Mythic League - Week 4 Recap
Welcome back to the Friend or Foe Mythic Recap. Week 4 marked the end of the first half, so let’s take a quick look at what happened before we move on to the final stretch of the season.
“As many of you have noticed, since our break week, we've decided to test out new content for FoF. And while much of it was a success, we felt there were a few things that either took too much staff time for too little benefit or that did not live to the standards that we expect from a FoF production. One of these new pieces of content that would take too much time to meet the FoF production standards were the recap videos. As such, we have made the decision to release the recaps in article form instead of video form. We hope that this would allow us to provide coverage of more games, while still reducing production time, and increasing production flexibility and quality standards to a reasonable level. We appreciate everyone's kind comments and enthusiasm, and we hope everyone continues to enjoy our content.”
- Friend or Foe Staff
Game 1: POG vs HBK
Our first game of Week 5 was Poseidon Gaming versus Team H-Block, where both teams were complimented for their flexible playstyles. Regarding the draft, Bobrovsky pulled out the Morgana jungle for the first time in his Friend or Foe timeline, which quickly proved to be a big factor in this game.
LifeOrbSlowBro came in once again to the Friend or Foe broadcast. It’s always nice to see familiar faces (usernames) in our show. His legacy still stood strong as he and Bobrovsky scored first blood with a nice gank right before the 4-minute mark. He even scored himself a solo kill on ProLupul moments later (kind of, it was a trade kill under tower).
A nice counter gank in the midlane while Gunsi was low propelled the match in POG’s favor as he and Bobrovsky took over HBK’s side of the map immediately after opening up the center of the map. There wasn’t any big deciding moment in the game, since HBK consistently would throw themselves into Poseidon’s hands. Quite literally, it seemed like POG took a kill once per minute.
A couple of gambit plays from HBK’s Hblock showed some potential in swaying the game back into their hands, but alas, it was all for naught. After a swift 22 minute game, it was Bobrovsky’s map control and consistent added pressure that gave him the Player of the Game award.
Game 2: TUB vs RLS
Our second game of the week was our current 1st-place team versus our last place team. Needless to say, this match was going to be RLS’s biggest test. Regarding draft, we’re noticing instant Tristana bans from anyone drafting against Krumpy. RLS went for a simple wombo combo composition to try to get some momentum in the tournament.
Rhyre’s Kayn and Viego are to be feared in this league. A nice gank from him in the top lane at 6 minutes gave Wuaton free reign of his lane. However, RLS’s early game decision making is starting to get polisheded up as they responded with a clean dragon take.
A blunder by Wuaton in the top lane gave Ahntye a free solo kill, giving him some breathing room for a few minutes. Eventually leading up to a TP-play in the bot lane, where they were able to take a kill on Lamar the Lizard and Krumpy, resulting in their second dragon-take.
Birbs arent real and PenguSoldier attempted to use their combo multiple times to catch some of TUB’s members off-guard, but in the end, it seemed like TUB’s overall macro knowledge allowed Rhyre to always be at the right place at the right time.
At 16 minutes, Rhyre and TheLazyOstrich were able to force a nice roam towards the top-side, resulting in a beautiful Kayn-play to dodge Ahntye’s Malphite Ultimate and giving their midlaner a triple kill. From there, it was a nice and calculated end-game that would result in TUB’s victory at the 25-minute mark.
Game 3: OOD vs SGR
Our third game of the week was OOD vs SGR - two teams that are currently fighting to keep their spots in the top half of the bracket. Regarding draft, it’s more-or-less what you would expect. Photograph’s Draven was banned, Antoons is on a hook champion, and StreetSmurf is on his patented Cassiopeia
Level 1 invades happen from time to time but lately when it’s happened, rarely any kills come out of it. It’s usually used as an early-game vision tactic. However this time, OOD’s invade into SGR’s jungle scored Photograph first blood onto Hepate.
