of the drakes on the map, Viperio made sure to deny the objective from them, delaying the acquisition of the dragon soul. With the focus of both teams being around the baron pit, Diakou for Mythos pushed the bot lane into the inhibitor. The next teamfight was MASSIVE for Mythos, and pretty much determined the outcome of the game. Initially, the fight seemed to be going the way of Viperio, with Vixen picking off PotetSalat from afar, and the rest of Mythos being taken out amongst the skirmish, only 4Shore and Rowelly survived. Despite this, Rowelly tore through the health bars of Viperio, weaved away from skillshots and managed to secure himself, in his first game of the UKEL, the first PENTAKILL of the UKEL 2020 Spring Split. Wow.

Mythos secured mountain soul and shortly after cleaned up 4 members of Viperio’s roster and charged towards the nexus, and were able to successfully demolish the base and win their second game in style.

That’s all for the UKEL Week 3 round-up, we saw dominant performances from all sides and an amazing game from the super-sub Rowelly. Hopefully we get to see more from him next week, be sure to tune into the UKEL Week 4, on Monday the 24th of February at 6PM.