Aston Aunties beat Cambridge Memers 3-1 to lift GAME National Championship trophy

Aston Aunties have won the GAME National Championship UK university League of Legends eSports tournament.
They beat Cambridge Memers 3-1 yesterday to lift the trophy (and win a trip to the EU LCS in Berlin) at the NUEL Live finals event in Leicester’s ESL Studio One. The match was broadcast live on NUEL’s Twitch stream and hosted by several UK casters and analysts including Tridd, Excoundrel, Derry, Dowsey, ScaredCr0w, Brixton Hamilton and FrozenDawn (from ManaLight).
Here’s our full breakdown of the final, with a report on each game written by Cameron Peberdy.

Pre-match build-up banter

Before the final got underway, NUEL showcased video content about the journey the two teams had taken to get to this stage of the tournament. Showcased first was Aston Aunties and their ADC MSR’s in-game mastery spam.
Caster Lewis Apps then introduced both teams and interviewed each captain.
MSR, Aston’s captain, described his journey to the Live finals, how it was picking a team and what it felt to take a loss in the NUEL regular season. Cambridge Memers’ captain Carniflexin described the meta and how it favoured them at the start of the season.
The banter then began to flow. MSR said of Cambridge’s ADC Chessbridge: “I heard Chessbridge has a 2.5k elo at chess – it’s a shame he’s not that good at League.”
Carniflexin hit back: “We had to google Aston University because we hadn’t heard of it before.”

“We had to google Aston University because we hadn’t heard of it before.” https://t.co/baaOfeRtqc #NUELLive pic.twitter.com/AA4mngi0ne

— The NUEL (@theNUEL) 12 March 2016

The teams

Aston Aunties (AA)

• MattyTriceps – top
• J3T – jungle
• Wood League – mid
• MSR – ADC
• Andy – support

Cambridge Memers (CM)

• Luslehk – top
• lemmewinplz – jungle
• Carniflexin – mid
• Chessbridge – ADC
• Maznaryk – support

Game one

The atmosphere for game one was high following the banterrific interviews with both captains.
CM’s jungler went to base after taking the first camp as he forgot to buy items – maybe nerves were getting to him.
AA had an aggressive start, taking an early dragon, however first blood went to CM’s top-laner with a coordinated gank.
After several teamfights, AA secured a sneaky 24-minute baron under CM’s nose. After securing their third dragon, AA looked to push mid and carnage ensued as MSR got caught out. AA picked up four kills while CM grabbed two.
CM went for a baron of their own, but this was halted by AA who went all in and MSR cleaned up to secure game one for the Aston Aunties.

Game two

An aggressive jungle invade from J3T turned out to be really risky, with J3T having to flash to safety, but eventually giving first blood to AA’s mid laner.
There was a lot of pressure all over the map from AA, who pushed a gold advantage over CM.
However, an explosive baron fight saw CM secure the baron as well as three kills. At this point the turnaround for CM looked like a reality, with a 7k gold lead for AA becoming just a 1k gold lead.
After another fantastic fight, CM did indeed turn the game around – picking up their second baron of the game. They attacked AA’s base, secured an ace and took the final to at least a four-game series.

Game three

Following CM’s game two victory, AA look like they had some internal strife – could they put it to bed in game three?
CM got first blood on an overextended Lulu top lane, thanks to a fantastic hook from CM Luslehk.
Later in the game, after a fantastic bot lane fight by AA, the Aunties picked up three kills and MSR spammed his mastery and dance emotes.
An explosive top inhibitor push by AA was followed by MSR picking up a ton of kills, carrying the team fight for AA who win game three.

Game four

Four minutes into this game, the crowd roared and clapped to show their support for both teams.
However, this would be a slower game with less action. AA allowed CM to make mistakes and took their chance to punish them.
While CM ended a fantastic team fight at 13 minutes in, picking up three kills, AA soon secured two kills in CM’s own jungle.
AA looked a little shaky as CM picked up a large advantage, but MSR swung the momentum in AA’s favour picking up a triple kill 17 minutes in.
MSR then did what MSR does best – he picked up multiple kills on Vayne, extending the advantage for AA.
Some brilliant team play from AA saw them pick up three kills on a tower dive against CM’s bot side, followed by an ace, the game – and the match.

Post-match

AA’s ADC MSR said his highlight of the match was when he “wrecked them with Vayne”!
CM’s Carniflexin said that Cambridge tried to “stall out” each game into the late-game period, opting for strong wave-clear.
“Unfortunately some people got caught out of position,” he said. “But it’s been great here, I love the setup.
More quotes and post-match coverage to follow in a separate article this week.