Two streaks ended on Sunday, as Team Liquid found its first win of the split by handing Team Dignitas its first loss, 2-1, in Week 2 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split in Los Angeles.
The universe revolved around Dignitas top laner Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho on Fiora in Game 1. While he wasn't involved in many early kills, he created immense map pressure throughout the game. Team Liquid (1-3, 3-7 match record) attempted to counter the split-push by drafting the hard engage tandem of Rengar and Taliyah for jungler Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin and mid laner Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer, respectively, to force 5-vs-4 teamfights, but the execution simply never came together. By the end of the 34-minute win, Ssumday's Fiora had accrued over 100 CS more than his TL counterpart, picking up a flame horizon as well as a 4/0/2 KDA (kills/deaths/assists).
TL gave Taliyah to Goldenglue again for Game 2, and it paid off in spades. Team Dignitas (3-1, 7-4 match record) drafted a brutal 5-vs-5 teamfight composition, but Goldenglue made excellent use of Weaver's Wall to split DIG up and create picks, maintaining perfect kill participation for 27 minutes. Dignitas got back into the game with a beautiful combination of Explosive Cask from jungler Lee "Shrimp" Byeong-hoon's Gragas and Command: Shockwave from mid laner Jang "Keane" Lae-young's Orianna, but one final Weaver's Wall set up a 4-for-0 fight for Liquid at 45 minutes, sending the series to a Game 3.
The early stage of the deciding game was all about jungler Reignover's Olaf, who participated in four kills for Liquid before the 10-minute mark and put his team out to a huge early gold lead. Ssumday, on Jarvan IV this time around, put in his best effort to carry Team Dignitas again, finding mid-game kills and initiating a brilliant teamfight at 35 minutes to get DIG an ace despite its deficit. However, Team Liquid's siege composition had lent it an objective lead that could not be overcome, and as such it only took one teamfight win at 39 minutes to end the series.
Team Liquid will be able to hold its head a bit higher when it faces Immortals on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Team Dignitas, meanwhile, will look to rebound against a struggling Phoenix1 on Saturday at 6 p.m ET.