CBLOL 2022 Split 1 Week 8 Wrap-up

CBLoL 2022 Split 1 Week 8 Standings

1. FURIA Esports (11–5)
1. KaBuM! e-Sports (11–5)
3. RED Canids (10–6)
4. LOUD (9–7)
4. Netshoes Miners (9–7)
6. Liberty (8–8)
6. paiN Gaming (8–8)
8. Rensga (6–10)
9. Flamengo Esports (5–11)
10. INTZ (3–13)

1. FURIA Esports (W8: 1–1) RED + Liberty

While FURIA might have been the 1st team to punch their ticket to the play-offs, they still want to continue picking up wins for that easier seeding. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, and while FURIA want to keep winning, Rensga put a crimp into their plans last week. While fNb and Envy have been consistently performing, Ranger, Netuno and RedBert have been a little more hit-or-miss, with stand out games at times, and nigh irrelevant at others. FURIA will need all hands on deck this week as their rivals RED are on the docket. Liberty is no slouch either, thought they’ve been struggling quite a bit recently.

This should have been the biggest match of the week, but FURIA made it look like any other day in the office. Ranger’s CS didn’t look anything special, but he did a great job tracking Aegis and laying down the ganks into multiple lanes. RedBert, Netuno and fNb all id decent jobs winning out their lanes, which was no mean task considering the calibre of players they were up against. But once again, it was Envy who stole the show, dominating not only his own lane match-up against Avenger, but becoming an overwhelming presence which won every single fight he was present at. His chaos storm and gravity field on Viktor ensured that RED Canids could never find any team-fights despite drafting a wombo-combo composition, and secured their 1st place spot at the top (alongside KaBuM!).

What on FURIA did we just witness?! FURIA played the first 15 minutes of the game, and then just decided to phone it home for the rest. To compound matters, Liberty looked like a completely different team, with proactive moves and relentless attempts at making plays for better or for worse. While FURIA did manage to foil some of the roams, Liberty were making so many moves, that some were bound to stick, and FURIA slowly found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of attempts.

How do you make sense of a week where FURIA go from looking like the best team in CBLOL to looking like one of the most lost teams in the league? Well, it’s CBLOL, so I guess you don’t. Even if FURIA end up splitting 1–1, their opponents performed similarly, as the top teams seem to have collectively agreed to troll the last 2 weeks. Since FURIA have already secured a playoff spot, and are currently in 1st place, they don’t have to win the most anymore, just make sure that they don’t lose as much as their closest competitors.

1. KaBuM! e-Sports (W8: 1–1) LOUD + Netshoes Miners

One of the most explosive teams in CBLOL, KaBuM! has managed to claw their way up to 1st, and are in a great position to defend it. Not only are all their lanes stepping up at the perfect times, but Wiz continues to necessitate Lee Sin bans, warping the entire game around his play. Even better, Week 8 will see KaBuM! run up against LOUD, seeing 2 big teams making strong runs colliding with each other. Netshoes Miners are desperate to keep their 5th/6th place as well, and when backed into a corner… who knows what we’ll get to see.

Considering that we had 2 of the most explosive teams in CBLOL facing off, this game really ended up being quite the grind. I blame this on Wiz not picking a mobile early jungler, instead going onto Trundle, which had a lot of utility later on, but gave the early lead over to LOUD. Against a surprise Shyvana top (from Robo, who else?) and tinowns on Zoe, KaBuM! struggled immensely in the mid-game to not get picked off and get to fights in decent shape. Parang eventually started to step up though, finding some creative flanks to get fights started, where DudsTheBoy and Robo would get burst out at the beginning, creating an ADC inequality where Disave was unmatched.

