Misfits are now tied for first place with G2 Esports in the EU LCS after dismantling Splyce today.
After the win, it’s clear that Misfits are returning to form. Their Spring Split was anything but impressive, and they didn’t even qualify for the playoffs. This was a far cry from the Misfits that made such an incredible first impression on the international stage at 2017 Worlds, where they qualified to the knockout stage and nearly took down SK Telecom T1 using bizarre picks like Fervor of Battle Leona and Blitzcrank.
So far this split, they’re looking like their old selves. Not only are they undefeated so far at the top with G2, but they’re even making a case for themselves as the best team in the league at this current point in time.
Fnatic is struggling to find their identity in a bot lane meta that excludes traditional marksmen, but G2 seems to be adapting to the meta just fine. The reason Misfits might be even better than them, though, is that they aren’t conforming to the meta. G2’s best player, bar none, is mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perković. For that reason, G2 has been sticking to the mid lane gold funneling strategy where Perkz locks in a strong hyper carry pick like Kai’Sa, and then the team spends most of the game dumping all of their resources into him to carry.
If the gold funneling strategy is nerfed in an upcoming patch, or for some reason they can’t grab a good gold funneling comp during pick/bans, it’s hard to imagine G2 would perform as well, simply because that’s the only strategy they’ve looked very great on so far. Misfits, on the other hand, have been playing in their own style. Although the bot lane meta has moved far away from traditional marksmen in the bot lane, Misfits bot laner Steven “Hans Sama” Liv is still picking them, and he’s crushing.
The difference, however, is that he’s picking marksmen that were nowhere to be found during the crit marksmen meta, like Draven and Lucian. The real golden ticket is that although they don’t play as crazy team comps as other rosters, they look like they can play against it just fine. They’ve adapted to the meta without conforming to it, and that’s why they stand out so far this split.
Misfits’ next game is tomorrow against Vodafone Giants at 11am CT [6pm CEST].
