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The first series of the gauntlet promised to be more competitive than anyone would have thought at the start of the split.
Legacy had underperformed, only barely making the playoffs, but is the same team who had historically been the second best team in the region.
The Bombers, on the other hand, had historically been battlers of the OPL, as their previous franchise Abyss Esports, but they now were heading into their first playoffs as s new franchise behind a string of games in fantastic form.
The only question left to answer was; were Legacy still a top team? Or would the Bombers kick Legacy out of the new guard of the OPL’s contenders?
| Game 1 | |||
| Blue Side – Bombers | Red Side – Legacy | ||
| Sleeping | Ornn | Jax | Mimic |
| Seb | Sejuani | Trundle | Only |
| Looch | Aatrox | Syndra | Claire |
| Tiger | Varus | Xayah | Raid |
| Rosey | Braum | Rakan | Decoy |
The Bombers made a statement with their first ever playoffs game as a franchise.
Claire started his dominant gauntlet performance by grabbing first blood in the first game. Legacy looked like they were going to have the drop on the Bombers marksman again, but there were five of them in the bot lane in the blink of an eye.
The Bombers won an extended skirmish in impressive fashion.
They continued to press Legacy, trying to find fights and extend their small lead.
Legacy made the mistake of trying to re-engage after the Bombers had failed to initiate a fight on them. Looch turned around and was able to wreak havoc on Legacy’s backline with Aatrox. The Bombers found themselves two more kills.
Looch was able to find himself a couple of kills single-handedly, as Aatrox he had become a monster at 20 minutes and at 3/0/3 the most dangerous player on the rift.
His team started to gather and prepare vision over the baron pit and, after spotting a few members of Legacy in their own jungle, Seb and Sleeping threw out their ults and caught out two of them.
With only three members of Legacy on the map, the Bombers took the Baron uncontested.
Legacy set themselves up around their bot lane inhibitor and prepared to defend, with their opponents pushing their wave into the turret.
Instead of taking the inhibitor after the turret fell, however, the Bombers tried to take on Legacy – and had their engagement read like a book. Legacy were able to turn the tides of the game, with four kills.
Suddenly the game was dead even, but Only was caught out of position and the Bombers pounced on him before heading to the Baron.
Legacy were without their jungler, but still marched into the pixel brush with plans to contest the Baron. Decoy stepped forward into the range of Tiger, and the Bombers turned immediately to fight Legacy five-on-four.
But their numerical advantage did not count for much once Claire and Raid dropped them all below half HP before they could react.
Legacy pushed them back to their jungle and took the Baron for themselves. The teams met each other in the mid lane four versus four, as Mimic had been split pushing top and Sleeping was trying to slow him down.
The Bombers found an initiation that would have worked for them 20 minutes ago, but Claire was massive and evaporated Tiger in seconds, sending the other team scrambling back to their base.
Legacy tried to end the game but their opponents still had four members returned to full strength. The Bombers pushed Legacy out of their base and killed two of them, they then headed to the Elder Dragon, but Rosey and Looch took detours into the mid lane and jungle to push the minion wave and ward the river.
With only three Bombers at the Elder Dragon, Claire deleting Tiger for a second time meant they had no choice but to give up the Elder Dragon to Legacy.
Back at their base, the minions had taken their last inhibitor and the Bombers’ nexus was at half HP.
Looch and Sleeping managed to take down the Legacy players in their base attempting to end yet again, but this time Raid and Mimic were at Baron. With no base left, Legacy did not end up needing much more than Baron Buff and Mimic to end the first game of the series.
| Game 2 | |||
| Blue Side – Bombers | Red Side – Legacy | ||
| Sleeping | Gragas | Gnar | Mimic |
| Seb | Sejuani | Kindred | Only |
| Looch | Aatrox | Cassiopeia | Claire |
| Tiger | Miss Fortune | Swain | Raid |
| Rosey | Alistair | Rakan | Decoy |
Claire started the second game with more of the same, this time ,however, his first blood was a solo kill in lane onto Looch.
If you were watching and you blinked, you might’ve missed Claire do it again, ulting Looch and killing him before he could ult under his tower.
Legacy found one more kill in the top lane before Looch brought his team into the game, shutting down Claire.
Looch looked like he was going to tie up the kills in the mid lane and take Claire down a second time, but Only was able to drop his Lamb’s Respite and save his midlaner. Looch got his revenge shortly after, killing Only in his jungle.
Seb found Claire between his towers and Looch grabbed his third kill of the game at 11 minutes. Suddenly, Looch was online and Claire could have been in trouble.
Claire failed to show Looch enough respect and this time the Aatrox was able to solo kill the Cassiopeia in lane.
The Bombers set themselves up really nicely in skirmishes, but everytime Bullet Time started, Only dropped his ultimate and the fight got turned around in Legacy’s favour.
The Bombers stumbled into a fight that worked for them and were a single kill off getting the Ace on Legacy, but they were too low to take the Baron and had to back out.
Legacy were able to reset and take a similar fight, but this time they were able to overrun the Bombers in their formation, protecting Claire and Only while they melted health bars.
Legacy took the Baron and were able to end the games in minutes, sieging intelligently and picking off members of the Bombers in their own base.
| Game 3 | |||
| Blue Side – Bombers | Red Side – Legacy | ||
| Sleeping | Ornn | Poppy | Mimic |
| Seb | Sejuani | Kindred | Only |
| Looch | Aatrox | Cassiopeia | Claire |
| Tiger | Kai Sa | Swain | Raid |
| Rosey | Alistair | Rakan | Decoy |
Like the first two games, Legacy secured an Earth Drake early. Unlike the other matches, however, Seb drew first blood in the top lane.
The teams took a much more conservative approach to game three; neither side wanted to be the first to concede a lead.
At 15 minutes, there was only one kill despite plenty of fights and objectives being taken.
Looch broke the kill-drought, solo killing Claire in the bot lane and, once the drought was broken, players started falling all over the map.
The extended skirmishes across the map put Legacy ahead, taking five of the seven kills in the mayhem.
The Bombers reset and found Only in the mid lane, they took him out and looked for the rest of Legacy. They thought forcing a fight was their best option as they outnumbered Legacy, but even a man down, Raid and Claire once again on Cassiopeia and Swain did way too much damage if they were not killed immediately.
Legacy sieged the Bombers base through the bottom lane, while Mimic pushed in the mid lane alone. The Bombers cornered Mimic at their mid inhibitor turret and took him down, but meanwhile, the rest of Legacy had broken their base.
Legacy kept pushing until the Bombers had no choice but to try and fight and, much like game two, Legacy played around Only’s ultimate ability so well and half of the Bombers damage was irrelevant.
Raid secured a triple kill in the last fight and Legacy won a series that felt very close, despite the 3-0 sweep.