Match report: East Norfolk Knights and Sage XD face off in tense LoL 2020 Winter British Esports Championships opening broadcast

Match report: East Norfolk Knights and Sage XD face off in tense LoL 2020 Winter British Esports Championships opening broadcast

Dominic Sacco
8 min read | 20 Oct 2020

On October 14th, the British Esports Championships week two broadcast kicked off with a nail-biting League of Legends match between the East Norfolk Knights from East Norfolk Sixth Form College and Sage XD from Alsager School.

Jack Freeman recaps the action in that match, as well as other goings on in school and college League of Legends esports.

Starting with the broadcast talent, our host The Governor joined with casters Counterfeit and Jordan Suttie and analyst MilkyCereal, who gave his insight after the game.

The draft looked good for Sage XD as they quickly banned Katarina against East Norfolk Knights’ midlaner Nickolas, arguably their signature pick. 

Throughout the draft, Sage XD paid respect to Nickolas as they continued to ban mid lane champions alongside a bonus Leona. East Norfolk Knights returned the favour as they focused their bans on the top lane and jungle positions, which turned out to be crucial to their success. 

At the end of it all, the East Norfolk Knights focused on the strength of their solo lanes to carry them. Meanwhile, Sage XD went for a more traditional front-to-back team composition, with the semi-global pressure of Sion and Twisted Fate ultimates.

Early into the game, Supporting Otter played well to weaken Yubi Yubi. Being in full control of the lane filled Supporting Otter with the confidence to go for an early kill. This however backfired, as they died whilst tower diving and gave Sage XD first blood. 

Losing flash in the process, Yubi Yubi called for their jungler to help secure them another kill, as oof1289 joined in on all the fun.

This drew the attention of isteelbrothers as they tried to help in the top lane. In an attempt to counter gank, the duo from East Norfolk Knights managed to get a kill back, but lost their lives while doing so, as tąm used the Twisted Fate ultimate to arrive in the middle of the fight.

At the 10-minute mark, all of the kills were taken in the top lane as Sage XD had the advantage of 5 kills to 1 – and a 2.3k gold lead to go with it. This was also shared out between the top, jungle and mid lane which greatly benefitted Sage XD. 

Each member was able to use this lead to exert pressure against East Norfolk Knights and further push to extend their lead. Meanwhile, the bot lane remained mostly quiet as neither side was able to kill the other.

The game started to turn around for East Norfolk Knights, as Sage XD attempted to execute a tower dive in the top lane. Bringing the support Derren along for the ride, Sage XD took four members to the top lane to take down the Fiora. 

What they didn’t know was that isteelbrothers was nearby,  making haste to try and save Supporting Otter. In the process they fell but took down three members of Sage XD with them, giving them the all-important kills and gold to get back into the game. 

On top of this, Nickolas, who had been struggling to gain pressure in the mid lane, roamed top to take down Yubi Yubi and secure the extra gold from the shutdown.

It looked like East Norfolk Knights were about to make a comeback, but Sage XD tried to prevent this. After getting a pick onto Nickolas, they were able to take the first dragon as well as command of the game. With almost a 4k gold lead, it looked as though nothing could stop Sage XD from taking the game.

It all changed, however, when East Norfolk Knights won some important skirmishes in the mid game, the first of which was when isteelbrothers picked out tąm as the target. Tąm quickly ran toward oof1289 for assistance and almost took down isteelbrothers in retaliation, but the rest of the East Norfolk Knights came to the rescue in shining armour, to take three kills without losing a single member.

This helped to even up the scoreboard, but East Norfolk Knights weren’t out of the park just yet. The pivotal fight came at 20 minutes when Yubi Yubi caught out Nickolas. Capitalising on this, tąm used their ultimate to quickly teleport to Yubi Yubi to secure the kill. However, Nickolas was too fast and managed to escape from them. 

Meanwhile this left the rest of Sage XD outnumbered and without the damage needed. East Norfolk Knights won the fight with vxgamerlord gaining a triple kill and Nickolas killing Yubi Yubi at the end of it all. This gave East Norfolk Knights the lead they needed to finally take control of the game.

And take control they did, as one member of Sage XD fell after the other in a bloodbath of a game. The final nail in the coffin came when once again isteelbrothers targeted tąm while they were away from the rest of the team. They soon fell as Sage XD were left with only four members and a dragon to contest. 

They took the dragon but ended up trapped in the pit as East Norfolk Knights cleaned house and proceeded to the baron. A rollercoaster of a match!

With the baron buff on their side and Sage XD split up from each other, the game swiftly came to an end. East Norfolk Knights won from behind and earned their second victory of the season, making them undefeated so far.

Analyst MilkyCereal had this to say about Sage XD’s downfall: “I think the mistake from Sage was where they focused their attacks.”

Result: East Norfolk Knights 1-0 Sage XD

MVP: vxgamerlord (Xayah) of the East Norfolk Knights

 

Elsewhere in the Championships

In the other on-stream broadcast match, WCAllStars (West College Scotland) fought off against the NC DODOS (Northampton College), with the casters choosing LiveWire (Volibear) as MVP for the winning side, the DODOS.

Five other teams join East Norfolk Knights with a 2-0 record. Two of which being AGSB Esports LoL and the Ospreys that are in the same group as the East Norfolk Knights. Keep an eye on Group 1 to see who comes out on top after week 3.

On the other side, another five teams join Sage XD at the bottom with a 0-2 record so far. But it’s still early in the season so watch out for any upsets that they may cause.

Lastly, JLC Steel, Studio_Spitfires and eXeColl LoL are yet to show us what they can do. Pay attention to Group 3 as these teams battle it out to prove themselves.

See the full League of Legends British Esports Championships fixtures, group standings and overall leaderboards here

This week will see Overwatch matches take place on the British Esports Twitch stream. Tune in at 4pm BST on Wednesday October 21st and read our preview here.Player rosters: East Norfolk Knights (left) and Sage XD (right):Match highlights by TooneXx:1-minute TikTok recap by LordFlab: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