Choke Gaming beat close rivals FM-eSports to go top of the League of Legends ESL UK Premiership today, in what was possibly the longest match this season yet.
Elsewhere, the NUEL and the Terracotta Army picked up their first points this weekend, lifting them off the bottom of the table.
In the first game between the two UK teams, first blood went to Choke’s Ravenno, after Keeno Combo was caught wandering near Choke’s jungle.
Choke took the lead in the early game, 3-0 up at 14 minutes in, however FM fought back hard to level the scores at 4-4 by the 20-minute mark, with ZiViZ playing superb as Lulu mid to pick up a couple of kills.
The momentum was in their favour, and after a teamfight in the bot river and a teamfight top, FM found themselves 12-6 up, with numlocked on Choke arguably the player holding things together on their team at that point, 3/2/0 with Renekton at that point.
Despite some stellar play by Toaster123 as Vayne for FM, it was Choke’s turn to come back into the game, finding themselves at 13-13 at the half hour mark, with both teams at around 52k gold.
It was an incredibly close first game, going to 18-18 near the 26-minute mark.
But it was FM who won 20-19 just before the 40-minute mark, with Flaxxishhh and ZiViZ pushing bot themselves to take the nexus, with the rest of Choke distracted in the top lane.
GG WP to @ChokeGaming better team on the day, well deserved win 2-1 to them @ESLUK @fmeSports
— JamiE Duthie (@Tundra_LoL) November 8, 2015
We won the series 2-1 vs @fmeSports, it was no easy task well played to everyone involved. That puts us top of @ESLUK #Premiership — CHOKE GAMING (@ChokeGaming) November 8, 2015
The second game was very much Choke’s. They were ahead by 10-3 at the 30-minute mark, but FM gave them a scare in the late game, clawing back the scoreline to 21-16 in favour of Choke.
It was a much longer second game, with numlocked leading the line top, attempting to split push to make FM’s job of defending harder.
Choke eventually got there, picking up another dragon and going on to take the game at around the 50-minute mark, with again some aggressive pushing by numlocked.
The third game was possibly even longer, as the game was paused for a long amount of time.
Once again, both sides were neck on neck, with the scores tied at 3-3, 4-4 and 6-6 in the early game.
However, it was Choke who took the lead and eventually went on to seal the victory, making them the first team in the ESL UK League of Legends Premiership to sit at the top of the table with 15 points, plus a three-point lead over a few of their rivals below them.
Elsewhere, the NUEL and Terra Cotta Army picked up their first points this season, beating exceL eSports and Team Paria respectively.
While some interesting play from xL Billy for Exertus saw them take the game to a three-game series, playing as Heimerdinger top and carrying his team with a 9/0/3 scoreline around the 30-minute mark, it was the NUEL who won, with Droolz winning game three with a superb Pentakill as Jinx (see below).
Also, yesterday’s match between Team Infused and Exertus has been rescheduled.
Here’s the current ESL UK League of Legends Premiership Standings (as of November 8th):
- Choke Gaming – 15 points (five matches)
- FM-eSports – 12 points (five matches)
- Exertus Esports – 12 points (four matches)
- Team Infused – 9 points (three matches)
- NUEL – 3 points (five matches)
- Terra Cotta Army – 3 points (five matches)
- Team Paria – 0 points (four matches)
- exceL eSports – 0 points (five matches)
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
