MXM The River King’s Cup NA Group Stage Round 2 Match Results

Aug 19, 2017

The NA Group Stage Round 2 for MXM's first community tournament ever, The River King’s Cup, was held on August 19th. 8 teams competed against each other in single-elimination matches. As a result, CLG, TSM, Masters of Battle, and SNAX became the top 4 teams to proceed to the Semifinals.

The first match was between MachV and CLG in Group B. Both teams went on to pick their Masters with MachV banning Sizuka and Vonak, and CLG Rytlock and Tulam. MachV played by the strategy of countering CLG’s jungle by controlling the vision in King Tanian area, although they failed to gain advantage in early game. On the other hand, CLG successfully captured Altars on both lanes and pushed top and bottom lanes, gaining the lead in the game.

After defending their enemy attack, MachV went to take King Tanian but failed when CLG’s sovt managed to steal Tanian by himself, causing the game to turn in CLG’s favor.

CLG won the team fights between the Titans in the mid lane, although they had to retreat due to MachV’s fierce defense when they were split pushing in each lanes. In order to make up for the gap, MachV tried to take Rozar, which CLG realized and tried to put a stop to them; however, MachV stayed calm and consumed the Titan Shards they have gathered until now to take Rozark and finish off CLG. This certainly let MachV catch up with CLG.

Despite MachV’s effort, CLG did not yield and continued to push the lanes. Eventually, all lanes were pushed towards MachV in the late game, and CLG destroyed the opponent core with ease by using up the Titan Shards they saved.

▲ MachV became victorious in the teamfight when they summoned the Titan while taking Rozark.

▲ However, CLG’s strategy to push the lanes from the early game won over MachV’s victory.

The second match was between TSM and Wandering Potatoes in Group C. TSM banned MBA-07 and V-merang, while Wandering Potatoes chose to ban Pancuga and Tulam. While TSM pushed the bottom lane starting from the early game, Wandering Potatoes captured the Altar and pushed the top lane. However, they were stopped when they were killed one by one by TSM’s powerful defense, letting TSM gain lead in the game.

TSM played by a surprise strategy when all 5 members took Rozard even before 5 minutes passed from the start of the game. Wandering Potatoes went to put a stop to this when they realized it, but Rozark was already low on health by then, and they were rooted by Vita’s ult when they stepped in the entrance to Rozark. With Wandering Potatoes losing so much to TSM, including this team fight, the gap between the two teams increased even more.

TSM took the objects in the jungle as well as all of the 2nd Altars, pushing top and bottom lanes while Wandering Potatoes stayed in the mid lane, frantically trying to stop the enemy Titans. The game snowballed to a point where Wandering Potatoes could do nothing, and they lost 7 Guarding Towers to TSM when their enemies invaded, summoning Titan Incarnates.

Wandering Potatoes had nothing to lose when they tried to take Rozark while TSM went to take King Tanian. However, their last gamble turned into ashes when TSM took notice of their desperate try and eliminated Wandering Potatoes after finishing off Tanian, and taking Rozark as well. The game ended with TSM’s overwhelming victory with 400 points gap in the total team score.

▲ TSM chose to take Rozark 4 minutes after the game started.

▲ TSM’s Tyga carried the game with 11 kills and 0 death.

The third match was between Masters of Battle (MoB) and GIR Nation in Group D. MoB banned Vonak and Vita, while GIR Nation banned V-merang and Tulam. What GIR Nation chose to play was squishy in overall, and MoB decided to use this to their advantage by intensely pushing the bottom lane from the beginning of the game. This resulted in deaths from GIR Nation.

MoB’s Rekyn picked MBA-07 and managed to damage the first Guardian Tower in the mid lane much at the early phase of the game. Once MoB managed to destroy enemy Tower in mid, they began to dominate all of the objects in the jungle, including King Tanian. GIR Nation tried to put stop them, however the game changed in MoB’s favor once they were eliminated.

GIR Nation tried to take Rozark in order to make up for the loss, but with MoB cutting off the rest of their team mates coming to help, GIR Nation was forced to give up on Rozark. Eventually, GIR Nation was killed one by one, and MoB managed to created a huge gap in the score by overwhelming laning phase and object controls. In the end, they succeed in destroying GIR Nation’s core.

▲ MoB won the team fights from the beginning of the game.

▲ GIR Nation’s core was attacked 11 minutes after the game started.

The last match was between Space Monkeys and SNAX in Group A. Space Monkeys banned Vonak and Vita, and SNAX Tulam and Vonak. SNAX picked Moro as well as 4 tower shields, aiming to gain the lead in the laning phase.

There were team fights in the top lane in the early game, but no kills were made, and SNAX captured the top Altar with ease. Space Monkeys used 2 tower shields and managed to stop Fallen Hero, and won in the skirmishes in the bot lane, bringing the game around to their advantage. On the other hand, SNAX continued to grow by using Moro to dominate the jungle objects.

SNAX quickly destroyed the rest of the Towers by pushing each lanes, and Space Monkey could not stop them once they ran out of the tower shields, allowing SNAX to destroy 8 Towers to only 1 in the mid game. SNAX outplayed Space Monkeys even in the team fights, succeeding in killing off 3 enemies when they were poking at one another with the Titans in the mid lane.

There was nothing Space Monkeys could do with 3 of their players still waiting to be respawned when enemy Titan and huge minion waves came Finally, Space Monkeys’ core was destroyed with SNAX summoning the Titan Incarnates.