UCLA League of Legends Premiere Team Takes First Defeat in Riot’s Collegiate Championship
- Cole Schwartz
- Jan 30, 2018
- 3 min read
UCLA League of Legends A Team was defeated by University of Colorado Boulder last Wednesday in Riot’s Collegiate Championship. The Bruins put up a good fight but lost with a score of 1-2.
In the first game, the Bruins drafted Cho’Gath, Jarvan IV, Orianna, Tristana, and Alistar. Boulder’s composition consisted of Gnar, Nunu, Ryze, Caitlyn, and Tahm Kench.
The game started off with both teams guarding their jungle entrances. With Nunu on the enemy team, UCLA took precaution by warding their jungle camps to prevent an early steal.
In the bottom lane, Austin “BestLucianAfrica” Quon was forced to give up farm due to Caitlyn’s poke. The Bruins attempted to engage on CUB multiple times, but Tahm Kench’s Devour prevented them from securing any kills during the laning phase. As a result, CUB established an early advantage that snowballed out of UCLA’s control and allowed them to secure Baron.
With a significant gold lead and Baron buff, Boulder pushed down mid. UCLA engaged on 3 members of CUB who were pressuring the mid inhibitor, but were wiped out when Ryze and Gnar came to CUB’s defense. UCLA lost their mid and bot inhibitors and were unable to defend their nexus.
In game two, UCLA had a team of Fiora, Sejuani, Taliyah, Jinx, and Braum. Boulder drafted Gnar, Jarvan IV, Ryze, Xayah, and Alistar.
UCLA gained a significant lead when a fight was initiated in mid lane between Ryan “Rydragon” Ling and CUB’s Challenger mid laner, “Soligo.” Both teams’ junglers and top laners came to assist their teammates, but an excellent roam by Sufhan “sKILLSHOTz FIRED” Chowdhry gave UCLA the edge in the teamfight.The skirmish ended with 4 kills in UCLA’s favor.
After taking Baron, UCLA engaged on Boulder in the mid lane, acing the enemy team without losing any of their own members. Due to CUB’s long death timers, the Bruins were able to push down mid lane and win the game.
With the series tied at 1-1, the Bruins emulated their winning team composition from the previous game while Boulder drafted Shen, Nunu, Leblanc, Caitlyn, Karma.
CUB’s Caitlyn and Karma duo used similar tactics from the first game to force Quon to give up farm early in the match. With low health bars, UCLA’s bot lane was forced to back off when Nunu came to secure the tower.
Despite being bullied in lane by Caitlyn and Karma, Quon managed to stay relatively even in farm to CUB’s Caitlyn. UCLA’s win condition here was to wait for Jinx and Fiora to outscale their opponents and to allow their frontline to become tanky. Unfortunately, a series of bad dives and miscommunications disadvantaged UCLA and forced the team to give up multiple objectives.
CUB’s complete vision control and gold lead allowed them to quickly take Baron. With the Baron buff, CUB’s Shen splitpushed into the bottom lane, forcing members of UCLA to recall while the rest of Boulder took their inhibitors. As the team split up, the Bruins began to fall one-by-one until there was no one left to defend their nexus.
While this was a heartbreaking defeat, the Bruins performed well against the experienced Colorado roster. The Bruins next match will be Feb. 3 against Loyola Marymount University.
The UCLA League of Legends B Team has also started off the season with a record of 3-0 in the CSL’s Junior Varsity League. Their next match will be Feb. 3 against Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stay tuned for more League of Legends news and team updates.
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