KaBuM! is known to be a scrappy team with high body counts, but… 31 kills, 31 deaths in a 36 and a half minute long game is a new record for bloodiest game of CBLOL 2022. In a surprising turn of events though, the high octane pace of the game failed KaBuM! in this particular instance. The early game was indeed in their favour, with Disave getting a massive lead on the strongest team-fighting ADC: Jinx. Wiz and Hauz made really good use of the double globals of Nocturne/Galio to get early leads. However, the scaling of DoRun’s Tryndamere ultimately undid all of KaBuM!’s early leads, finding multiple kills for every one of his deaths (or Undying Rages). The game swung back and forth like an unhinged pendulum, but ultimately, Netshoes Miners won the last fight, and that last swing of the game proved to be a little too much for KaBuM!.

Perhaps KaBuM! got a little complacent this week against lower ranked teams, but KaBuM! looked a little closer to their skill floor rather than their skill ceiling. In spite of that, KaBuM! still looked like a force to be reckoned with, having every player individually step up at some point in their games. Due to FURIA’s and RED’s mixed performances as well, KaBuM! will continued to hold tied 1st place and confirm their playoff position. The only question remaining for Week 9 is what seed will KaBuM! ultimately clinch?

3. RED Canids (W8: 0–2) FURIA + Flamengo

There was a chance in Week 7 for RED to get the undisputed #1 spot, but instead, a deadly loss to KaBuM! has put us right back to a 3-way tie for 1st. That’s not to say that RED Canids are looking weaker right now, but more that the level of competition among the top 3 teams is getting ever tighter. RED are facing back-to-back games at the top of the table, as after their loss to KaBuM!, they’re going right back into the breach against FURIA, who will have absolutely no mercy in their bid for the top.

Considering this was supposed to be the biggest match-up of the week, with 2 top teams going at it… RED Canids really dropped the ball on this one. TitaN and Jojo looked like the only lane that was really here to win it. RED attempted a Diana/Yasuo combo for Aegis/Avenger which did not look polished. Aegis farmed up a storm, but looked leery of pulling the trigger on the Moonfall engage. Further complicating matters was that Avenger had lost lane, and struggled to follow up on the knock-ups provided due to being the target of crowd control from FURIA. Guigo managed to win top-lane, but struggled to have an impact in the bigger fights, unable to quite line up the timing of his Mega-Gnar. All said and done, this was certainly not the showing I expected from a top team in the league.

I am speechless with RED Canids this game. There’s no denying that Flamengo played incredibly well, but RED Canids also looked bad. Jojo was constantly caught out of position, making bot lane difficult to play for TitaN, Avenger looked completely out-of-sorts on Lissandra, somehow losing that counter match-up against Tutsz’s LeBlanc. Aegis, on Viego, needed too much time to scale, losing control of the tempo early on. Guigo was the one silver lining, but even then… Guigo wasn’t able to carry, only survive. A distinctly uncharacteristic performance from the reigning champions, and a very troubling one for fans.

A 0–2 week against FURIA and Flamengo was not at all what I expected from what was one of the best teams in CBLOL coming into the week. Even worse is how they’re losing games, it’s not even close. RED Canids early game has been beyond weak, and it really doesn’t look like they’re limit-testing. Thankfully, they’re all but guaranteed playoffs at this point, but they do need to win at least 1 more game to secure a top 4 finish. I doubt that they’re going to show all their cards in the last week, so RED fans might just want to close their eyes for the upcoming last week.

4. LOUD (W8: 0–2) KaBuM! + paiN

A strong showing last week for LOUD sees them growing a lead to secure 4th place and an upper bracket playoff berth. There’s no rest for the wicked (or popular) though, as LOUD need to continue their strong run against KaBuM! who’s been looking indomitable, and a paiN Gaming squad seeking not only revenge for their previous loss against former teammates, but also seeking redemption and a play-off berth. LOUD isn’t without options though, as MVP leader tinowns continues to perform, alongside Ceos/DudsTheBoy being a consistent late game threat, and Robo’s eclectic champion picks. LOUD might not currently be in the top 3, but they’re so, so close.

