CBLOL 2022 Split 1 Week 7 Wrap-up

CBLoL 2022 Split 1 Week 7 Standings

1. *RED Canids (10–3)
2. FURIA Esports (10–4)
3. *KaBuM! e-Sports (9–4)
4. LOUD (9–5)
5. Liberty (7–7)
5. Netshoes Miners (7–7)
7. paiN Gaming (6–8)
8. Flamengo Esports (4–10)
8. Rensga (4–10)
10. INTZ (3–11)

*The between KaBuM! and RED Canids was postponed due to heavy rains and flooding in Sao Paulo. The game has been rescheduled to Thursday, March 10th instead.

1. RED Canids (W7: 1–0) *KaBuM! + Netshoes Miners

Really not too much to say here, RED are currently on a 5 game win-streak and those games have looked clean, even against some of the other top teams in the league. Week 7 won’t be easy, but RED have handled it before and are looking to continue extending their streak.

As mentioned above, the game between RED Canids and KaBuM! will be delayed till this Thursday due to inclement weather.

There were some jokes that RED Canids might be in comfortable enough a position to start trolling teams with random losses, which would be nice for Netshoes Miners. A cute dream for lower ranked teams, but RED was having none of it. The early game was a little rough as a surprise Annie pick for Anyyy threw Avenger for a small loop. TitaN and Jojo had a little oopsie which also gave over early control of the lane to Netshoes Miners. However, that was pretty much it, small mistakes which RED quickly rectified. RED just grouped up and let TitaN be the MVP that he is, just wiping every team-fight on Jinx.

Only 1 game so far this week for RED, with their match against KaBuM! rescheduled. The match against Netshoes Miners was honestly a little boring, but boring is good when you’re the best team in the league, it means no upsets, and in Brazil… that’s rare. RED seem to have stopped limit-testing for now as they gear up for play-offs, Avenger and Guigo are good, but they’re letting TitaN be the main carry. It worked last split, and it’s working so far this split.

2. FURIA Esports (W7: 1–1) paiN + Rensga

FURIA remain the top dogs (or cats) for now, after a slightly shaky Week 6 against 2 of the lower ranked teams. Week 7 on paper should be more of the same, but both paiN and Rensga popped off in Week 6, going 2–0 and 1–1 respectively. More worrying for FURIA is that both these teams had great showings from their bot lane, in stark contrast to FURIA, where Netuno and RedBert have been a little quiet in recent games. Diamonds are made under pressure, and perhaps this is exactly what FURIA need to wake up their bot-lane to play-off form.

The game against paiN certainly brought plenty of both heat and pressure to FURIA as paiN managed to pressure both side lanes and find early leads. fNb struggled throughout the game against Wizer after stealing away Wizer’s Jayce pick. Envy and Ranger were a little muted early as well, thought both found great success in initiating later game fights. The stand outs were Netuno and RedBert, who had been a little subdued in recent weeks. Netuno on Zeri somehow out-ranged Jinx in majority of fights, and his mechanics on the Spark of Zaun quickly reminded CBLOL of why Zeri was almost perma-banned in previous weeks.

I’m starting to think that no team is ever really ready to face Rensga, especially when they have a fresh face on the roster that week. Even worse for FURIA, we got to see the 1st Renata of CBLOL from Mocha, and FURIA did not look prepared at all for any of this. To compound matters, FURIA just refused to learn from their mistakes, doubling down onto their bot-lane, where Ranger, Netuno and RedBert all fed the early monster that is Caitlyn. Due to that, NinjaKiwi didn’t end up falling off, and instead out-paced everyone from items and damage. fNb was the bright hope for FURIA as the only winning lane, but for every good play he made, he balanced it with an equally awful play. One of those games where you wish you could just wipe it from your memory.

Not what you want to see from the best team in the region, a random loss, and not even a close one. With this, 1st place is no longer in their control, but depends on how RED performs in their rescheduled match. Maybe it’s just a bit of a rough week from FURIA, or so we’d hope, but their lack of understanding towards Renata definitely hurt them, and now that she’s enabled (and not seen too much in pro play), FURIA cannot afford to not understand how she works.

