Hello everybody and welcome to the first playoffs edition of BOL Gold’s Dean’s List! Since both matches were streamed (thanks again Conduit!), I'll be doing more in-depth breakdowns for each series. Without further ado, let’s dive into the quarter-finals!
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BDE Corruption (4th) vs Hyperion Esports (5th)
Result: Corruption 3-0
Corruption vs Hyperion was streamed on the main BOL channel last week. I’ve heard that there’s no explicit reasoning as to why they choose the matches they do, but by all accounts, this should have been the closer of the two r1 matches this week. Instead, we had a borderline assassination that showcases both how strong Corruption has become as well as how hard Hyperion has fallen.
Going into g1, Hyperion’s jungler forgot to take smite. This would unfortunately set the tone for the rest of the series, as they had to completely change their playstyle on the fly to even attempt to hang. Check ended up turning mid into a 2v1 against Pandorum, which gave Swag a lot of early control through free gank pathing top. The one bright spot for HYP was the bot lane, where Atilla picked up three kills before 6 minutes.
A big skirmish starting just after 7 minutes saw HYP turn a potential pick on Check into a 2-0 trade, which further accelerated Atilla’s Jinx. It was an early 2k gold lead plus first Drake offset only by Swag securing the first three Grubs. This was eventually turned into a top dive just before 11 minutes where Corruption picked up a kill for XIL’s Kayle.
Despite having won the early game in g1, Hyperion’s problem was apparent; they were bleeding gold and XP. Without a proper jungler, there was no way for them to keep up with Swag’s Jarvan. At some point, Narwhal was going to come online with the Smolder, and they’d be able to outfight based on having more firepower. HYP needed to get significantly further ahead than what was possible, so they were eventually going to get outscaled.
At 18 minutes, that was exactly what was happening. The gold started to slowly creep into Corruption’s favor, and the BDE squad began to snowball. Their entire topside was ahead in gold, meaning they were able to grab control of the game. Some good rotations from Hyperion kept things interesting, but BDE.C was simply inevitable in this game. A 32 minute ace did keep HYP alive for a few more skirmishes, but XIL was able to find the opening for a backdoor to end the game in 36 minutes.
1-0 Corruption.
Going into g2, the fixes should have been clear. Check remembers to take smite, and the rest of it should follow suit. The early game was dead even, with XIL securing first blood only for Atilla to grab the second kill. Multiple attempts at ganks came up short, leaving both teams to trade first Grubs (BDE.C) for first Drake (HYP). At 10 minutes, just when Hyperion found a winning fight in bot, Pando was able to solo kill Dione in mid. The second Grubs spawn saw another skirmish that Corruption was able to just barely win out in a 2-for-1 trade.
As the game continued, however, Hyperion was able to slowly begin to make better moves on the map. This was assisted by some int from Corruption (Swag needs his driver’s license revoked). This all peaked with Baron going the way of HYP at 25 minutes. Despite the odds being stacked against them, Corruption was able to weather the buff and eventually find a fight to claim their third Drake.
It all came down to a climatic teamfight at 34 minutes. Corruption was there first and was able to pull the trigger onto Atilla’s Jinx. From there, they were able to take out both Indigo and Check as well to secure not only Dragon Soul, but Baron as well. Beyond this, there was really nothing HYP could do. There was one last desperate swing from Hyperion, but BDE was not letting it happen. It was a 5-for-1 teamfight win to move up to match point.
Corruption 2-0.
With their backs in the corner, it felt like Hyperion needed a miracle to win game 3. I can’t describe it, but rewatching the VOD, there’s a sense of desperation stemming even from draft. Phase one Kayle ban? No frontline? Everybody on a carry champ (besides Atilla, and even then Ashe is a fine carry)? It didn’t feel like anybody on the team trusted each other, which is a death sentence for match point.
Once again, the game got scrappy early. Kills went back and forth across the map for the first 15 minutes before Hyperion finally started to pull ahead. Indigo on the Jax was looking fantastic, going up 4/1/1 early while XIL sat at 2/4/1 on the Volibear. His team as well was up two Drakes and had traded 3-for-3 on Grubs. With a 2k gold lead, they were looking like they had finally found a winning formula. Their advantage even grew over the next few minutes, peaking at a 4k lead.
So how did they lose this game?
Hubris.