Robo with yet another non-meta top-laner, this time going with the surprise Shyvana. Just for that pick alone, I would have loved to see LOUD take the game, and it was even paired with tinowns on the signature CBLOL Zoe. If we just watched the first 30 minutes of the game, LOUD looked like they were going to be able to take the game. Robo struggled in lane, but his Shyvana was showing it’s strength in the mid-game with how tanky it was, while still pumping out poke. tinowns was likewise getting beautiful picks that disallowed KaBuM! from contesting objectives. And yet, the final result was a LOUD loss, as KaBuM! found some good flanks into the back-line, forcing out tinowns and DudsTheBoy early on. Without their damage, LOUD found themselves outgunned, run down, and eventually defeated.

Send in the clowns! LOUD truly is a content team as Robo continues whipping out non-meta picks (which I love), and LOUD continue to fully lean into the fiesta, throwing away the early leads which so painstakingly earned. Tay and tinowns were the best performers for LOUD this game, with tinowns setting up resets on Syndra for Tay to capitalize on as Viego, and for the first half of the game, it looked like it would be enough. However, this wouldn’t be CBLOL if things went according to plan. Robo, Ceos and DudsTheBoy seemed engaged in a race to see who could throw harder, as they constantly mispositioned, either getting caught out, or leaving tinowns, DudsTheBoy and Tay to get picked off by paiN flankers.

Even after going 0–2, LOUD are still sitting pretty at 4th, and have set us up for an epic tie-breaker against Netshoes Miners for sole 4th place. Since LOUD is a content team, the script currently has them winning for the massive come-back, but analysts proposes, CBLOL disposes, and we’ll only find out how things go next week.

4. Netshoes Miners (W8: 2–0) Liberty + KaBuM!

Netshoes Miners might be hanging on the edge of a precipice at 5th/6th place here, but they haven’t fallen yet! More good news for the Miners, they don’t have to be the best team in CBLOL to make play-offs, they just have to be better than 6th/7th place. This means that their fight is in their own hands as they face off against tied 5th/6th place Liberty, and the loser here is the one at risk of falling out to paiN Gaming. That said, the win might not be the easiest to get, as Liberty is a very solid team. Croc will have to continue stepping up to introduce volatility into the match-up, allowing DoRun or Anyyy to get their damage of, and Celo to play clean up.

Almost as if Netshoes Miners read my mind, Croc continued his amazing performance, causing chaos to Liberty’s early game. Even better, both DoRun and Anyyy had pop off games, with DoRun soaking up a ton of attention early, and having beautiful Equalizers which set up Netshoes Miners to dominate subsequent fights. Anyyy wasn’t a split-push monster on Tryndamere, but instead became a huge team-fight menace, constantly threatening Matsukaze and Krastyel from all sorts of tricky angles. A big win to get Netshoes Miners in 5th place, and push Liberty further down to create a playoff buffer.

Beating Liberty made a statement that Netshoes Miners weren’t going to go down easy, but beating KaBuM! made a proclamation that the Miners are dead set on making playoffs. This time, it wasn’t the Croc show, as Croc found himself punished for early mistakes and blown up as the main initiator on Xin Zhao. Rather, it was DoRun and Anyyy who stole the show. DoRun was not only unstoppable in the split-push as Tryndamere, but was a consistent dive threat onto Disave, often forcing him out early, only to turn back onto the front-line of KaBuM! to clean up. Anyyy was the other big threat, using the gravity field and chaos storm to great effect, punishing the engage of KaBuM!. Even with all of this, Netshoes Miners barely squeeze out a win in an incredibly bloody game.

Coming into this week, I was terrified for Netshoes Miners as they had one of the toughest last 2 weeks, but wins against Liberty and KaBuM! have gone a long way towards easing my concerns. DoRun and Anyyy especially, have been stepping up and if they can maintain this, I could see Netshoes Miners potentially contesting for 4th place and playing spoiler to the top 3 teams. My read on this team will be put to the test next week against current 4th place LOUD and FURIA. What a way to end the regular season.

