Even though Worlds was just about a month ago, Riot is giving us one last tournament with all our favorite professionals this year!

All-Star 2017, Day 1 (12/7)

All-Stars are voted in for each position on a team for each region by players all over the world. The All-Stars are then on a new team for this event, and have about two weeks to practice together. These players come from various teams, so sometimes there are rivals on the same team and now they must work together.
Opening day, we had 6 group stage matches on Summoner’s Rift and 6 1v1 rounds on the tailored Howling Abyss.

Brazil vs North America All-Stars

North America won the opening game of this event, with a very impressive start. NA Bjergsen’s mid lane technically perfect Zoe (he decided to die at the fountain as the nexus was falling) looked sure to have Zoe banned for the rest of the event, highlighting the brand-new champion’s potential after her release in November following the close of season 7.

Korea vs Europe All-Stars

In ban phase, guess who was banned in the first ban phase? Zoe, of course! Nobody wants to see the last game happen again! Also of note, Korea’s first ban of Thresh is clearly not to have to deal with Ignar and his mega-hooks. But ultimately, did they forget about Ignar’s Blitzcrank?! If you remember watching Worlds, Ignar shook every game up when he had Blitzcrank and even inspired SKT T1’s Wolf to play Blitzcrank, even though his champion pool really doesn’t include those evil hook champions.

With a few woohoo do it plays, Korea took the win, but Europe did put up a good fight. Gorilla’s Tahm Kench pulled out some really clutch plays, making Korea’s bot lane with Pray just unbelievably strong. Turns out Ignar’s Blitzcrank just couldn’t match the safety of Tahm Kench.

Southeast Asia vs China All-Stars

While Zoe was left available for this game, nobody ended up playing her. This game was a slow burn, SEA made lots of plays and was doing well, but CN was more patient, and managed to pull off a total flip flop in leads to win. CN Uzi and Meiko had a really bad lane, Uzi’s skillshots with Ezreal were all over the place and he kept getting caught by SEA Kra’s Leona. Ultimately, Uzi managed to farm it out and pull off a spectacular quadra kill just after CN took baron and they shoved into SEA’s base and downed their nexus. China pulled off a great win!

LMS vs Turkey All-Stars

Zoe was again left available, but this time LMS Fofo locked her in. LMS Fofo picked up first blood at 4 minutes in and has three kills by roaming bot lane by just over 6 minutes. Fofo went on to dominate this game, but Fofo wasn’t the only LMS player to crush. Bebe’s Jhin single handedly made the play that forced Turkey off the Baron at 25 minutes in so that LMS could pick up the buff for themselves. Bebe announced prior to the start of this event that this would be his last professional tournament and that he’s retiring, so this is a very nice way to go out on top! At 37 minutes into the game, Turkey is desperately trying to take down Elder Dragon while LMS is taking Baron and they can’t finish the dragon before LMS shows up and pushes them away, taking Elder for themselves and heading into Turkey’s suffering base. Bebe ends the 40 minute game 13/0/7. LMS wins!

China vs North America

NA spends over 20 minutes of this game with giant gold leads, all the kills and objectives, and it just doesn’t look good for China at all. NA MikeYeung’s Jarvan IV was on fire, as the most rookie player in this tournament, he showed that he belongs with the pros and works to get his whole team snowballing hard. NA Sneaky’s Jhin quadra kills at Baron at 20 minutes, with the help of NA Haunzter’s Gnar. Sneaky was then 6/0/3 and in a great position to take down China.

But, if we know anything about China’s players, they are patient and always have the potential for a huge comeback. Slowly closing the gold gap and the objective lead, China pulls out a quadra kill at 33 minutes from CN Xiye’s Kassadin and China rushes down the mid lane to take down the NA nexus just in time before any of NA’s players are back up. China ends their Day 1 games at 2-0 with an incredible comeback!

LMS vs Korea

I had lots of confidence that Faker would pull out all the stops this game, but nobody banned Zoe so LMS Fofo snapped her up. LMS Karsa’s Kha’zix, along with Fofo’s Zoe, absolutely trashed Korea in this game.

At 10 minutes, Faker gets ganked and Fofo gets a kill on him. Faker’s mistake was to face-check the bush and find a Kha’zix already on top of him. A control ward was not able (by game rule) to see the Kha’zix in his invisibility so Faker really just had no idea Karsa was there until he was already dying. Faker and all of KR still retain a gold lead, not quite as close to the 1000 lead they were nursing just a couple minutes earlier. Even with a death, Faker is still significantly up in cs.

A funny moment: Karsa, 7/0/1, fails to pop over the baron pit wall with the blast cone and has to flash away, provoking a laugh from Karsa himself and all watching. Karsa amazingly overshadows Fofo in domination in this game, and Fofo was definitely doing well!

The entire game continued like this, where Korea failed to utilize their cs leads and just ended up getting crushed, losing towers and objectives, and unable to find any openings to turn the game around. At 40 minutes, a fight breaks out over Baron and LMS aces Korea, to then ignore Baron and simply rush in and take Korea’s nexus down. LMS takes a win, ending Day 1 at 2-0!

 

Stay tuned for more on the 1v1 tournament from Day 1. For even more in-depth posts about this tournament, check out my posts on my website, and follow me for more musings on games and other antics.  Sign up for free to play League of Legends.

By Evenoh