DESPITE THEIR strong start, the Loyola Gaming (LG) Hydra fell to the De La Salle University (DLSU) Asian Baby Boys, 1-2, in the AcadArena National Campus Open – League of Legends (LoL) Metro Conference NCR Winner’s Finals last March 20.
The Blue and White took an early lead in the first game after executing low-risk plays and slowing down the pace. Yobhel “LG Yobhel” Nucum and Josh “LG Znake” Dinio controlled most of the trend with six kills and zero deaths each, putting their champions on the leaderboard as LG Hydra secured game one, 1-0.
With mid-laner LG Yobhel choosing rarely-used Lucian as his champion in game two, LG Hydra’s strategy threw DLSU off, resulting in a strong start for the Blue and White. However, the Blue and White began to struggle after DLSU secured the Baron objective. Despite LG Hydra’s attempt to make a comeback in the second game, individual skill errors furthered the gap, with crucial missed flashes and a mistargeted smite on the Dragon objective as DLSU evened the score, 1-1.
In the do-or-die match, LG Hydra was off to a strong start as the team’s champions won a majority of the encounters. However, LG Yhobel’s side step was caught by DLSU during a crucial team fight in the midlane and threw away LG Hydra’s lead. DLSU eventually won the match, 1-2.
Despite the loss, John “LG Sparklyy” Erguiza considered the match a pivotal learning experience for their young team. “It sucks since we lost, but it was also a wake-up call for us to play better. We’ll be practicing more so [that] we can make sure that we don’t commit the same mistakes in the next games. I’m sure we will do better as long as we play clean and smart,” he said.
LG Hydra will look to redeem themselves in the Loser’s Finals against the winner of the Loser’s round 3 match between DLSU Viridis Arcus and the Mapua Gaming Society Mages. Fans can stream the matches on https://www.twitch.tv/acadarenaph or https://www.facebook.com/AcadArenaPH.
LG Hydra Roster:
Zed Dy – “LG Swapito”
John Erguiza – “LG Sparklyy”
Dean Nucum – “LG Yhobel”
Josh Dinio – “LG Znake”
Joseph Chavez – “LG Cavalry”
Jericho Reynes – “LG Ness”
Matthew Isidro – “LG Smexy”