6. Liberty (W8: 1–1) Netshoes Miners + FURIA

A 4 game loss streak is currently plaguing Liberty, and with their current schedule, that might continue to extend through Week 8, as both Netshoes Miners and FURIA are looking pretty strong. The Liberty squad seems to have lost their way. Initially, they were a strong early game team, with a very clear mid-game plan. But as the season has worn on, Liberty has maintained their strong early game, but are completely passive in the mid-game, waiting for opponent’s to make mistakes. The problem is, the rest of CBLOL has upped their mid-game play, leaving Liberty in the dust and struggling. Against both Netshoes Miners and FURIA, this sort of passivity is unlikely to work, and Liberty NEED to regain their mid-game clarity or risk getting knocked out of playoffs.

What on earth is going on with Liberty?! They definitely did not regain mid-game form, as Matsukaze and Krastyel managed to get some early leads, but the rest of Liberty looked like they were sleep-walking through this game. Wos and Kiari were constantly getting picked, leading to Liberty’s squishies being exposed to the full wrath of Netshoes Miners. One of the poorer showings from what used to be a top contender.

Perhaps it took a loss to Netshoes Miners and the pressure of actually getting knocked out of playoffs, but Liberty finally ended their 5 game loss streak, against the top team of CBLOL, no less. Now granted FURIA decided to play like they were target dummies in training mode, but props to Liberty for being willing to takes risks and completely switch up their play-style. Liberty has been losing by sitting back and waiting for their opponents to make mistakes. So against FURIA, Liberty completely flipped the switch, banking on never-ending attempts to try and force winning plays. It didn’t always work out, and it wasn’t pretty, but with Krastyel on Zilean, they had a big margin for error. Matsukaze continued to MVP worthy performance (even though Wos ended up winning it), not dying a single time, not even requiring the Chronoshift from Krastyel most of the time. Disamis was the beneficiary of most of the revives, and it enabled him to play aggressively and find kills. It still took Liberty almost 40 minutes, but it was 40 minutes filled with action and fun(?).

Liberty has got to be sweating bullets right now as paiN have caught up to them, and are currently winning in terms of game time (which would be used as a tie-breaker). The desperation is definitely showing as they’re making huge changes to their play-style, but you can see how unpolished it currently looks. Going into the final week, Liberty have an easier strength of schedule with Flamengo and INTZ on the docket, but if Week 8 has taught us anything, it’s that literally anything can happen, and if all the CBLOL English casters are favouring you… your team might just be screwed.

6. paiN Gaming (W8: 2–0) INTZ + LOUD

This is the big week for paiN Gaming, as they might be able to secure a play-off spot, with Netshoes Miners and Liberty locked into a duel to the death. That’s not to say that it’s a shoe-in for paiN though, since they’ll still need to win their matches, and while paiN has beaten some really good teams in the last few weeks… LOUD is always a different beast, and INTZ has literally nothing left to lose. With carry potential from every and any lane, watching paiN is always entertaining… if somewhat worrying.

In the fastest game of the day, paiN flexed their muscles and pulled off an absolute clinic of how to win lane and win game. Wizer got his signature Jayce, but got counter-picked by the 1st Yorick pick of the season for CBLOL… didn’t even matter. The Korean top-laner crushed his lane and became an unmatchable presence in the 1v1. CarioK galloped all across the rift, killing any champions he came across with an impressive 81.25% kill participation. dyNquedo might not have had the most impressive KDA (3/1/5), but he had a massive CS lead (+70) by the end of the game, and served as beautiful follow-up to CarioK’s Onslaught of Shadows. All this at the low, low price of sacrificing Trigo and Damage. The best part was, even from behind, Trigo and Damage still managed to have significant impact, baiting mis-positions from INTZ, and not even dying in the process. It was against a struggling INTZ, but it was also the cleanest win of the day.

