FM eSports took the ESL UK League of Legends Summer Season Premiership top spot today after beating Terracotta Army (TCA) – their third win from all three of their games.
A sterling performance from ZiViZ mid and some impressive plays from Candyfloss and Tundra helped FM secure the victory, while TCA will be disappointed they didn’t get more from the match, particularly the closely-contested first game.
League of Legends Premiership Summer Season – September 12th 2015 (week 5)
Game 1 highlights
Nutri (Janna) – support
Terracotta Army – red side
TCA Jakamaka (Ashe) – ADC and team captain
Bartiono (Braum) – support
On the FM eSports side, Nutri (Janna) and Toaster (Tristana) began double jingling early on, with the blue buff given to Tundra (Fiora) top, helping to give her some sustain against Jb (Maokai).TCA Raizins (Elise) and Sean17 (Twisted Fate) started off aggressive against ZiViZ (Orianna) mid, who dealt with the onslaught well, playing safe enough to survive, but imposing himself well enough to keep up with CS.
After a reasonably quiet start, with Tundra almost killing Jb early top, and Toaster and Nutri almost dying bot, the game exploded at the eight-minute mark, with Tundra teleporting bot and kickstarting some frantic team fights. It looked like FM eSports would get first blood, but some decent play from TCA Jakamaka (Ashe) saw him pick up first blood.
After another kill for Jakamaka, and another one for ZiViZ, each team had one tower down each, with FM leading five kills to two, and establishing a small gold lead of 21.4k to 19k.
Near the end of the match, Tundra claimed FM’s third dragon, before making an extraordinary parry to a crystal arrow fired at him from Jakamaka across the map!
Three minutes later, FM extended their lead, with ZiViZ picking up his third kill of the match, and Tundra sacrificing his life in exchange for FM taking down their third turret of the match. At this point, FM were 28k to 23.7k up, with the second dragon, and a good CS – it was looking like they may take the game.
However, that wasn’t in Jakamaka’s interests at all. As Ashe, he made a superb crystal arrow shot to stun Nutri top, pulling back another kill. 7-4 to FM. Jakamaka had 4 kills to 0 deaths at this point, and it looked like TCA’s hopes would possibly rest on him carrying them now.
After 20 minutes, a team fight top saw Sean17 (Twisted Fate) gain a double kill, putting FM just one kill ahead at 9-8. Tundra then made a mistake going in hard bot, before getting overrun and killed. At 9-9, it wasn’t over yet.
But ZiViZ wasn’t having any kind of a comeback. He picked up a double kill top as FM took down another turret, before FM took baron. At this point, FM had a 46k to 36k gold lead, with ZiViZ at 5/0/5.
Tundra then claimed FM’s third dragon of the match, before making an extraordinary parry to a crystal arrow fired at him from Jakamaka across the map!
At 25 minutes in, FM made an astonishing team push, giving another double kill to ZiViZ and taking the bot and mid inhibitors, both nexus turrets and almost the game, with the nexus left at incredibly low health. Sean17 managed to keep FM at bay for a few minutes, but one more push later and FM were all too much to TCA.
Game one goes to FM eSports.
Special mentions: TCA Jakamaka (Ashe)
First blood: TCA Jakamaka (Ashe)
Game length: 27:47
FM eSports
Kills: 18
Towers: 10
Dragons: 3
Gold: 55.3k
Terracotta Army
Kills: 12
Towers: 2
Dragons: 0
Gold: 41.7k
Bans
Game 2 highlights
Just like game one, ZiViZ (Viktor) was imposing himself on the game very well, picking up his second kill of the game in minute eight. But it was TCA who took the first dragon of this game, with Raizins slaying Tundra bot, making it 8-4 to FM.
Again, like game one, FM were dominating in the CS stakes early on, with Tundra at 110 almost doubling JB’s 65 in the top lane.
As the early game dissipated, Toaster was being targeted heavily (as Vayne it’s a given, of course), and a very aggressive push by TCA in the bot lane saw them take their second turret in that lane. However, they lingered far too long, with FM regrouping and Candyfloss storming bot to pick up a double kill, putting him at 6/1/1 and FM 11-6 up at just 14 minutes into the game.
Throughout the mid-game, FM continued to pick at TCA, winning team fight after team fight by a few kills each time. ZiViZ picked up a double kill in FM’s bot jungle to make him 4/0/6, but TCA weren’t giving up, they were moving as a team to provide strength in numbers, roaming and taking down wards where they could.
Tundra was putting out some 1,429 crits, thanks to his two Infinity Edges – but TCA were somehow still holding on!
Toaster and Nutri also backed up their team very well, with Toaster picking up a few kills and Nutri throwing himself into fights as Braum to protect his allies, but this was Candyfloss and Tundra’s game for me.
The final five minutes were slow, with FM taking longer than they should have to finish the game, but there’s nothing wrong with making sure. At the 25th minute, Candyfloss and ZiViZ were racking up the kills, with Candyfloss at 9/3/9 and FM’s gold lead at 50.7k to TCA’s 38.6k.
FM took the mid inhibitor as a group, while ZiViZ took a bot tower all by himself. It looked like it was just a matter of time until FM won the game at this point.
Another double kill for Sean17 wasn’t enough, and despite TCA defending admirably, it wasn’t their day.
At the 30-minute point, Toaster looked like he’d make the play of the day, as it seemed he was going to be taken down in a 1vs3 fight. But he managed to take down two of his opponents, only to get a bit greedy with the third, and Sean17 shut him down.
At this point, Tundra was putting out some 1,429 crits, thanks to his two Infinity Edges – but TCA were somehow still holding on! Eventually, it was Tundra who forced TCA back into their base, allowing his teammates to take the remaining towers and the nexus crystal. FM 48, TCA 18.
It’s now down to Choke Gaming to win their match today, in order for them to stay level with FM at the top of the table.
Special mentions: FTundra (Gangplank), ZiViZ (Viktor)
Game length: 27:47
FM eSports
Kills: 48
Towers: 11
Dragons: 2
Gold: 72.5k
Terracotta Army
Kills: 18
Towers: 4
Dragons: 1
Gold: 50.4k
Final standings as of September 12th 2015
To follow
More information: ESL UK Premiership homepage
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.
