[OGN] Champions Spring Finals Recap

Game one:

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Bans:       

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Both teams opted for a lane swap and sent their duo to the top lane. The game was like a typical Blaze game - aggression from the start. At around 3 minutes Helios equipped with double buffs came to gank Homme from the tribush. Homme nearly got away, but a Crescent Strike from Flame popped the passive of Zac. 2 minutes later Dandy hid in the river bush and waited for Homme to engage on Flame with Elastic Slingshot. Right when Homme landed on Flame, Dandy hit a max range Cocoon to help secure the first blood on Flame. Dandy went back to base and moved straight to top lane, where Mata had already placed a Lantern for him. Once again Dandy hit his Cocoon at the exact right moment to stun Cpt. Jack and give the second kill of the game to Imp. To conclude MVP Ozone’s early powerplay, Dade and Homme managed to kill Flame in bot lane where we were able to get the first glimpse of Dade’s phenomenal Zed play.

First turret fell at 11 minutes and extended MVP Ozone’s gold lead to nearly 3k gold. The first Dragon attempt got us our first big teamfight, ending 3:2 in favor of MVP Ozone. The big moment was when Cpt. Jack decided to not kill Imp because Karthus was already channeling his ultimate, but Imp had saved his barrier which in turn saved his life and turned the fight in MVP Ozone’s favor. When everybody respawned, MVP Ozone was finally able to secure dragon with their second attempt. With no ward coverage on the map, Ambition was caught farming by Dade and Dandy. Another big win for MVP Ozone was at the 17 minute mark while they were trying to get their second turret kill. Cpt. Jack and Lustboy tried to protect their turret, but a good hook from Mata allowed Ozone to engage on the duo and get two kills. In addition, Flame wasted his teleport by using it way too late and he could not protect the turret against three members of Ozone. While this was going on Dade killed Helios, put a lot of damage on the mid lane turret, and Homme was able to put damage on the second top lane turret. However, Dade stayed too long in the middle and since he blew all his cooldowns to kill Helios, Ambition was able to kill Dade without much hassle. After all this action, Ozone was 5k gold in the lead. While MVP was invading Blaze’s jungle, Helios hit a Q on Imp and engaged on him but backed up immediately. However, Ambition followed up after Helios but got Condemned into a wall by Imp. Imp stayed out of Defile range and killed Ambition quickly, allowing Ozone to collapse on Blaze. The moment Dade joined the fight it was a quick clean up, where Homme and Imp got a double kill. The only loss on MVP Ozone’s side was Imp, and with four men up MVP Ozone got the first Baron of the game. Equipped with Baron Buff MVP Ozone applied pressure on every lane. Dade solo-killed Flame in toplane while Homme used his Slingshot to engage on Blaze in the mid lane to secure two kills, and before Ozone could destroy the second mid lane turret Blaze surrendered.



MVP: Imp on Vayne (5/1/6)
Imp showed once again why he is the best Vayne player. He won his lane and had perfect positioning in every teamfight, which allowed him to deal damage but be safe at the same time.

Game two:

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MVP Ozone’s aggressive bot lane combo of Fiddlesticks and Caitlyn helped them take down the health of Cpt. Jack and Lustboy early. Under his turret, Lustboy was able to hook Mata but this backfired and gave Imp a double kill. Just two minutes later, the bottom lane was the center of attention again when Helios managed to gank Imp and Mata, but Dandy showed some good instincts by arriving to make the trade even. In the meantime, Dade moved from mid lane to bottom to kill Helios who tried to defend the turre, with the end result a 2:1 trade and a turret for Ozone. The first Dragon fight was at 12 minutes when Blaze tried to sneak it, but they got spotted and Surprise Party Mata used his ultimate and fear to set up a kill on Helios. MVP Ozone got the Dragon but then got cleaned up by Lustboy and Cpt. Jack. It seemed that Blaze could make a comeback happen, but Ozone were unimpressed and in a chaotic fight was able to kill four members of Blaze and increased their gold lead to 5k. Blaze wasn’t ready to surrender and got a 3:1 trade in their favor, reducing the gold gap between the two teams. However, at the 17 minute mark it got worse for Blaze. First they lost the Dragon to MVP Ozone, then in the following fight MVP Ozone killed four members of Blaze and lost only Dade. Later on, Dade started splitpushing with Zed in the bottom lane while the rest of Ozone pushed toplane. Blaze sent two people down to stop Dade, but he outplayed them beautifully with Zed’s shadow mechanic.



