Match Recap: Chiefs vs PGG - LCO Week 9
This recap proudly presented by Energizer
The last week of the LCO regular season started with arguably the game of the week, as our third and final match of the split against Pentanet.GG promised to be an epic spectacle. Since we last took down the 2021 Split 1 champions back in Week 6, they’ve taken out every other team in the competition to put up a tidy win streak. Having not scrimmed against PGG yet this season, we were unsure of what we were coming up against, but either way local League connoisseurs were in for a treat.
However, no matter the past, we weren’t ready to let our 14-game winstreak come to an end on the eve of playoffs, especially with the record for most dominant split in LCO history beckoning. Despite the playoff matchups being locked, a win for Pentanet could potentially allow them to leapfrog PEACE in the standings to take second, especially following the defending champs’ shock loss to Gravitas — so it was safe to say the stakes were high.
Diving into champ select, we locked down Nautilus for our resident hook machine Dragku and kept the ball rolling on our pick composition by picking Ryze for Tally and Volibear for Arthur for after PGG tried to pinch both of their champion pools with some early target bans. Rounding out the comp with Sylas for Topoon and Xayah for Raes, we got off to a fantastic start by catching Yuri’s Viktor unawares on an invade to hand first blood to Arthur.
Arthur used the lead brilliantly, executing a near-flawless dive on PGG’s botlane to giftwrap two kills for Raes, only losing Dragku to the tower. He was there again in the midlane to catch Praedyth on a countergank a few minutes later, linking up with Dragku to put another kill on the board in today’s Energizer Play of the Game.
A hectic fight erupted a few minutes later around the first drake, and despite losing multiple members in the battle we were able to secure the buff on the way out. We maintained a small gold advantage until a failed toplane dive pushed Pentanet slightly into the lead for the first time in the game.
With the Herald ready to go, PGG looked to force us to respond to a midlane push with the third drake ready and waiting, but we were able to scoop both the buff and multiple kills in an ensuing teamfight. However, PGG were plenty active on the map and were able to pick off members of our team multiple times before forcing their way to the Baron and a substantial gold lead with it. We were able to claim the Cloud Soul as a consolation prize, but it was going to be an uphill battle to take the win.
After posturing around the Elder Drake, a heroic attempt from Topoon to take out the PGG carries fell narrowly short as they were able to sweep through to take the objective and the rest of our team en route to taking the game a minute later. Despite the tough loss, we’re still locked into first place and our full focus is now on ensuring we can deliver our first championship title in six years to the Chiefs faithful.
Keep an eye on twitch.tv/lco as we look to bounce back against old rivals the Dire Wolves later today to wrap up our regular season, and be sure to clear out your calendars for our first playoff game next Tuesday against either Pentanet or PEACE.
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