Garena Premier League Face Off !

The first Garena Premier League season has ended, and the top 3 teams moved on to the Play-off stages, for a chance to be crowned the champions of the GPL!



Introduction



The Garena Premier League is Southeast Asia’s first fully professional League of Legends League. With the goal of creating the most competitive eSports league in the region, the GPL brings together the best teams from six countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines.



Over the course of the season three teams were emerging as a cut above the rest. The teams that topped the ladder at the end of the season, would compete in the GPL Play-offs to decide who will be crowned as champion of the Garena Premier League.



At the end of the first Season, the 3 teams that emerged on top, were the Taipei Assassins, Singapore Sentinels and Saigon Jokers, who finished in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places respectively. These 3 teams were then invited to the GPL Play-offs, held in Garena Stadium, which is located in Bugis, Singapore.





The Championship Ring



The GPL Championship ring was crafted, to commemorate the great competition between all the teams who have participated in the GPL. The winner of the GPL Play-offs would be awarded with the GPL Championship Ring.

Finals Recap



The Singapore Sentinels qualified for the Finals by easily beating Saigon Jokers 2-0 in the Semi Finals. It was also sweet revenge for the Singapore Sentinels, to beat the team which took the only South East Asian spot in the Season 2 World Championships.





Game One



Overaggression was the word of the day, as the Singapore Sentinels super aggressive playstyle backfired, allowing the Taipei Assassins to make a comeback and take game one with superb teamfighting and coordination. Singapore Sentinels managed to grab the early lead, but due to ‘Lilballz’s jungle prowess, he managed to snowball all his lanes. After a sucessful baron, TPA managed to win a 4v5 in SGS’s base, while ‘Stanley’, on Elise, backdoored into the nexus. Minutes later, TPA emerged victorious!





Game Two



The pace of the game started fast and furious when Vayne got an early double kill at top lane. ‘Toyz’, who was playing Twisted Fate, managed to do his job well, ganking the sidelanes sucessfully with well timed teleports. From there, the match continued to snowball in the favour of Taipei Assassins, with ‘Stanley’ impressing the crowd with his well executed Rengar play.





Game Three



Singapore Sentinels decided to pull out their infamous shield strat, with Karma and Urgot, 2 rarely seen champions, getting play time. Singapore Sentinels managed to completely destroy the laning phase, with ‘Equivocal’ being 3 kills ahead of ‘Stanley’s Olaf, while Urgot was dozens of creeps ahead of ‘Bebe’s Tristana. During teamfights, SGS managed to dive multiple turrets and come out ahead due to their lead and the incredible shields which Karma and Lulu provided. The game ended as TPA surrendered after they lost teamfight after teamfight under their own turrets.





Game Four



Singapore Sentinels picked a similar team composition for Game 4, hoping to bring the series to a 5th game. Singapore Sentinels rushed into a huge early lead, being 4-1 up at an early point of the game. However, as the teamfight phase started, Taipei Asssassins superior teamwork and mechanics shined, winning the important teamfights even though they were behind in gold earlier on. By winning this game, Taipei Assassins added yet another championship trophy to their trophy cabinet.











Final Brackets

What did you think of the first Garena Championships? Let us know in the comments below.



Sources: Picture 1, Picture 2