In the meantime, Ozone managed to kill Flame in the top lane. Right after everybody respawned from Blaze they got caught out again. Mata used his Crowstorm to engage on Blaze at their Red buff and Ozone managed to secure 3 kills for nothing. When they walked to the mid lane after, they even managed to catch Flame out of position and got another kill. Several minutes later, Ozone caught Cpt. Jack out of position and immediately moved on to Baron. Helios was unable to steal it and lost his life trying to do so. MVP Ozone was 14k gold ahead and had Baron Buff. The final deciding moment was when Dade solo-killed Ambition while split pushing and the rest of Ozone won a teamfight in bottom lane, resulting in two dead inhibitors for Blaze. Blaze did not surrender right away but stood no chance against Ozone, and Ozone finished the second game easily



MVP: Dade on Zed (12/4/6)
Dade controlled and outlaned Ambition and put pressure all over the map. Similar to the last game, he showed great duel skills and good map awareness.

Game three:

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In comparison with the other two games, this one had a relatively boring start. MVP got the first turret and moved their duo lane from top to mid. First blood was shed at 8 minutes when Ozone ganked the bottom lane with three men and Dade secured a double kill with Zed. After getting the two kills, Ozone went straight to Dragon and Dade stole Blaze’s Blue buff, but Blaze used this opportunity to destroy MVP Ozone’s top turret. At 14 minutes Homme and Dandy killed Ambition but they stayed too long in top lane and were engaged upon by Blaze, causing Homme to sacrifice his life to save Dandy. A few moments later Lustboy got nuked down by Dade while playing Dora the Explorer, and Mata landed a perfect Thresh Hook on Helios to secure another kill. With Helios dead, Ozone was able to take the second Dragon of the game. The next big teamfight occurred when MVP Ozone wanted to counter gank Blaze in top lane, but after their success the other Blaze members came to help and turned the fight back around into a 4:2 for Blaze. In the meantime, Dade was once again splitpushing in bottom lane and got the second bot lane turret to help make up for it. After Dade killed Ambition 1v1 in mid lane, a teamfight followed where Ozone killed 4 members of Blaze and lost none of their own, giving Ozone two turrets and one inhibitor as a reward. Helios stole the following dragon, but gave his life in return. With Helios dead Ozone could easily take Baron, giving them an 8k gold lead plus the Baron buff 25 minutes into the match. The last teamfight of OGN Olympus Spring 2013 started when Mata was able to land a hook on Ambition and Ozone collapsed on him and his teammates. Ozone aced them, and with one inhibitor already down Ozone was able to kill the Nexus of CJ Entus Blaze and become Champions of OGN Olympus Spring 2013!



Season MVP: Dade
Dade showed especially in the Finals that he is a world class mid laner who can go toe-to-toe with the best. His Zed in the final series was just mindblowing, rarely have we gotten to see such good use of the shadow mechanic.

Two weeks ago, MVP Ozone ascended to the peak of Korean League of Legends. Winning one of OnGameNet's Champions tournaments is enough for any team to be counted among the elite, not just of Korea, but of the entire world. As CJ Entus Blaze toppled to both fresh-faced imp as well as battle-hardened veteran Homme, MVP Ozone inscribed their name in history. On June 15, 2013, MVP Ozone became the best team in Korea. Their ascent to the summit, however, was not easy. Unlike their grand final opponents who won an incredible thirteen games in a row in the lead-up to the final match, MVP Ozone met heavy resistance on the way.

The spring season for MVP Ozone began with a 2:0 win against the long-suffering KT Rolster A. However, this win was not in any way indicative of the level of play that the future champions would achieve. Top laner Homme looked weak both games on Shen, while MVP pulled out wins off the back of imp's hypercarries Kog'Maw and Vayne. Though the MVP organisation started off the season with two perfect wins over Najin Sword and KT Rolster A, their perfect record would soon be marred by the inevitable teamkill of Group A, as MVP Ozone tied 1:1 with sister team MVP Blue.

At this point in the tournament, despite Ozone's 3:1 record, still no one thought that MVP Ozone would be the eventual victors of Champions Spring. This skepticism would be fueled by a 0:2 loss to CJ Entus Blaze as the once-premiers began their ludicrous thirteen-game winning streak. More doubts about Homme's ability to compete on a top-level team were raised, after poor performances on Elise and Renekton, two offlane champions considered to be incredibly powerful. Blaze's Ambition completely manhandled the MVP squad on his signature Zed, perhaps an omen of the grand final that was still to come.

