IPL4 starts today

[Sullla]

Day Two Results

Mono defeated Against All Authority 2-0
v8 eSports defeated Epik Gaming 2-0

Counter Logic Gaming defeated v8 eSports 2-0
Mono defeated Curse Gaming 2-1

Counter Logic Gaming defeated Mono 2-0

Team Solo Mid defeated Dignitas 2-1

Standings
TSM in finals
CLG vs Dignitas, loser gets 3rd place, winner moves to finals
Mono came in 4th place
Curse and v8 tied for 5th place
AAA and Epik tied for 7th place

The story of the day seemed to be Mono's play. Every game was a rollercoaster - they threw games they were dominating, they won games where they were getting crushed. It made no sense at all, but it was very entertaining. For an unknown team coming into this tournament, they had an amazing run. On the other side of the coin, AAA was very disappointing. They played four games and lost all four. Not at all what I was expected from one of the powerhouse EU teams. Solomid, Counter Logic, and Dignitas look to be the best teams in some combination, as usual.

[Deceptus]

On the other side of the coin, AAA was very disappointing. They played four games and lost all four. Not at all what I was expected from one of the powerhouse EU teams. Solomid, Counter Logic, and Dignitas look to be the best teams in some combination, as usual.

AAA has like a 0-100 win record vs American teams. They simply don't know them well and don't really know how to play with them.

I kind of want CLG to win because it's been a while since I've seen them on the top and I kinda miss that time. Also because lololol bigfatkitty :3

[uberfish]

Caught the first CLG-dignitas game, pretty entertaining, terrible commentators though.

[antisocialmunky]

Why are LoL's commentators kinda crap anyway alteast in major tourneys? It seems like there aren't many high caliber commentators in LoL compared to lets say SCII? Are there no Dota people that changed over or are there not enough players who have retired to other parts of the ESports industry?

[Deceptus]

Why are LoL's commentators kinda crap anyway alteast in major tourneys? It seems like there aren't many high caliber commentators in LoL compared to lets say SCII? Are there no Dota people that changed over or are there not enough players who have retired to other parts of the ESports industry?

Young game, no "former pros" to commentate the game like Jatt or Dan Dinh that could provide actual insight, while SC has people like Day9. It will change - I, for one, find Phreak's commentary to be quite fabulous, especially when he's paired with Rivington (who is totally hot BTW)

Also, really, final games commented by Redbaron? Dan Dinh is great and can keep up with his antics, but still, Phreak + Rivington worked so well... How come Jatt wasn't in that tournament D:

[Sir Bruce]

And to prove Seyruun right, Dan Dinh just did a great job providing actual analysis.

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Also, really, final games commented by Redbaron?

Not my favorite - it feels like Redbaron is interviewing Dan, instead of maintaining play by play + color color analyst.

Great quotes: "They want to stall as fast as possible."

[Sir Bruce]

CLG's split push strat is super effective when they're ahead and still pretty effective when they're losing. It's SOOOOOOOOO boring to watch though.

[Sullla]

Day Three Results

Counter Logic defeated Dignitas 2-0 (loser's bracket final)

Counter Logic defeated Solo Mid 2-0 (final series #1)

Solo Mid defeated Counter Logic 2-0 (final series #2; CLG had to win both)

CLG vs Dignitas Thoughts: CLG was able to get the key champ that they wanted in both games - Janna. CLG loves to run split push and poke team comps, in which Janna is the perfect support. Every time that Dignitas tried to initate a teamfight, CLG would use Janna ult to disengage, and then run away. They were running extremely high mobility champs (Nidalee, Shyvana, Vayne, etc.) and just refused to fight. You could see Dignitas getting visibly frustrated as these matches went on. CLG took the early towers, snowballed ahead on gold, and then poked/pushed Dignitas to death. Extremely well played matches, although you could definitely see that the crowd and the commentators didn't like CLG's style of play. Everyone wanted to see teamfights, and they simply refused to teamfight. Again, having Janna was the key.

CLG vs TSM Thoughts: Solomid knew what CLG was doing and banned Janna in all four games against CLG. In the first game, CLG crushed Dyrus in top lane with ganks and snowballed from there to an easy win. In the second game, CLG dominated both top and bot lanes, snowballing to an even easier win. TSM looked very bad in both games, falling behind by huge margins early on.

In the second series, TSM made the crucial switch that decided the tournament: they swapped Chaox over to Ashe and played Ashe/Soraka bot in both games. CLG usually plays defensively early on, and then tries to push/poke with lategame champs like Vayne, Ryze, etc. Ashe/Soraka was a perfect response to this, sitting back and playing the farm game and then using Ashe arrow to win teamfights later. When CLG tried to go into their split push in the last two games, Chaox was able to kite with Ashe frost shot and kill the split pusher instead of them running away, which was the big difference from every other game. There was also some excellent play from Dyrus and Reginald on Vlad/Ryze and Vlad/Cass in the last two matches, but ultimately I thought it was Ashe that made the difference. Why CLG didn't ban Ashe after the first game, I have no idea. I thought for sure that they would. Doublelift totally dominated Chaox in lane in the second game, 3-0 Graves against 0-3 Ashe, and Ashe still made the difference once they got into lategame. Ashe was that good.

Fun tournament, great games to watch, nice contrast in style between the different teams. We had Dignitas triple support, we had CLG split push, we had a lot of double AP teams, we had AOE damage teams, and we had traditional setups. Videos should be up here from the last round of games.

Also, Rainman who? Solomid with their best performance ever, immediately after changing team comp. Hmmmm.

[Deceptus]

Also, Rainman who? Solomid with their best performance ever, immediately after changing team comp. Hmmmm.

Huehuehue. Reginald calling his own teammates retarded while dying in mid lane due to his "aggressive playstyle bro", TheOddOne exhausting himself to the point of bed-riddance, lack of organization and dedication for anything but solo queue from all the 5 members and overall tons of drama until they finally decide to get themselves a maid/mediator/coach (by the name of Jonas) and Rain Man is supposed to be the sole problem?

You can't tell me that Solomid's performances were any worse when Rainman was rustling everyone's jimmies with his top lane Teemo. They were worse when TSM had a huge lull and struggled with its problems.

Rainman was a scapegoat for Solomid's problems for that time, no effin' wonder he left. The situation makes EVERYONE happier - Rainman can continue playing in solo queue, Dyrus finally gets a serious team. But it's not like they wouldn't be able to win with Rainman.

Besides that tournament didn't even feature CLG.eu or M5; had TSM lost to those, would you still say that when losing to them top European teams is pretty much status quo for most American teams?