Legends from the East is here to bring you the latest news in the South East Asian and East Asian League of Legends scene! The Garena Premier League (GPL) is South East Asia’s first fully professional League of Legends Tournament.

Today in Legends from the East, I bring to you the coverage for the matches on Week 6 Day 3. Day 3 brought us two very exciting match ups. First of which we have the Saigon Jokers (SAJ) facing the Singapore Sentinels (SGS) will SGS Tofuboi who just got back from his holiday in Japan hold his own against SAJ QTV who did a superb job with Kayle going 8-1? We also have the Kuala Lumpur Hunters (KLH) up against the Taipei Assassins (TPA) who recently topped their group for the IPL5 qualifiers in Taiwan.

Now lets dive into the first of two matches. Lets now take a look at the Bans and Picks between SAJ and SGS.

We see very standard bans this match with only one special mention to the KogMaw ban which was specifically targeted at NIXWATER who is known to play a devastating AP Kogmaw. Picks wise, SAJ first picks Malphite possibly because they wanted to deny SGS Kailing from playing him. The rest of the way were very common picks such as Corki, Alistar and Nocturne. Finally they showed us an unconventional AP mid pick in the form of Ezreal.

SAJ’s line up seemed to focus on early to mid game aggression with the use of Nocturne’s ultimate and the mobility of AP Ezreal. When it came to team fights, they have very strong engaging potential with Malphite Ultimate into an Alistar combo and not forgetting Nocturne’s Ult and the burst from an AP Ezreal. That combination alone could shred most team early game before the defensive items are built up.

SGS on the other hand had somewhat defensive line up with Janna and Anivia. Vladimir was a solid counter pick to Malphite though some were worried as SGS tofuboi is infamous for not doing well with Vladimir. The team composition on SGS focused more on counter initiation with Janna’s ult as well as Crystallize from Anivia. Not to mention that both Vladimir and Anivia excelled well in long drawn team fights.

Match-Ups:

TOP LANE: SAJ QTV — Malphite vs SGS Tofu — Vladimir

MID LANE: SAJ NIXWATER — Ezreal vs SGS d4rkness — Anivia

BOT LANE: SAJ Violet/SAJ Melody — Corki/Alistar vs SGS ly4ly4ly4/SGS EquivocaL — Graves/Janna

JUNGLE: SAJ Junie — Nocturne vs SGS HarLeLuYar — Lee Sin

Match Highlights:

Both teams decided not to be overly aggressive and went the match started rather passively.

5:40 The constant harass from Malphite allows Nocturne to come in for a swift gank top. Malphite tanks the turret allowing Nocturne to secure First Blood on Vladimir.

9:30 Nocturne once again camps the top lane and both Nocturne and Malphite pop their ultimates for a swift tower dive and melts Vladimir. Lee Sin was quite to react and scored a kill on Malphite making it a 1-1 exchange.

10:30 Vladimir and the entire SGS team starts on Dragon. Ezreal Ultimate hits them and this causes them to disengage. Graves catches up to an overextended Corki near the Dragon Pit for a kill.

11:30 SAJ went in for a sneak Dragon and managed to secure it. SGS quickly responded and manages to kill Alistar

13:20 Ezreal, Nocturne and Malphite invaded SGS’s jungle and spot Lee Sin causing him to melt under the barrage of spells. SAJ takes the Top Tier 1 Turret.

14:10 Ezreal comes down to assist Corki and Alistar at bot and they manage to kill Graves.

14:30 Anivia quickly bursts down Ezreal as he returns to the lane.

15:30 Lee Sin and Janna manages to net an overextended Corki for a kill.

17:30 SAJ takes Dragon uncontested.

19:30 SGS pulls of a superb tower dive at bottom lane and forces Alistar to pop his Ultimate early. They then direct their focus to the turret and destroy it  before finishing off Alistar as his Ultimate is now down.

20:00 SAJ responds quickly with Nocturne and Malphite using their ultimate’s bursting down Graves easily.

23:00 SGS manages to bring Nocturne very low in the middle lane and a team fight Ensues. A combination of Vladimir and Graves was enough to bring SGS to the top of the fight ending it in a 1-3 exchange.

24:00 SGS then take Baron uncontested.

26:00 Corki gets caught out of position while securing SAJ’s Blue Golem Buff and a team fight Ensues. Vladimir jukes both the Ultimates from Nocturne and Malphite with a well timed pool and SGS kills both Nocturne and Alistar.

29:00 The constant presence of Vladimir and Anivia in their respective lanes shows significantly as they out-level everyone by 2

30:00 SAJ starts Dragon and SGS contests pulling off a clean ACE. This is due to the fact that SAJ blew most of their skills on Anivia as she timed her Zhonya’s perfectly.

32:00 SGS takes Baron Nashor Uncontested.

34:00 SGS shoves the middle lane and catches Nocturne out of position with a well placed Flash Frost securing 4 quick kills and then SGS finishes the game by taking down the Nexus.