3. KaBuM! e-Sports (W7: 1–0) *RED + Liberty

After an incredible 1st half of the regular season (only dropping games to RED and FURIA), KaBuM! have looked inconsistent starting the 2nd half. With upset losses to INTZ and paiN, KaBuM! need some strong wins to restore some faith in their following. This week might not be it though, as both RED and Liberty are tough opponents. The Ninjas have taken down Liberty before though, and while RED are in fine form, KaBuM! is probably the biggest spoiler of CBLOL, and can never be discounted.

As mentioned above, the game between RED Canids and KaBuM! will be delayed till this Thursday due to inclement weather.

Ok, KaBuM!… no need to kick a team when they’re already down. While the Ninjas have beaten Liberty this split before, they decided to one-up themselves in an absolutely brutal smack-down where every single player stepped up. However, it certainly didn’t start that way. The game actually started with KaBuM! winning lanes, but every time they left lane, things went wrong for them, losing most of the skirmishes. Luckily for them, their composition wasn’t about getting early leads, but was more about the 5-man fights. Once KaBuM! figured out what they were supposed to be doing, it was like a flip was switched, and Parang became the herald of the end, as he spearheaded KaBuM!’s war-machine, forcing Slicing Maelstroms from every which way.

While we haven’t seen KaBuM! against 1st place RED Canids this week, their win against Liberty is a reminder why KaBuM! is considered by many as the strongest team despite not sitting at 1st place. While the early game was a little messy for them, the fact that they still had lane leads shows how strong they individually are, and once they start playing together… well, they just win.

4. LOUD (W7: 2–0) Liberty + INTZ

Some big oofs for the crowd favourites LOUD as they hover right on the edge of the lower bracket for playoffs in tied 4th. Tay has been looking slightly suspect in some of their early games, and while tinowns has been Atlas holding up the LOUD world, this team desperately needs the others to step up to help tinowns carry. Thankfully, there is plenty of carry potential here, and with how hit-or-miss LOUD is, a 0–2 week is more than likely to be followed by a 2–0 week. It might be a little tough against Liberty, but LOUD can pull it off, and if not… well, surely they’ll be fine against INTZ… right?

Apparently, not too tough after all. In an interesting turn of events, LOUD and Liberty completely swapped play-styles, with LOUD opting for a quiet early game and Liberty picking the more active global composition. Turns out LOUD can play slow as well, as tinowns reprised his role on Corki, raining down missiles from afar. DudsTheBoy had an epic game on the once again unbanned Zeri as well, going 10/1/9. It took 41:33 to close it out, but it never really felt like the game got away from LOUD.

Let’s go Robo! Sunday saw the return of Robo’s Tristana once again as a counter-pick to Gnar and to absolutely no one’s surprise, it won MVP yet again. Starting right from level 1 Robo, started applying a ton of pressure, and while he couldn’t find the solo kill in the lane, Robo still found 1st blood in the jungle, punishing an unsuspecting Yampi. Things just snowballed from there, with LOUD never once letting up. It wasn’t quite a perfect game, or the fastest game of the split, but it was certainly one of the most one-sided ones.

A huge week from LOUD to secure 4th place and even open up a 2 game buffer against 5th place as well. Even better was how strong LOUD looked this week with a clean 2–0. Both wins were very LOUD favoured, and they never made big mistakes which let their opponents back into the game. If they can keep the momentum up, there’s a chance for LOUD to climb to 3rd next week against KaBuM!, and more importantly, keep their winning streak alive.

5. Liberty (W7: 0–2) LOUD + KaBuM!

Coming into Week 7 after a shocking 0–2 Week 6, Liberty will be running head-first into their toughest week in the remaining schedule. LOUD is tied with Liberty and will also be coming in off a 0–2 week of their own, while KaBuM! hovers just above Liberty, having won the head-to-head. With how rock steady Liberty has been, I’m not too worried about their mental, but their struggle to adapt to surprise situations concerns me, especially against volatile teams like LOUD and KaBuM!.