Playing against their former teammates Robo and tinowns, paiN Gaming was anything but clean. CarioK and dyNquedo looked like they were playing the early game with monitors off. CarioK walked into multiple fights with a numbers disadvantage, ignoring critical information that wards were giving him. dyNquedo wasn’t quite as egregious, but his Ahri struggled immensely in lane, and with CarioK out of the early game, Tay’s pressure cause dyNquedo to not play the game for the first 20 minutes. Trigo and Damage were having none of it though, and CBLOL Zeri struck again, with Trigo going a dominating 8/1/9, while Wizer just continued to do Wizer things. Perhaps inspired by their teammates, CarioK managed to pull off a Baron steal (counter-steal?) on the 1st Baron of the game, while dyNquedo came back in the latter half to find some nice picks. More than a little messy, but a win’s a win.

2–0 keeps the paiN train running on track here, but unfortunately for paiN, Liberty manages to survive with a critical win over FURIA, and Netshoes Miners maintain their lead with a likewise 2–0 week. Yet hope burns strong with paiN fans as paiN continue to look (mostly) good in their wins, and while Rensga look scary, RED have looked more vulnerable than ever before. Normally I’d say paiN just need to maintain their current form, but given that I don’t think we’ve seen paiN’s ceiling yet, paiN needs to step up even more.

8. Rensga Esports (W8: 2–0) Flamengo + INTZ

Similar to Flamengo, Rensga are mathematically alive, but require a perfect end of season, along with more than a little luck to make the run into play-offs. Further complicating matters is that Trap is still suspended for one more game, and it’s the critical game against Flamengo which will decide who’s hopes are still alive. The good news is that Rensga has been popping off in recent weeks, and Week 8 is probably their easiest week on paper, so… not only possible, but one might even say probable?

On paper, this looks like a scrappy, lower level game, but this is CBLOL, and the bottom of the table can be remarkably good at times, much less Flamengo and Rensga teams that have been steadily getting better through the season. For Rensga, this one was closer than usual as Trap still wasn’t quite back yet, but Edger crushed Boal in lane, which helped extend the game to the eventual 45 minutes it took. The MVP continued to be NinjaKiwi who put on a clinic, showing that Jinx might still be a better pick than Zeri, perfectly spacing in fights to pump out maximal damage. Despite the better scaling of Flamengo Esports, Rensga demonstrated that sometimes, it just comes down to the better skills, keeping themselves alive, while knocking Flamengo out of the playoff race.

To be honest, Rensga did not deserve this win. It’s the first time we’re seeing NinjaKiwi slip up, and while Goku didn’t die very much, they also struggled to be anything more than a janitor for most of the game. Rensga struggled to come together to fight as 5, and this against INTZ, possibly the worst team-fighting team in CBLOL currently. Thankfully for them, Trap was finally back, and even better, was completely unbanned in draft, allowing him back on his signature Yone. After almost 30 minutes of losing, Trap pulled off a beautiful flank to salvage what was looking like another doomed fight for INTZ to find 4 kills, and lead Rensga to a big reversal and a much-needed win.

The full power of this revamped Rensga roster truly is a sight to behold. Goku, Minerva and NinjaKiwi have been doing well, but it’s Trap who really makes this squad pop. With their 2–0 week, most notably the win over Flamengo, Rensga are somehow still in the running for playoffs, and if they can keep their win streak going against paiN next week… miracles truly might exist.

9. Flamengo Esports (W8: 1–1) Rensga + RED

Flamengo has looked revitalized with Sting, but it might have come a little too late as Flamengo are on the edge of getting knocked out, and nowhere is this more evident than their 1st match this weekend against Rensga, where the loser will be eliminated from making the playoffs. To pile on more pressure, Flamengo not only have to win against Rensga, they need to win every single game, and RED is a different beast altogether… While Sting has been keeping them in the early game, Tutsz and Flare have been the big carries for this team, and they’ll need to continue doing just that.

