Renegades Banditos beat ManaLight 3-2 at the live Insomnia57 LAN gaming festival in Birmingham.
Here’s our live match report of the weighted best-of-five final (Renegades took the first game automatically after qualifying for the final through the winners bracket).
There was £5,000 up for grabs in the tournament overall, with Banditos taking home £2,500 and ManaLight leaving with £1,000.
You can see the previous matches in the lead-up to the final here.
Rosters
ManaLight
- Ashley “Rifty” Mayes – top
- Luke “Phurion” Brammer (aka Dongs) – jungle
- Emil “Larssen” Larsson – mid
- Ludvig “Smiley” Granquist – ADC
- Mantas “Hadow” Sukevicius – support
Renegades Banditos
- Barney “Alphari” Morris – top
- Matthew “Impaler” Taylor – jungle
- SozPurefect – mid
- Soler “Yuuki60” Florent – ADC
- Aleksi “Hiiva” Kaikkonen – support
Game 2
(game 1 was an automatic win to Renegades who won the winners bracket)
ManaLight: Poppy, Gragas, Twisted Fate, Lucian, Braum
Banditos: Trundle, Kindred, Lulu, Kalista, Thresh
Bans: Graves, Gangplank, Sivir, Azir, Corki, Alistar
At around ten minutes, Banditos took the dragon while ManaLight killed the rift herald to push top and reach the inhibitor tower. Smiley picked up a double-kill mid to put ManaLight 4-2 up. He picked up another double kill moments later as ManaLight secured another three kills. 8-3 to ManaLight, who held a 4.5k gold lead at this point.
At 17 minutes in, ManaLight made a misplay with Smiley’s positioning and Renegades grabbed three kills. 11-6 to ManaLight so far.
The game slowed down around the 20-minute mark, with ManaLight trying to split push in the bottom and top lanes. Finally they broke through and took the bot inhibitor at 25 minutes in, plus they took down Yuuki to extend their lead to 12-6.
Impaler was soon taken down top, with ManaLight making their way to the baron… and taking it successfully. However, Renegades struck back with a double-kill, and a couple of brilliant hooks from Hiiva helped them kill Smiley – and take their second dragon of the game. 14-10.
At 32 minutes in, ManaLight split-pushed mid and bot, taking both inhibitors and winning a huge team fight (with some incredible damage from Larssen as Twisted Fate).
ManaLight take game two. It’s one game apiece.
Game 3
ManaLight: Poppy, Gragas, Lulu, Jhin, Braum
Banditos: Trundle, Kindred, Orianna, Lucian, Thresh
Bans: Graves, Gangplank, Sivir, Azir, Corki, Moakai
First blood went to Rifty top, who took down Alphari with Phurion. But moments later, Renegades Banditos picked up a double-kill bot, before Larssen picked up his first kill. 2-2.
Some sloppy play from Alphari in the top-lane saw him get picked off again.
A few ferocious team fights soon kicked off in the bottom lane, with ManaLight winning the trades to go 7-5 up.
Impaler started off brightly, going 5/0/2 as Kindred, but Rifty shut him down at the 14-minute mark and ManaLight went on the take their first mid tower. 11-8 to ManaLight.
But a bad engage from ManaLight sees them get caught out in the top river, with Impaler picking up a double-kill.
A superb Shockwave from SozPurefect as Orianna helped Banditos win a team fight mid, allowing them to take the drake moments later. ManaLight took down Impaler, however, making it 14-12 to ManaLight, with an equal gold amount of 37k each.
A series of skirmishes in the mid-lane ended up with ManaLight leading 16-15.
This game was incredibly even around the mid-game, with both teams holding 50k gold apiece just before the 30-minute mark.
Banditos took the lead a few minutes later after starting baron. ManaLight drew them away, before Rifty made a brave engage, but the positioning didn’t work for ManaLight. Their target – Impaler – escaped, leaving Banditos to pick up a few kills and take a 17-16 lead.
An incredibly messy teamfight mid towards ManaLight’s base at about 36 minutes saw Banditos pick up a few kills; Rifty looked like he was down too but managed to pick up a sneaky kill and escape at the last minute. 20-19 to Banditos.
Renegades won a team fight after 40 minutes to win the second game 26-20. At this point they were one game away from winning the match.
Game 4
ManaLight: Rammus, Lee Sin, Ahri, Lucian, Braum
Banditos: Trundle, Kindred, Lissandra, Sivir, Alistar
Game four was an incredible close match-up. At the 27-minute mark, both sides had generated 47k gold each, with ManaLight taking a 15-13 kill lead.
The game started off in Banditos favour, but after ten minutes or so the game had become a lot more even.
Once again, Smiley both excelled and made a few mistakes – going 9/5/1 as Lucian by the half-hour mark.
A super intense team fight saw ManaLight pick up an ace before taking the baron, putting them ahead by 20 kills to 15.
Rifty then picked up a triple-kill in the top lane as Rammus, putting ManaLight 25-18 ahead.
ManaLight made an aggressive push bot to win the fourth game and take the match to a five-game series. 2-2.
Game 5
ManaLight: Maokai, Lee Sin, Twisted Fate, Lucian, Alistar
Banditos: Gnar, Kindred, Lulu, Kalista, Braum
Banditos started the final game brightly, picking up four kills and establishing a 4k gold lead at the ten-minute mark.
Banditos took the first top tower, and by 18 minutes they had four towers, two dragons, an 8k gold lead and a 6-1 kill lead.
It took three members of ManaLight to take down Alphari bot; meanwhile Banditos took another top tower to bring their total count to 5.
ManaLight fought back, with Smiley picking up a triple kill as Lucian, but ManaLight grabbed a triple kill with Impaler too. After ManaLight picked off Braum mid, the score board was 11-7 to Banditos.
ManaLight ook down Alphari bot, leaving Rifty with a smidgen of health. Meanwhile, Banditos try to take the baron, only for it to be stolen by Phurion as Lee Sin! 13-8.
Another team fight mid saw Banditos make it 14-9, with Impaler using Lamb’s Respite to keep Alphari alive with a teeny bit of health remaining.
At minute 31, Banditos picked off Rifty mid before taking their fourth dragon of the game.
They soon pushed top to take the inhibitor and the nexus. Banditos are the i57 League of Legends champions.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