At 20 minutes right before third Drake fight, Indigo jumps onto Swag assuming it’s a 1v1. He is quickly proven wrong when Havok, Pando, and XIL show up moments later to turn it into a 4v2 (Check ulted in). This collapse from Corruption leads to both Indigo’s death as well as the teamfight win and Drake going over to BDE. This fight didn’t end the game outright, but it visibly shattered HYP’s mental.
It didn’t matter how well Hyperion played the map from this point. It didn’t matter how much of a gold lead they could earn back. They were too far off the same page that it was only a matter of time until Corruption won. Baron ended up going the way of BDE at 33 minutes, which they used to end the game and win the series.
Corruption 3-0.
The implosion of Hyperion has been so fascinating to me. No matter which angle you look at it from, there was definitely tension within that team between basically everybody involved. Where the tension came from is likely some combination of gameplay issues and clashing personalities, which they were not able to overcome. I don’t want to blindly point fingers, so I won’t comment on it any further than this.
Player of the Series: XIL69 - XIL dominated in his lane matchups in both g1 and g2, and was still useful on the Voli in g3. Series KDA of 2.08, average damage/game of 30.4k and that game-winning backdoor give him the (technically) first Playoffs PotS.
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REV Eternal (3rd) vs Conduit Prime (6th)
Result: Eternal 3-1
First off, I would like to give a massive shoutout to Conduit Esports for streaming our match on their official channel. It made writing this so much easier to have a spectator POV, so thank you. Second, Eternal was unable to field our full starting roster.
We had apparently miscounted our game requirements, leaving Booter Scooch short 11 games, which meant we had to start our sub support, YesParade. While this made me very sad because it ruined last week’s Dean’s List, it also made me very nervous. I trust Parade as a player, but we hadn’t played with him in like a month. Would we still be able to mesh as a unit?
G1 was an absolute slobberknocker. The first big thing to happen was first blood going over to FinalCaptain just before 6 minutes. The rest of Conduit then rotated to secure first Drake and first Grubs. LeperKoopa and TheDean0 were able to find a quick pick onto Conduit’s mid laner before Billy and Parade won an isolated 2v2 in the bot lane. Another skirmish broke out right before second Drake which REV won cleanly to tie up the Dragon count.
Things started turning around for Conduit after a series of picks in the mid game helped them open up the map. They secured top and mid tier 1 towers while only losing third Drake. The game sat dead even through two fights at fourth Drake with neither roster able to pull ahead of the other. Prime was finally able to gain a significant lead by winning a messy teamfight to secure Soul Point. Another fight broke out at 32 minutes that was again won by Conduit, this time allowing them to secure Baron.
Things were looking dire for Eternal. They needed to find a way to either weather the storm of the Baron or catch Conduit off guard. It was Leper Koopa who came in clutch in this regard, as his Annie found a massive flank that led to REV taking out three of Prime’s Baron buffs. This was huge going into the fight at the sixth Drake, where TheDean0 managed to steal the Drake to deny the Soul.
At 40 minutes, Leper again found the pick onto HelioliskBazooka to kick off another fight. With Razors’ Veigar arriving late, the Eternal boys were able to clean up four members of Prime at the cost of their jungler. With Hoodie unable to 1v4, Soul was secured for the REV squad. Eternal then attempted to sneak Baron, only barely securing it past Hoodie’s Rammus, which then resulted in a 3-for-1 teamfight win for Prime. As Conduit attempted to march down into REV’s base, the Varus and Ashe bot lane proved to be too safe to siege upon. Seeing a window for victory, Eternal found the pick in mid to Ace their opposition and take down their Nexus.
Eternal 1-0.
The draft for g2 got spicy early, as Eternal picked Sylas jungle (Sylungle if you will) on R3 to match Hoodie’s B3 Amumu. With such a big pivot in gameplan from draft, it was apparent that Eternal had come into this series prepared to scrap, and scrap they did.
First blood went the way of Conduit when Hoodie’s lane gank found YesParade. M4ddness answered back with a solo kill on the Ornn. Razors and Leper traded their lives as their junglers came mid. Final roamed down to top Scuttle where he found and killed TheDean0. Immediately after, Leper found a solo kill onto Razors, putting him up 2/1/0 on his Veigar. Prime then secured first Drake and two Grubs, leaving Eternal to pick up just one. A botched top dive from Dean gave Hoodie another kill to go 3/0/0. This all happened before 10 minutes.
