IPL4 starts today

[Dantski]

Stream link

http://www.twitch.tv/ipllol

Schedule


Friday
10:00 am – 1:50 pm PST / 7:00 pm – 10:50 pm CET: Counter Logic Gaming vs Against All Authority
10:00 am – 1:50 pm PST / 7:00 pm – 10:50 pm CET: Epik vs Curse
2:00 pm – 5:50 pm PST / 11:00 pm – 2:50 am CET: Dignitas vs Mono
2:00 pm – 5:50 pm PST / 11:00 pm – 2:50 am CET: Team SoloMid vs v8
6:00 pm – 9:50 pm PST / 3:00 am – 6:50 am CET: W1 vs W2
6:00 pm – 9:50 pm PST / 3:00 am – 6:50 am CET: W3 vs W4




Saturday
10:00 am – 1:50 pm PST: L1 vs L2
10:00 am – 1:50 pm PST: L3 vs L4
2:00 pm – 5:50 pm PST: L8 vs L5
2:00 pm – 5:50 pm PST: L6 vs L7
6:00 pm – 9:50 pm PST: L9 vs L10
6:00 pm – 9:50 pm PST: Winners Finals




Sunday
10:00 am – 1:50 pm PST: Losers Finals
2:00 pm – 5:50 pm PST: Grand Finals
6:00 pm – 9:50 pm PST: Grand Finals (Extended Series, If Needed)


As I still watch TreeEskimo's stream when he's around I'm interested in seeing how v8 perform in their first tournament as a true team, however they apparentely have a poor record vs TSM in past scrimmages. Epik vs Curse is also a big game to watch to see whether Epik is on the decline and whether Curse will be the newest member of the NA scene's big 4 teams. AaA are the only European team that made it through the qualifiers having fortunately avoided playing a strong NA team on NA servers. They did defeat the CLG eu team on the way and I'd expect them to give CLG (the originals) a good test while ultimately losing out after the laning phase. The other match features Dignitas and Mono. I don't think anyone would expect Mono to take a game from Dignitas, maybe not even a game from anyone else in the tournament as this is their first offline event.

As usual, CLG/Dignitas/TSM are the favourites and you'd expect to see all 3 of them make the top 4 in the tournament, the dark horses are Curse who looked potentially very strong in Hannover and AaA who seem like the European version of Dignitas. Hopefully we'll see Soaz play some legendary lanewick again!

p.s. expect the commentators to be garbage

[v8mark]

Thanks Dantski -- I'm also cheering on v8. Looking forward to this...

[Sullla]

I saw most of the matches at Hannover. Curse's performance there was kind of a fluke; they went 2-3 in the group stage, and advanced only because they beat Solomid in the head to head, a game which TSM later admitted they hadn't taken seriously. Curse then got stomped 2-0 in the next round by CLG, and they also got stomped in their own Curse Invitational, and they were stomped again by TSM (2-0, neither game even remotely close) two weeks ago in the GG Chronicle series... I'll just say that I don't expect a lot from them here. Should I say that about my own sponsor?

CLG, TSM, Dignitas, and AAA all appear on paper to be significantly better than the other teams. Epik is missing two of its best players from defection to other teams (Dan Dinh and Dyrus). Curse hasn't shown any ability to beat the top teams. v8 has only qualified for one other major tournament (IEM New York), where they lost every match, and has rarely beaten the top teams. Mono is a complete unknown who had an amazing run in the qualifiers - they are the closest thing to a wildcard in this group of teams.

But those first four teams are the clear favorites. It's a real shame that CLG/AAA are playing in the first round, as they are possibly the two best teams at this event. At least it's a double elimination tournament. Epik vs Curse is the weakest of the early matches. I personally think they are the two worst teams at this event. Dignitas vs Mono is interesting because no one has any clue what Mono is going to show. TSM will be a heavy favorite over v8, and has looked extremely good since their reorganization. In the last two weeks, TSM has won the North American Go4LoL, the GG Chronicle, and another tournament I'm forgetting at the moment. Whoever is playing the winner of Curse/Epik has a pretty easy path into the finals (not sure who that is, the brackets are confusing here).

Side note: former TSM player Rain Man was streaming today with everyone else at IPL. In the 30 minutes that I watched, Rain Man cursed out his solo queue team repeatedly, then went AFK in the next game when his team was behind 5-2 in kills. What a class act...

[Dantski]

Changed the stream link in the first post, seems to be very slow or broken now so googled one that works. (korean pop before it starts.....)

@ Sullla I don't follow the competitive scene outside the major tournaments so thanks for sharing some of the results performances since then. v8 has actually been to 2 tournaments and lost every game in theo ther one too! The main difference this time is they don't have phantonlord on their team who had badly fallen out with everyone else and was easily banned out.

While mono is a bit of a wildcard they seem inconsistent, during IPL they eliminated M5 (due to M5 having 400 ping) and then defeated the old TSM in a minor tournament before losing decisively to v8.

[Tyrmith]

I got trapped in the SC2 stream- wacky wacky K-Pop on that stream for some reason

[Sir Bruce]

I agree that Dignitas, CLG and TSM are the favorites. I would actually put CLG behind the other two. They have been losing a lot in Korea and appear a little out of whack. However they are still individually very strong players so that may be able to carry games. TSM has improved dramatically in the past few weeks imo. The change to a structured practice/learning environment plus the addition of a live-in manager has helped them. Dignitas is as strong as always. My prediction is Dignitas over TSM in the finals.

I know in the past someone set up a room for us to chat during games/tourneys. Is there any interest in doing this again? And if so does anyone know how?

[Tyrmith]

For CLG AAA game

Seriously don't understand what AAA was doing sending both Ez and Jana bot, that's always been a trigger for CLG to immeaditely baron

[Sir Bruce]

Oh man that Nocturne ult was pretty dumb.

And the problem wasn't Ez/Janna bot, it was sticking around too long and not healing after the failed blue steal.

[Tyrmith]

I did love how casters summerizing at the end of the game were like "it was a stomp! but it was a close game!'

[Sullla]

AAA lost both games when they failed to stop CLG's Anivia from taking blue buff. Not even one successful denial in both games. Anivia with blue is amazing; Anivia without blue is almost useless. That was the key factor in both games.