League of Legends 2014 All-Star wrap-up, day one

The biggest League of Legends tournament before Worlds kicked off today in Paris, France, and lots of Asian teams are on the scene. Unfortunately, the time difference makes it a little inconvenient to watch some of these games, especially the later ones, in Asia. So in case you missed any of the action, here’s a round-up of all the action from the first day!

Unfortunately, we’ve got to start the round-up with some sad news. Chinese all-star rep Caomei from Team WE, played in today’s challenge but will be replaced by OMG’s Cool in subsequent challenges. Caomei has had to return to China because his father has passed away.

U.R.F. Challenge (Team Ice vs. Team Fire)

The first all-star challenge of the tournament might as well have been called the Bjergsen show. Team Solo Mid’s mid-laner got rolling early on Ezreal in the chaotic mode and simply didn’t stop. By the 7th minute, he was powerful enough to secure an impressive double-kill outplay on Archie and Caomei in the mid lane. By the 9th minute, he had 11 kills, and he had broken 20 by the time the game ended, well before the 20 minute mark.

Bjergsen aside, his Team Fire teammate WeiXiao also had an impressive game (he was the only other player to finish with double-digit kills). And while it’s tough to draw any real conclusions from such an insane game mode, it’s worth noting that Team Fire did seem to be displaying significantly better cohesion and teamwork. Ultra-rapid-fire mode probably requires less teamwork than any of the other game modes these teams will play during the tournament, so this result could be a bad omen for Team Ice. But, of course, Team Ice’s team composition will also change slightly for future matches as Caomei will be replaced by OMG’s Cool.

GiA MVP: Bjergsen. Picking anyone else would be a joke.

OMG vs. Fnatic

Apparently OMG didn’t get the memo about the Chinese focus on building up the ADC being outdated, because OMG’s ADC San spent most of this match beating Fnatic about the head and face. The Chinese team started a little slow, and an-ill advised early tower dive led Fnatic jungler Cyanide getting an early double kill. But Pomelo was able to slow down the early Fnatic snowballing by stealing both of their buffs and securing the first dragon.

As the game went on, though OMG effectively denied Fnatic’s mid xPeke the blue buff, and the OMG bot lane of Allen and San were on fire, with Allen landing crucial hooks to initiate virtually every kill, and San finishing people off with the super mega death rocket. In the end, OMG put on what looked like a dominant performance, but it was not without its flaws. The miscalculated early dive, and the first baron—which Cyanide was able to steal from OMG—will have given other teams confidence that OMG is not as infallible as their late game made them look.

GiA MVP: OMG.Allen. You could make an argument for San, or even GoGoing, but OMG’s victory was ultimately secured by Allen, whose crucial hooks led to virtually every kill, including a crucial kill on xPeke that

Taipei Assassins vs. SK Telecom T1 K