Originally posted at https://www.echofox.gg/news/na-lcs-2018-summer-split-week-1-recap
The countdown goes down to zero, the lights dim, and the crowd roars for the premiere of the Summer Split. Huge stakes are on the line as ten teams not only want to be the split champions but make it a goal to be at Worlds.
Expect the unexpected is the motto for Echo Fox in this split. After finishing at a new high last split at third place, Echo Fox only wants to improve this split. Many analysts and journalists consider Echo Fox to be a top contender this summer, including ESPN who ranked Echo Fox at second place in North America. The teams first opponent of the summer would be FlyQuest.
FlyQuest
In the first week of LCS, it was hard to predict what champions each team will pick and where those champions will go. Echo Fox took it to the next level in their draft. During championship select, Echo Fox picked Yasuo for Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon and Dr. Mundo for Johnny “Altec” Ru. When the game started, it was not far-fetched to think Altec would stay bot with Dr. Mundo. However, Altec migrated to the top lane and Huni went bottom lane. This move was surprising to most people as they thought Echo Fox was at a disadvantage with Altec in the top lane. At the end of the game, this move paid off. Altec held on his own in the top lane going four kills, one death, and five assists. Inserting Huni in the bot lane allowed Echo Fox to push the bot lane, and get two Infernal Drakes and one Mountain Drake. Huni had a great game as well with six kills, three deaths, and eight assists. These advantages throughout the game granted the win for Echo Fox in twenty-four minutes.
Clutch Gaming
The second game was just as unexpected for Echo Fox’s opponents, Clutch Gaming. The casters were wondering if they would run the same strategy with Altec and Huni switching roles. However, a slightly different result occurred. Echo Fox picked Taliyah for the jungle and Rengar for the top lane. The one glaring aspect of this draft was Huni selecting Smite as a Summoner’s spell instead of Teleport. Afterward, Echo Fox put Huni on Taliyah and Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett on his signature Rengar. The match went back and forth with kills in the top lane and jungle. Things opened up for Echo Fox when they took objectives and turrets around the map. This eventually led Echo Fox with a 10k gold lead. About the thirty-two minute mark, while Echo Fox was sieging the inhibitor turret, Huni used Taliyah’s ultimate to help destroy the turret but the game crashed as all players were disconnected. League officials deliberated for minutes and came to the verdict that they were unable to use the Chronobreak technology to time travel back to before the game crashed. Ultimately, Riot awarded the win to Echo Fox as they thought Clutch Gaming was unable to make a comeback being down ten thousand gold, one inhibitor, four dragons and seven turrets.
Echo Fox ended Week 1 with two wins and no losses. The team is now tied for first place along with Team SoloMid. Echo Fox will look to stay undefeated as they go against two 1-1 teams, Golden Guardians, and OpTic Gaming. Catch their games live this weekend on live.echofox.gg.
