Let’s face it, we all knew Team Impulse was going to be bad this year—mostly because of their entirely new roster. But we didn’t expect them to get absolutely destroyed by Immortals, in what was the fastest game in the history of the North American League Championship Series (LCS).
It was a beating. In 18 minutes and 16 seconds Immortals pounded Team Impulse, not giving up a single tower, kill, or objective. It’s rare that perfect games happen in League of Legends, and even rarer in competitive play.
Thanks to incredibly clean team coordination and mechanical skill, Immortals comes out of the first NA LCS weekend as one of only two teams to have a perfect record (alongside NRG Esports).
Star Immortals top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon played carry top lane champion Fiora in the match—but the true highlight plays came from mid laner Eugene “Pobelter” Park’s Lulu, who scored seven kills in the game. Overall, the entire Immortals roster showed off their muscles today.
At the end of the 2015 League season Impulse failed to sell its LCS spot, forcing the organization to scramble to build a new roster. That led the team to pick up several weak free agents. But today the team was missing several of its starting players due to visa issues.
After the game professional players, analysts, and coaches took to Twitter to joke about Team Impulse’s poor performance.
Former NRG Esports and Cloud9 analyst Charlie Lipsie weighed in on the game.
Meanwhile Giants Gaming support Oskar “GoDFRED” Lundström made a joke about Riot Games’ new dynamic queue matching an uncoordinated team (Impulse) against Immortals.
Splyce coach Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi took a shot at Team Impulse’s Nidalee pick.
Even AD carry Jason “WildTurtle” Tran was confident after the Immortals win.
Unfortunately for Team Impulse, they didn’t have their full lineup for the match today. Starting jungler Kim “Procxin” Se-Young and mid laner Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik are currently experiencing visa issues, according to support Austin “Gate” Yu, who played mid lane today. Filling in the support role was substitute Kenneth “Ken” Tang, while substitute Meng “beibei” Zhang played in the jungle. It’s uncertain when Kim Se-Young and Choi Jun-sik will be cleared to come to North America.
For now, Impulse shows why so many people rate them as the bottom team out of the entire LCS. If performances like this continue, we could see them relegated by a stronger Challenger squad at end of this split.
Photo via Riot Games/Flickr
Check out our interview with Immortals CEO Noah Whinston.