Eternal started answering back when they secured Herald on spawn. Immediately after, they dove top again and this time it rang true. Leper did unfortunately die in the aftermath, but Dean was able to pick up a suicide kill onto Razors to make it a 2-for-2 on the map. REV then found a massive teamfight with a stolen Amumu ult at 17 minutes, taking down the jungle, mid, and support of Conduit to then secure their first Drake. This also gave them a 2k gold lead before they lost it at 23 minutes. Prime outplayed the fight to move up to Soul Point.
With the game at its closest point, M4dd and Dean found and killed Final in the bot lane. Seeing an opportunity, the rest of Conduit sprinted top to try and melt Baron. They were successfully stalled out by the rest of the REV squad, however, and were eventually 5-0 aced to lose Baron. The game ended shortly thereafter as Prime was simply unable to hold against a Baron empowered push.
Eternal 2-0.
It was clear that the REV squad was feeling perhaps a little bit too overconfident ahead of g3. They made the mistake of drafting three losing lanes and a supportive jungler under the impression that they could hands diff their opponent. They were mistaken and Prime steamrolled them for their ego.
Hoodie was a monster on his second Amumu game. He was able to facilitate two kills before five minutes, which honestly allowed Prime to just run away with the game. Genuinely, after rewatching the game from spectator POV, there wasn’t really an angle for Eternal to come back and win once Conduit’s snowball started.
Every time TheDean0 attempted to go for an objective, it was answered. Every time they tried to take a fight, they got beat. Every time they attempted to do anything, they were stopped. The only “win” they got was that M4ddness never died and everybody technically had 100% KP.
The biggest moment in this game for Conduit was right at 20 minutes when they secured Baron after killing three REV boys. At this point, the game was so far and away in their control that they could have ended whenever they felt like it. In the end, though, it was a 29 minute near-flawless victory for Prime.
Conduit on the board, 2-1.
Going into g4, I can honestly say that Eternal was unfazed. We recognized what we did wrong and had a good laugh about how silly we were. We went back to Red side and loaded into draft when the unthinkable happened.
Aurelion Sol made it past bans. Conduit didn’t take it on B1. It was ours.
At this point, we pivoted from all gameplans and just locked in comfort. Dragon for Leper, Rat for Billy, Boar for Dean, you get the idea. If we were gonna win this series, it had to be here, and it had to be now.
We loaded into game and Leper immediately died to a Conduit 5 man.
Nice.
Things turned around for Eternal shortly after when a failed top gank from Hoodie resulted in a 2-for-0 trade for M4dd and Dean. Another failed gank in the bottom lane resulted in Billy and Parade maintaining their lane pressure, losing only Nautilus flash in the process. Prime finally found something when they won a topside skirmish 3-for-2, but REV was still able to secure the entire second round of Grubs.
Two more kills went to Conduit in a bot lane skirmish, taking down both Leper and Billy, but REV was able to turn it into their second Drake. With the game tied, REV was able to secure Herald and pick up two kills on the map. Third Drake also went the way of Eternal, as they won a big teamfight to move up to Soul Point.
At 20 minutes, REV was up in the kill count (12-6), Drake count (3-0), and had a 5k gold lead. Baron was secured just before 22 minutes, which spelled the end of the series. They lost the penultimate teamfight for Soul, and were unable to find anything in the final fight. In just under 28 minutes, Eternal won the series.
Eternal 3-1.
Conduit was a very strong team and I want nothing taken away from them. These players deserve their flowers after both a very strong regular season showing and a deceptively close playoffs match. Had one or two decisions gone their way instead, they could have just as well won this series. While I’m extremely grateful that my team won the match and is moving on to semi’s, Conduit deserves a standing ovation for a damn good run.
Player of the Series: M4ddness - I guess this was top laner week, huh? Jokes aside, M4dd was far and away the most consistent player on Eternal in this match. A series scoreline of 14/9/22 (4.0 KDA), average dmg dealt/game of 17.9k (71.5k total), average dmg taken/game of 24.6k (total 98.4k), all while being the only deathless member in g3 and having the eye test to back him up. Everybody had their superhero moment in this match, but M4dd more than earned PotS.
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That’s all for this week! Since we have a break to allow the remaining playoff teams a chance to get used to patch 14.10, I’ll be back next week with a role-by-role preview/breakdown of the semi-finals. Until then, good luck, have fun, and we’ll see you on the rift!
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