Well, this was not the style I was expecting Liberty to take. With Disamis on Lee Sin and Krastyel on Twisted Fate, Liberty decided to take a more proactive approach to this game against LOUD. The idea was good, but the execution was gravely flawed as Disamis went diving under turrets to give over random early deaths. Krastyel failed to use his Destiny to make plays at any point through-out the game and Wos struggled to string together any coherent Death Sentences. Kiari and Matsukaze were the bright spots as they almost managed to turn a couple of team-fights. In the end, Liberty failed to adjust their play-style sufficiently and didn’t have the scaling necessary to match.

Not happy with their performance against LOUD, Liberty decided to run back the Twisted Fate for Krastyel… to similarly poor results. In all fairness though, Krastyel had a better game of it, with more attempts at proactive roams. Unfortunately, it just felt like Disamis was always a step or 2 behind, and Liberty couldn’t quite find numbers advantages even with a global ultimate on their side. Things went from bad to worse as KaBuM! started grouping up, not giving Liberty a chance to find individual picks. While Liberty tried to stall and let Kiari split-push, KaBuM! was having none of it, hard engaging each time. Matsukaze tried his absolute hardest to turn the tides, but with Disamis behind, there just wasn’t enough front-line, and once Matsukaze fell, so did the rest of Liberty.

Liberty is now on a 4 game losing streak, and while it’s technically excusable that they lost against LOUD and KaBuM!, it is not a good sign for their playoff run. It feels like Liberty have decided to try out some new tech with their abrupt focus on Twisted Fate for Krastyel, but the timing of this is worrying, as they’ve now fallen out of the Top 4, and if they don’t pull things together, they’ll be starting playoffs in the lower bracket. If they continue this losing streak, there is a small, but non-zero chance that they might not make playoffs altogether…

5. Netshoes Miners (W7: 1–1) Rensga + RED

Welcome to the tipping point for Netshoes Miners. If you recall back to the beginning of the split, Netshoes Miners started with an easy strength of schedule that saw them sitting pretty at 3–0, before running a 5 game losing streak. We’re now at the same point in the 2nd round robin where the Miners train completely derailed. It’s hard to pin down what went wrong when individually, all the players had their moments, but perhaps the change of Drop to Celo might be enough to change things up. To increase the stakes further, Netshoes Miners sits on a very uneasy 1 game lead over paiN Gaming who is threatening to snipe that last play-off spot from Netshoes Miners. Can the Miners hold on?

At least against Rensga, the answer was a resounding “YES”! DoRun and Croc were the conductors of the Netshoes Miners super express train, going full speed from the very start. DoRun picked on CBLOL newbie Edger, forcing Rensga’s Minerva to come salvage the lane. Turns out, it was all a trap as Croc then snapped close the jaws of defeat on Minerva, and swiftly proceeded to take over his jungle as well. Things kept snowballing from there, and while Croc did have some “minor” over-extensions, the Miners were ahead enough in all lanes by that point to turn any mistakes into happy little accidents.

Against RED Canids, the answer became a strained “no…”. That’s not to say that Netshoes Miners were completely crushed with no recourse. The Miners had some interesting plans, starting with a season first Annie pick for who else but Anyyy. The early poke and pressure from Annie/Anyyy allowed Croc to roam around applying pressure, giving Netshoes Miners an early lead. Yet everything seemed to fall apart when RED Canids started grouping up. In spite of having strong team-fighting with Annie and Leona, RED Canids were able to avoid grouping up, soaking the damage with Aegis’ Xin Zhao and TitaN’s Jinx was able to rain down damage from a safe distance.

Not the best week for Netshoes Miners, but considering that they still maintain 6th place, I think they’ll take it and be content with it for now. While I liked the experimentation they tried against RED, it is a little worrying as things are only going to remain at least that tough with their last 4 games strength of schedule. Best of luck to the Miners, cause they’re probably going to need it.

7. paiN Gaming (W7: 1–1) FURIA + Flamengo

I’m reminded of a quote I once heard, “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. When the chips are down, paiN somehow finds ways to keep hope alive. It almost feels inevitable that paiN will somehow pull out the miracle run and somehow find that last play-off spot. Yet, let’s not forget the latter half of the quote… suffering is optional, and if you’re a paiN fan, you know that the more you believe, the more suffering you’ll have later when paiN let you down. It’s hard not to have some hope for this team when they just pulled a 2–0 week over KaBuM! and Netshoes Miners, and if they manage to beat FURIA, it’s full steam ahead for the paiN train. Even though the odds aren’t good for the Traditionals, there’s still hope as long as they don’t go 0–2 this week.