Post-Match:

SAJ did a fantastic job early game by pressuring Vlad up top. Nocturne was always on the heels of Lee Sin preventing many ganks and causing Lee Sin to go out of his way to help the various lanes. Nocturne was able to prevent Lee Sin from snowballing through the early phases of the game. SGS on the other hand dominated both the Mid and Bot lanes allowing them not to fall behind on gold despite losing two Dragons to SAJ. They transitioned seamlessly to mid game and had very strong counter initiating with well placed flash frost’s and walls from Anivia, clutch Ultimates and knock-ups from Janna and well timed Sanguine Pool’s and Hemoplauge’s from Vladimir. All of this allowed them to score the decisive victory against SAJ.

The Second Match of the day showed us very interesting picks and showcased the true power of TPA. Here are the Bans and Picks for the match between the Kuala Lumpur Hunters and the Taipei Assassins.

Bans were rather conventional with nothing worth mentioning. Picks on the other hand showed that KLH was running a very offensive team composition with Malphite and Alistar and they were hoping to scale into late game with hyper carries such as Kartus and Vayne. TPA on the other hand had a very defensive composition with Urgot, Anivia and Nautilus all holding down the fort. The last pick for the day went to Akali a champion that doesn’t see much competitive play but it was a solid counter pick to Malphite up top.

Match-Ups:

TOP LANE: KLH Monk3yz — Malphite vs TPA Bebe/TPA Mistake — Urgot/Taric

MID LANE: KLH GoldeN — Kartus vs TPA Toyz — Anivia

BOT LANE: KLH JaeYoong/KLH Hagane — Vayne/Nunu vs TPA Stanley — Akali

JUNGLE: KLH Epyonz — Alistar vs TPA Lilballz — Nautilus

Match Highlights:

As some may have already seen above, TPA conducted a Lane Swap putting Urgot/Taric up top and Akali solo bottom.

1:50 TPA launched a 4 man invade onto blue while Akali took her own wolves. She then blue pill’s to buy 3 more health pots bringing her lv1 items to boots and 6 pots.

3:00 Taric stun into urgot barrage coupled with ignite and exhaust onto Malphite earns TPA First Blood.

3:30 Kartus gets hit by Anivia’s flash frost and the follow up by Nautilus allows for a swift second kill of the game

4:30 Kartus get caught once again. This time by Nautilus first then Anivia follow up for a quick third kill for TPA

Malphite is getting zoned very badly up top. While Akali is just farming with her Mark of the Assassin and chugging down health Potions.

5:30 Urgot and Taric dives Malphite to secure a swift kill up top.

6:30 Nautilus and Anivia ganks bottom lane at their turret to secure a kill on an unsuspecting Nunu

10:40 Malphite teleports to a ward down on bottom and KLH pulls off a four man gank onto Akali and then proceeds to claim Dragon. However they did lose Malphite in the process.

12:00 KLH manages to catch an overextended Anivia in mid and this forces a team fight. The AOE ultimate from Malphite put KLH on top of the skirmish 4-1

13:00 Anivia is once again bursted down as KLH flashes down mid to secure a kill.

15:00 KLH continue to pressure Akali as they do not want TPA Stanley to snowball.

16:00 Malphite spots Anivia and flash+Ultimate quickly decimates her for a kill. KLH then proceeds to tower dive TPA but with out the burst from Malphite KLH was unable to finish off the entire TPA team in time. TPA comes up on top of that battle 3-5 scoring the first ACE of the game.

17:40 TPA start to snowball very heavily. TPA takes Dragon uncontested

18:30 TPA shoves mid and then swings to steal the blue buff from KLH and then shoves TOP.

19:00 KLH responds with a full 5 man push down the middle lane taking the tier 2 tower of TPA. TPA has to blue pill back to defend the base turret.

22:00 KLH catches a lone urgot up top for a kill.

23:30 Malphite get caught near the Baron Pit and a team fight breaks loose. TPA comes up on top of the team fight 0-4 due to a well placed knock up by Nautilus and follow up by the rest of the team. TPA proceeds to break the mid base turret.

25:10 KLH take dragon uncontested.

26:30 KLH engage TPA in the middle lane. Good counter engage by Nautilus followed by Akali focusing and killing vayne let to a 3-5 exchange in favor of TPA. Leaving only Urgot and Nautilus, TPA takes the middle inhibitor.

28:30 TPA takes baron uncontested, they then move on for a heavy push up top. Malphite overextends breaking out into a slaughter fest. TPA take the fight 0-3 and this results in victory for the side of TPA.

Post-Match:

Once again we see KLH making rather good calls but they however were out classed by TPA’s ability to turn an engagement into their favor. KLH lost in the laning phase early but had good early team fight engagement. They however failed to capitalize on their advantage. TPA on the other hand were very quick to respond and had placed very good knock-ups and walls. Akali was always able to take down Vayne the moment the fight broke loose and Urgot could just sit and chip away at the memebers of KLH. TPA once again shows us why they are the best team in Taiwan.

For more GPL coverage, do stay tuned to Legends from the East this coming week. Also I may be shedding some light on the Taiwan IPL5 qualifiers. Thank you for reading and do give me a comment in the comment section below and give me a follow/shoutout on twitter @unheardwolfcry