Garena Premier League Finals: TPA vs SGS

VOD Links: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5

After the Singapore Sentinels flew through the semifinals with an easy 2-0 victory against the Saigon Jokers, it was time for them to face the reigning world champions, the Taipei Assassins. But both SGS and TPA showed that they still had a few tricks up their sleeve, pulling out brand new champions never seen before at a major LAN event, and both fought hard for their chance to win the $40,000 grand prize.

Taipei Assassins TPA

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Singapore Sentinels SGS

Katarina				Karthus
Orianna				Shen
Blitzcrank				Rengar
Sona				Malphite
Olaf				Jax
Elise				Ezreal
Graves				Leona
Anivia				Annie

Game 1:

Right away, the finals started off with a big surprise for everyone with TPA picking up Elise for Stanley. No one knew what to expect, and in fact both teams were fairly even and stagnant throughout most of the early game. Then at 14 minutes the first team fight happened with SGS looking like it would set itself up for the lead. Unfortunately, SGS overstayed its welcome and Stanley came in from behind with his 1000 range gap closer and cleaned up the fight for the delayed ace. As the game went on, TPA kept advancing the gold lead by gaining map control, taking towers and pushing lanes. This left Chawy on Annie to fall extremely far behind, and caused SGS to not farm enough to be able to outdamage the tanky builds of TPA. Eventually TPA took Baron, and then proceeded to win a 4v5 battle against SGS all while Elise backdoored into SGS’s base. Shortly after, TPA pushed for the first win of the series.

Taipei Assassins TPA

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Singapore Sentinels SGS

Katarina				Karthus
Blitzcrank				Shen
Maokai				Orianna
Rengar				Malphite
Lulu				Sona
Dr. Mundo				Ezreal
Twisted Fate				Kha’Zix
Vayne				Gragas

Game 2:

This time it was SGS’s turn to please the crowd when they set up for a Kha’Zix vs Rengar lane. However, this game did not turn out much better than the previous one. Already very early on, Bebe on Vayne got himself a double kill and double buffs in the 2v1 lane and then immediately netted himself another kill when he switched down to bot lane shortly after. When midgame came around and Toyz reached level 6 on Twisted Fate, he secured two kills of his own with well-executed ultimates. Off of this early snowballing, TPA pushed down the three outer towers and put a lot of pressure all over the map. This caused HarLeLuYar on Sona to roam a bit too much to ward and help team mates at the cost of being severly behind in levels. Finally, SGS managed to win a couple team fights on the back of EquivocaL on Kha’Zix, but despite his efforts SGS remained far behind in gold and towers. Eventually, TPA went for Baron but Stanley was so far ahead at this point that he single-handedly zoned the entire team of SGS away. This let TPA safely grab Baron and then push for the win.

Taipei Assassins TPA

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Singapore Sentinels SGS

Katarina				Karthus
Blitzcrank				Shen
Orianna				Rengar
Olaf				Jax
Tristana				Jarvan IV
Leona				Lulu
Trundle				Karma
Ryze				Urgot

Game 3: 

With SGS’s last chance to take the grand prize from TPA, they pulled out a brand new strategy that TPA was apparently not ready for. SGS set itself up with an early lead after each lane grabbed a kill. Chawy on Karma played exceptionally well, bullying Ryze out of lane and roaming with d4kness on Jarvan to win skirmishes across the map. SGS secured a handful of early dragons with their superior map control and pushed for early turrets. Then a big, extended team fight happened which went heavily in favor of SGS and resulted in a massive gold lead. At this point TPA tried to hold off on SGS’s push by turtling under towers. But with the shields and heals from Chawy, SGS continually dove onto TPA turret after turret. The members of SGS played so well that they didn’t even go for Baron, and simply dove into the enemy base for their frst win of the series.

Taipei Assassins TPA

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Singapore Sentinels SGS

Katarina				Karthus
Blitzcrank				Shen
Jax				Rengar
Orianna				Jarvan IV
Dr. Mundo				Lulu
Nunu				Karma
Corki				Urgot
Irelia				Kha’Zix

Game 4:

After their decisive victory in the previous game, the members of SGS hoped to pull off the same strategy once again. Despite SGS’s early four kills however, TPA bounced back with some very impressive ganks coming from Lillballz on Dr. Mundo. TPA took advantage of a window of opportunity to grab a tower and get dragon, but SGS was waiting for them and came out ahead with many of the kills going onto EquivocaL on Kha’Zix. Unfortunately, SGS kept losing its oracle’s wearer in small fights and slowly lost map control, while Lilballz used the oracle’s he never lost to put pressure in SGS’s jungle. With superior vision of the map, TPA forced team fights around objectives, and after some particularly good play from Toyz on Orianna, TPA handedly won a team fight which put them at a comfortable lead. Eventually TPA took baron and pushed into SGS’s base. After one last ditch effort from SGS to win a team fight, TPA came out ahead and took down the nexus, becoming the Garena Premier League’s first champions.

	Stanley	Every member of TPA played a huge role in their victories, but Stanley in particular pulled more than his fair share of weight. He was especially dominant in game 2 as Rengar, when he outplayed SGS and practically zoned the entire team away from Baron by himself.
	Singapore Sentinels	In every game they lost, the Singapore Sentinels seemed to allow at least one of their members to fall too far behind. Despite their Karma/Urgot strategy giving them an easy victory, their reliance on TPA not fguring it out for the next game lost them the grand prize.