As a paiN fan, this one was a tear-jerker for how close paiN Gaming got to winning it. The early game went well for paiN, but mid-lane woes began to rear their ugly head as dyNquedo failed to land most of his skill-shots as Ahri, allowing FURIA’s Envy to dive and kill Trigo in fights. It’s to Trigo’s credit that he managed to continue out-putting damage, keeping fights within a hair’s difference. However, it was Wizer who stole the spotlight, dominating the 1v1 against fNb, and almost managing to backdoor FURIA for a paiN win. Wizer was such a menace that ultimately, it took 2 members and an Elder Dragon buff to stop Wizer from sneakily soloing the win. But stop him they did, and paiN found themselves just shy of continuing their surprise win streak.

Utterly undeterred by their narrow loss to FURIA the day before, paiN continued in high spirits against Flamengo… Maybe even a little too high, as paiN’s early game was slightly careless, giving over a free 1st blood. A lot of trades back and forth from both teams was not ideal for paiN Gaming, but all it took for paiN Gaming was 1 big team-fight leading to a Baron take, and suddenly Trigo and Wizer started to fully come online. It gave paiN the gold/item lead they needed to start winning the relentless fights that populated this game.

paiN Gaming’s playoff hopes are still alive, but they find themselves no closer than before to making that coveted 6th spot as Netshoes Miners also split their W7 1–1. The good news is that paiN are still looking scrappy and bent as all-hell to just run over their opposition. The bad news? They’re running into their former teammates on LOUD next week who are likewise picking up steam. As a fan, these nail-biting last 2 weeks are going to be stressful, but as a viewer… paiN’s games are promising non-stop action.

8. Flamengo Esports (W7: 1–1) INTZ + paiN

Speaking of hope, bringing in Sting for asta has sparked a small flame for Flamengo fans. They’re not quite mathematically eliminated just yet, and the huge win against LOUD in Week 6 means that Flamengo could potentially upset other teams above them like paiN or Liberty. We’ve now seen that Tutsz and Flare can carry the mid to late game as long as they’re not too far behind and if there are bodies in front of them. Sting happens to fulfill both these conditions, often sacrificing his early game to keep lanes ahead, and later on sacrificing his body to buy the time and space needed for his carries. With both INTZ and paiN in Week 7, Flamengo have a chance to start a miracle run.

Part of me feels validated by Flamengo’s win over INTZ, but at the same time… this wasn’t nearly as clean as I would have liked to see. I’m not quite sure what Boal did to the rest of the team, but Flamengo completely left him to dry and had him soak all the pressure. To Boal’s credit, he was an incredible soak, and while he fell behind and lost early turrets, he managed to remain relevant and all the pressure gave Flamengo to make plays elsewhere. With Boal’s noble sacrifice, Flamengo managed to get Flare ahead enough that Flamengo were just able to show up to fights and freely blow people up.

Against paiN Gaming, the down and dirty style that Flamengo has developed with sting proved it’s worth in the early game. Flamengo went blow-for-blow against paiN and things were looking good for them as the mid-game rolled around. Despite losing 1st Dragon and Herald, Flamengo had traded it for kills and turret gold which saw them winning out at 2nd Herald and Dragon instead. Things started to fall apart as a small mistake while taking the 3rd Dragon allowed paiN to wipe Flamengo, and gave away the Baron. Considering how bloody the game was, the Baron ended up giving the slight edge paiN needed to start winning fights. With how long the game had been on the edge, when it finally tipped, Flamengo found themselves falling off the edge of the cliff with no safeties.

Flamengo have been performing beyond all expectations in this latter half of the split and should be proud of themselves. However, reality is a cruel mistress and despite all their hard work,
Flamengo’s fate is now completely out of their control. While mathematically still alive, Flamengo need to win all their games, while either Liberty or Netshoes Miners would need to lose every single one of their games, and paiN would have to lose 3 of their 4 remaining games.