A huge fight blew up in the dragon pit at 3 minutes, resulting in both sides receiving kills and evening up both the score and the gold lead, which seemed to be the theme throughout the rest of the game. OOD and SGR consistently battled each other with team fights resulting in both sides staying even for 30 whole minutes.
The big teamfight that decided everything occurred topside, where OOD saw StreetSmurf alone bot-side, and thought to pull the trigger on Hepate. However, a beautiful teleport along with a nice Cassiopeia ultimate from StreetSmurf wiped out Antoons, Photograph, and Soximus, opening up the game for SGR to close out moments later.
Game 4: HBK vs RLS
Game 4 of our Week 5 was one of RLS’s last chances to push their spot into the top 6. With the rest of RLS’s schedule looking difficult, this match against HBK could be the win they need to gain some momentum in the second half.
Regarding the draft, HBK pulled out Neeko back-to-back along with Sett - a champion we haven’t seen HBK pull out yet. Meanwhile RLS went for a traditional Kog’Maw composition, pairing it with Orianna and Lulu as enablers.
A good sense of advantage gave HBK Hblock the opportunity to go for a solokill onto RLS birbs arent real, which resulted in the center of the map opening up and led to two more kills going in the favor of HBK. However a nice silence by Ahntye’s Cho’Gath and PenguSoldier’s Kayn pulled the team back, receiving two kills over to the side of RLS, eventually tying up the score for the first 15 minutes.
The score was 6-to-6 by 23 minutes, which was when the first big fight was launched by a nice Neeko Ultimate by HBK Hblock, capturing two members of RLS and forcing them into a choke point. Even though the game was nowhere near to finishing after this teamfight, the match was basically in HBK’s hands. With a score of 21-to-9, HBK put their record back to a positive 5-4, keeping them tied with team ACE.
Game 5: TUB vs OOD
Our fifth game of the week was TUB (8-0) versus OOD (5-3). Everyone seemed to have drafted champions they’re all expected to perform well on. Rhyre’s Viego, Bigtwig’s Vladimir, Wuaton’s Ornn, and Jango’s Lee Sin pick.
A gank in the bot lane seemed possible for Rhyre, but Soximus was there with a nice countergank to give OOD first blood and burning three early flashes from TUB. Because of this, unfortunately for Lamar the Lizard, OOD Photograph and Antoons were able to easily bully out the lane to take a few more slight advantages.
For a little under 10 minutes, OOD was able top push their lead further, but an inevitable four-man gank from Rhyre’s Viego and TheLazyOstrich’s global Galio Ultimate allowed TUB to find a weak spot in OOD’s advantage, giving them an opportunity for a comeback.
In the end, a beautiful TP play by Bigtwig was able to catch TUB as they were chasing down Jango in the side lane. With both teams attempting to catch up to the fight, the nail in the coffin was a three-man sleep from Soximus to allow Photograph to clean up the fight.
Game 6: SGR vs ACE
Our final game covers SGR Reborn versus Team A-Click, where ACE drafted their staple solo-queue style composition with Vambient on Diana, Delete on Nocturne, and Swordblue on Blitzcrank.
The match started off with with a gambit play from Team ACE, positioning Burstlimit (Sion) in the bottom-forward brush. A nice knock-up caught Warplaque and Frozen off-guard, but instead of falling backwards, the duo’s keen sense of awareness pushed them to snatch away the first blood advantage away from Team ACE, making their gambit play worthless and putting Burstlimit behind against his laner.
ACE’s response was to send Swordblue up top lane to steal back the advantage that they lost at Level 1. However, in the end, Hepate and DemonLord Nnaoy were able to cover each of their weak spots and counterattacked effectively.
The game continued to be a bloodbath (like any ACE game). The score was 30-20 before the deciding teamfight occurred, where Frozen was able to land a beautiful four-man stun on ACE after taking down Baron, concluding the game just under 28 minutes.