Team Mainland China take 2-0 win and HK$300,000 in Return of the Legends Finals
A master class in positioning, pace and aggression as China dominate Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau side
Team Mainland China, dominant throughout the tournament, dealt a crushing defeat to the Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau side in the Return of the Legends Finals at the Coliseum on Sunday night.
The atmosphere in the Coliseum was electric. Although all players from both teams hold massive respect in the region, the crowd was overwhelmingly in support of THM. And the THM players couldn’t contain their delight as they came out to screams of supporters on their home turf. The crowd lost their minds when Hong Kong’s hero Toyz took to the stage. Nostalgia was in full effect for the season two legends.
On their home turf, and with four of the team looking to protect their reputations as World Champions, pride was on the line for THM.
Both teams looked on top form in their semi-final games, but Team China was obviously the superior team going in. With most of the players still regularly playing on streams, their mechanics were more polished, their rotations were consistently on point, and they punished each and every misstep from THM.
With Misaya on Twisted Fate and Toyz on Orianna, game one was shaping up to be very entertaining indeed. Toyz, unfortunately, failed to make any meaningful plays with Orianna. Misaya, however, did not disappoint on Twisted Fate, mercilessly punishing THM at every turn. The APC legend only conceded one kill in the last seconds when the game was already won, and could be seen chuckling to his teammates about his last minute carelessness.
China had put themselves in a very strong position very early on. After taking the first bot lane turret they had giving themselves a lot of options in the way of mobility. Once top lane turret fell, they quickly furthered the lead with a third turret. With the split push pressure they had they took no prisoners, going on to take Baron, and making short work of both mid and bot lane tier two turrets in quick succession.
Only 25 minutes in they pulled the trigger, pushing on multiple lanes to take their first nexus turret, inhibitor and a minute later the game.
With 30 kills on the board in 22 minutes game two wasn’t even close. The second game got off to a much slower start, but 14 minutes in Caomei set up Team China up with a perfectly timed with Ragnarok, Misaya’s Kassadin stepped in to clean up three members of THM. The play set the Chinese steam roller in motion, and they quickly went on to take several turrets in quick succession and push hard on THM’s base.
A massive force pulse by Misaya’s Kassadin set China up to focus their first inhibitor and the rest was history. THM crumbled under a relentless and aggressive onslaught from the Mainland China side. At 26-6 they had established an insurmountable gold lead and unstoppable momentum that was just too much for the season two champions.