8. Rensga Esports (W7: 1–1) Netshoes Miners + FURIA

It’s the wild west out here with Rensga, after finding success on an unprecedented 60% roster overhaul in the middle of the season. Rensga were looking frightening coming into Week 7 with Trap, NinjaKiwi and Mocha all having pop-off moments in Week 6. Unfortunately, Trap got suspended for 3 games and will not be coming into Week 7. Instead, Rensga have grabbed Edger from the Rensga Academy squad to substitute for now. NinjaKiwi and Mocha should still be just as strong, but it’s a toss-up whether the sudden roster change hinders communications or triggers the Rensga roster change buff.

Rensga without Trap is a truly different beast. Edger tried his best, but his best was simply insufficient. Edger wasn’t the main problem though, as Minerva was the one who truly struggled. On a somewhat uncommon Viego jungle pick, Minerva didn’t have the ability to duel early and found himself the target of the Netshoes Miners early game. While he did manage to eventually scale up, it came far too late and Rensga had already been over-run.

NINJAKIWI!!! The 2nd penta-kill of CBLOL 2022, and it comes from a player who got promoted up from Academy partway through this split. As if that wasn’t hype enough, Mocha had one of the best support games on record with the 1st Renata pick of CBLOL, punishing FURIA on any gank they dared to attempt in the bot lane. With so much pressure and dominance bot side, Goku got to go full Super Saiyan as well, finding multiple 1v1 kills onto Envy, eventually translating into massive backline threat which FURIA were not prepared to handle. Edger was the sacrifice for all this, but I’m sure he won’t complain as he gets to go 50/50 for his debut in CBLOL, with a win over the top team in the league currently. Just an overall great game for Rensga.

Tragically for the Cowboys, the hype win over FURIA still leaves them in the same place as Flamengo: requiring either Liberty or Netshoes Miners to lose every single one of their games, in addition to paiN losing 3 of their 4 remaining games, while winning all of Rensga’s own games. It’s possible, though highly improbable… but we’ve said that about many things regarding Rensga, and yet here they are. Regardless of wins or losses, I’m just excited to watch this team play, as they continue to bring us some of the most exciting games that CBLOL has to offer. Not to mention their potential to play spoiler for all and any team in the region.

10. INTZ (W7: 0–2) Flamengo + LOUD

The one team that doesn’t quite seem to be peaking at the key moment, INTZ has resolutely decided to make a roster change of their own to try and keep their playoff hopes alive. Kick has been replaced by INTZ Academy mid-laner Muja, who has a much more carry and lane-focused play-style. While I don’t think Kick has been the problem, perhaps a change in communications might help catalyze some sort of success for this team (I doubt it). We’ll be able to see this right away from their game on Saturday against fellow 8th place Flamengo who seems to be on the up-swing. If things go well, maybe even LOUD might not be out of reach on Sunday.

A fiery, flaming welcome for Muja to CBLOL. A valiant attempt from INTZ to find a critical win to keep their play-off hopes alive which didn’t quite pan out. Tyrin had an amazing game, taking the majority of INTZ’s turrets and dominating the 1v1 against Boal. Sadly for Muja, Flamengo had it out for him and dedicated a ton of resources into trying to kill him… savagely and repeatedly. Aside from Tyrin, who did amazing, and Muja, who was being bullied, the rest of INTZ were disconcertingly non-existent for the bulk of things.

The game against LOUD left me rather speechless for INTZ, as it didn’t even feel like they had a chance to play the game. INTZ simply never had any chance to do anything as LOUD grabbed the initiative, and never let off the gas. INTZ were left reeling and even as they tried to stem the bleeding, things just kept getting worse all around the map for them. An incredibly rough series, and ultimately the one that kills any playoff hopes.

As Week 7 draws to a close, a moment of silence for this Intrepid team who dared to dream, but ultimately found themselves just slightly short. Muja had a particularly rough CBLOL debut as he was thrown into an untenable position and focused down by the opponents. Even as INTZ are out of the playoff race, their last 4 games still have huge playoff implications as they could foil paiN’s playoff run next week, or potentially be the straw that breaks Liberty’s back in Week 9.