A glimmer of hope for MVP Ozone's season existed in imp, who rose to the forefront of attention after an incredibly strong performance on Vayne against Najin Sword to equalize the series 1:1 after a crushing loss. The only opponent left to face in the group stage was SK Telecom T1 #2, the leaders of Group A with an astonishing 7-1 record. Two unusual picks in Nidalee and Anivia came out of MVP mid laner dade, coinciding with two shocking victories. MVP Ozone finished the group stage in third, behind the recently-defeated SK Telecom and the rampaging CJ Entus Blaze.

Perhaps it was at this point that people started to think that there was something special in the MVP squad. dade's worries about not making it through the group stage were dispelled as MVP Ozone would come face-to-face against tournament favourites KT Rolster B. This match was particularly controversial due to allegations of KT Rolster B throwing their final group stage games against CJ Entus Frost in order to be pitted against MVP Ozone rather than Najin Sword. Whether it was out of disrespect for MVP Ozone or fear of Najin Sword (understandable, considering Najin Sword were the ones to knock KT Rolster B out of the Winter season and eventually win the tournament), KT Rolster B took the first game of the match true to form. The KeSPA squad displayed the three-man dive combination of ssumday, inSec and Ryu that had carried them through the group stage, dismantling MVP Ozone and forcing Homme to retire his unusual Nunu pick.

It would appear that the loss ignited a fire in Homme, as he proceeded to play the three best games of his career, all on Kennen. The use of Slicing Maelstrom as a defensive zoning tool to protect imp's Vayne led to MVP Ozone defying all expectations and bringing down the beast that was KT Rolster B. Mata's breathtaking play on his favorite champion Zyra led to his being named MVP of, well, MVP. imp later revealed that he considered this match to be the scariest of the tournament due to the sheer presence commanded by KT Rolster B. It was an absolutely humiliating defeat for KT Rolster B, and the whispers about MVP Ozone grew in number.

In retrospect, for anyone to doubt MVP Ozone's performance against newcomers SK Telecom T1 #2 would be folly. Though Faker and his boys dispatched of Group A and quarter-finalists Najin Sword with ease, their high-octane playstyle would find itself coming to an unexpected stop against the defensive juggernaut that MVP Ozone was shaping up to be. Homme's play was better than ever on Shen, a complete 180 from his group stage performance. imp was nearly untouched as he disassembled SK Telecom on his prized Vayne pick, proving to the world that he deserved the title of Doubleimp. SK Telecom clutched one win off Faker's Ryze, but MVP Ozone understood the importance of securing the Ryze pick as dade returned the favour. Although SK Telecom looked strong in the fourth game with Ryze back in Faker's hands, Impact's lackluster play on Jax as well as incredible counter-jungle play by DanDy secured the series and MVP Ozone's right to challenge the title of best team in Korea.

The final came, but at this point, MVP Ozone were confident of their victory. They had slayed two giants and were not afraid to take down another. Mata noted that the challenge of the grand final came not from the CJ Entus team on a hot streak, but rather the pressure of the grand stage as well as the eyes of tens of thousands of fans. Fortunately for the Champions rookie, he and his AD carry would not disappoint as MVP Ozone won the grand final 3:0, becoming the fourth Korean champion in four tournaments. DanDy's champion pool choked out the in-form Helios, even when the Blaze jungler was on his old favorite Lee Sin. Ambition's Kha'Zix looked completely ineffectual next to dade's Zed, whom the Ozone mid laner selected all three games.

Though CJ Entus Blaze played incredibly well from behind, MVP Ozone were a team determined to win. imp saw victory as he stopped Blaze's thirteen-game streak in the first game, while DanDy and dade knew they had won from the third game. Homme's emotional story shared before the match reached its perfect ending as the top laner's performance carved a notch in the tree of legendary players. The legend of the phoenix would be realised not in Blaze's top laner Flame who had recovered from a slump to be declared the best top laner in the world, but rather in Homme, who pulled off one of the biggest turnarounds witnessed in an individual player in League of Legends history.

There is something to be said about the effects of victory on League of Legends players. It could very well be the reason behind the two consecutive perfect victories by Najin Sword and MVP Ozone in two seasons of Champions - the adrenaline injected into the veins of Korean players as they win on the big stage is what fuels further victory. The cheers of crowds, screams of casters and high fives of teammates are the bricks that pave the road to victory.