Press F to pay respects to Flamengo Esports. When I look back at the beginning of the season, it’s amazing what this squad of Academy players have managed to achieve, and how far they’ve come in this season. Sadly, this is the end of the road for them, as Rensga managed to just barely eke out the win in a 45 minute battle to the death. Boal struggled in lane, but was on track to come back into relevance. Sting managed to get some really good mid-game plays to recover from Flamengo’s rough early game. Tutsz and Flare positioned well to get some really good damage off. But for as many things went right, Flamengo were unable to find the critical Jinx from Rensga, and NinjaKiwi just proved to be too much on the day. Under the unstopping barrage of rockets, Flamengo found themselves and their playoff dreams blown up.

Huge win from Flamengo and they do it in style… but just a little too late as they’re already out of the running for playoffs. It was one of their better performances this season, with every single lane going on an absolute rampage, winning their lanes and converting that flawlessly to strong objective control and pushes. While everyone stepped up and head an incredible performance, Flare and Kuri stood out to me, with Flare positioning fearlessly to unleash maximal damage, and Kuri getting pick after pick, while simultaneously ensuring that no one could get close to Flare. Truly a commanding performance.

A huge round of applause to an Academy roster who has come in and made a mark on the CBLOL scene. While they’ve been knocked out of the running for playoffs, Flamengo’s remaining games still matter, particularly their 2nd last match against Liberty, which could conceivably contribute to Liberty not making playoffs as well. For Flamengo, the last 2 matches are a good place to experiment and try things out in preparation for next split as well.

10. INTZ (W8: 0–2) paiN + Rensga

With nothing left to lose, INTZ have swapped Kick back in, replacing Muja who had one of the most brutal CBLOL debuts that I’ve seen. Out of the 4 remaining matches for INTZ, 3 of them might decide who makes play-offs, so INTZ is in a prime position to play spoiler and mess up everyone’s plans. Of course, this is predicated on INTZ winning the games, and right now, I’m not quite sure how INTZ go about doing that just yet, but just the possibility keeps things interesting.

After this game against paiN, I still don’t quite have a clue how INTZ are going to play spoiler. Not to say they didn’t try, Tyrin whipped out a fun little Yorick pick as a counter to Wizer’s Jayce (spoiler: it did not end well), while Kick attempted a more supportive Karma pick. The composition was rounded out with Diana for Yampi (to match the farming Hecarim pick of CarioK), and the now ubiquitous Zeri paired with Leona for micaO and Decoy. The composition itself was the most cohesive, but the bigger issue for INTZ was the fact that they lost every single lane. Without a single winning lane to play through, INTZ just found themselves on the losing end of every single fight, soon snowballing into bigger problems as turret dives became possible for paiN. Needless to say, this game was over pretty quickly, and INTZ find themselves back to the drawing board.

Ok… INTZ got robbed this game. It truly felt like a case of INTZ were winning right up till they lost. Kick back on Galio lived up to our every expectation of him, getting micaO ahead even through a Caitlyn/Renata lane. Tyrin had an incredible performance in lane and in the mid-game against the likes of the new wonder import: Trap. Yampi, for once, wasn’t being randomly abandoned after engaging winning fights for INTZ. So where did everything go oh-so-wrong? Honestly, I’m still not sure. All I know is that Trap only needed to win 1 critical team-fight, and suddenly INTZ’s nexus was blown up. A tough loss for INTZ to swallow, but on the bright side… I guess it didn’t matter?

Sadly for INTZ, this was not the week to pull upset wins and throw the playoff race into chaos. There were some bright moments for the team, and I really did like the Yorick pick, so hopefully INTZ don’t just abandon hope. Next week, they still have a chance to mess up RED’s seeding in the top 4, and even better, they have a critical game against Liberty which could potentially affect who makes playoffs. There’s nothing holding INTZ back anymore, and I’d love to see some madness erupt from the bottom of the standings.