Snake Esports closed out Week 2, Day 3 of the League of Legends Pro League in Shanghai with a shocking 2-1 upset win over Team WE on Saturday.
Snake Esports (1-1, 2-3 match record) took an early lead in Game 1 as top laner Li "Flandre" Xuan-Jun's Rumble picked up first blood in a four-man dive to take the first tower. Snake used its pick composition to earn a modest gold lead in the midgame, but couldn't break away from WE. Despite picking up a Baron at 30 minutes to go over by over 5,000, Snake started to lose ground once WE's late game composition started to come online. With AD carry Jin "Mystic" Seong-jun's Kog'Maw pumping out massive damage, WE took a 2-for-1 teamfight at 38 minutes that allowed it to secure a Baron and an Elder Dragon kill around 42 minutes, using the buffs to shred through Snake's defenses. While Flandre finished with a game-high 31,700 damage dealt, Mystic was unstoppable in the late game, dealing 29,000 damage to go with a 5/2/6 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) for 100 percent kill participation as WE came back to take Game 1 in just under 50 minutes.
Team WE (2-1, 5-3 match record) took a pick composition into Game 2, but neither team found early kills, instead trading objectives with a flurry of rotations. Once Snake followed Flandre's Kled into a mid lane teamfight, securing first blood in a 5-for-1 ace, Snake rocketed ahead to a 5,000-gold lead at 19 minutes. Snowballing thanks to its siege/teamfighting composition, a 22-minute Baron kill increased Snake's lead to 9,000 gold, putting Snake too far ahead for WE to fight back, despite jungler Le "SofM" Quang Duy trolling by building an Athene's Unholy Grail on Gragas. While one can argue the synergies of that item and the Stoneborn Pact keystone, what was undeniable was Snake's domination of Game 2, with a 11,000-gold lead at 28 minutes giving way to a 32-minute win.
Both teams utilized aggressive teamfighting compositions with late-game AD carries for Game 3, where the action began early on with a level three gank from SofM's Lee Sin to secure first blood in the mid lane. While Mystic's Kalista managed to pick up a triple kill in the bottom lane at six minutes, he was powerless against Snake mid laner Liu "Zz1tai" Zhi-Hao on LeBlanc, who came up big with a triple kill at 17 minutes in a 4-for-1 teamfight for Snake. With Zz1tai killing everyone with ease, Snake took full control of the game after a clean 5-for-0 ace saw Zz1tai pick up another triple kill, giving Snake an uncontested Baron. Using the buff to great effect, Snake crushed teamfights with ease, including a 3-for-0 that started with a perfect five-man Cataclysm from Flandre's Jarvan IV, taking all of WE's structures before finishing the game with a 4-for-2 teamfight at 33 minutes.
Team WE look to recover next week against I May on Thursday at 5 a.m. ET, followed by Snake Esports taking on Invictus Gaming at 8 a.m. ET on Thursday.