Clutch Gaming finished day one of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship play-in with a victory over MAMMOTH.
Clutch bounced back after losing the first game of the day against Unicorns of Love. In its second game, Clutch showed a new look that allowed them to take a key victory over MAMMOTH from the OPL.
Clutch Gaming plays slow versus MAMMOTH
Against Unicorns of Love, Clutch played an aggressive style that was easy to punish. In the second game, Clutch had time to adapt to MAMMOTH’s style.
Clutch’s strategy was to gain control of neutral objectives and rake in as much gold as possible rather than attempting risky ganks and forcing unnecessary team fights.
The control over the neutral objectives early turned into map control through the mid game. MAMMOTH grew impatient and tried to force fights to no avail. Clutch was disciplined and didn’t fall for MAMMOTH’s trap.
Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon returned to form after an ugly start to the day. The top laner was on split-pushing duty and he refrained from chasing after enemies. Clutch set the tempo of the game and MAMMOTH had to follow.
Clutch’s only mistake came around the second baron spawn. Nam “Lira” Tae-yoo used Smite early and that gave MAMMOTH’s bottom laner Calvin “k1ng” Truong an opening to steal the baron. That sneaky play gave MAMMOTH priority in the mid lane, but the team wasn’t able to turn it into anything more than that.
Clutch recovered from that mistake by taking the elder baron and pushing the side lanes. MAMMOTH couldn’t stop the siege so they jumped in for a final fight.
Group A ends with the three teams tied with one victory and one defeat. Clutch Gaming, MAMMOTH, and Unicorns of Love will return on Saturday for the second half of the round-robin. Check out Clutch’s full play-in schedule here.
