G2 retain their throne: EU LCS Week 5, Day 1 Recap

Kicking off week five of the EU LCS was the matchup every fan had been waiting for: Unicorns of Love against G2 Esports. Meanwhile, Fnatic looked to continue their success with their new jungler, while Splyce wanted to bounce back from a week four loss.

G2 Esports (7-0) 2-0 Unicorns of Love (5-1)

The first game of the series started off a bit slow until Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir on Kha’Zix managed to catch out Kim “Trick” Gang-yun’s Graves in his own jungle for a first blood solo kill. After this good start, Xerxe went a bit cold, not finding any kills for the next 25 minutes of gameplay. Trick came back from the first blood looking for some action, and was able to get off some successful ganks to get his lanes rolling. We saw Luka “PerkZ” Perkovic on Orianna able to get a solo kill onto Fabian “Exileh” Schubert’s Ryze. G2 made great use of Baron to constantly draw out UoL, putting them over 8,000 gold ahead when they finally took down the Baron at 31:30. After eventually getting a second Baron, G2 was able to quite cleanly close out game one, only allowing five kills over to the side of the Unicorns.

G2 started off the second game well, executing a very nice dive in the bottom lane, resulting in a three for one kill trade, but they ended up sticking around too long, allowing UoL to trade back another kill. The game stalled out for a bit, with UoL keeping up much better than game one, until a fight broke out at 19:30. Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen was overextended in the top lane, and was caught out by Exileh on Ryze. G2 attempted to bring some support, but was caught out by a nice Tahm Kench ultimate from Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov. This resulted in four kills for zero in favor of UoL, as well as a very early Baron rush. The game got very chaotic going back and forth, until Xerxe stole away Baron, which allowed UoL to take both Nexus towers in G2’s base. With an open Nexus, UoL got a bit too impatient, and attempted to use Realm Warp with Teleport to quickly burn down the Nexus, but they were aced as G2’s Nexus survived one hit away from explosion. With the long death timers, G2 was able to run down mid and end the game.

My player of the series here has to be Trick. Despite a sloppy game two from all 10 players, throughout the series, Trick managed to keep the pressure on and keep G2’s undefeated domestic record alive.

Splyce (3-3) 2-1 Fnatic (3-3)

Game one started out with Fnatic’s new jungler, Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen, ganking mid lane to get Rasmus “Caps” Winther’s Ryze first blood. A roam to the top lane from Caps and Broxah just a few minutes later saw Fnatic get another two kills. Splyce attempted to counter Fnatic’s movements, but the pressure from Paul “sOAZ” Boyer on Camille was just too much. By 23 minutes, Fnatic had broke open Splyce’s base and was able to push through for a convincing game one victory.

In game two, we saw Broxah have another good game on Lee Sin, getting a 3/0/1 scoreline by 14 minutes. This time around, Fnatic didn’t have as much of a lead to work with in the mid game, and a flubbed Baron attempt ended up costing them four kills to put Splyce ahead in gold. Splyce attempted an Elder Drake that ended up getting them even more kills and sending the rest of Fnatic retreating as Splyce took down the dragon. By 41 minutes, Splyce was taking down another Baron, which allowed them to push through and tie up the series.

The third game started off the slowest, with no kills being had until Broxah, yet again on Lee Sin, was able to successfully gank bottom lane for first blood. Shortly after, Jonas “Trashy” Andersen was able to respond with a bottom lane gank of his own to tie up the kills. More pressure from Fnatic to the bottom lane allowed them to take down the first tower at 15 minutes, getting them a small gold lead. The mid game began with each team taking turns attempting to siege mid, but neither team was finding much success in doing so. As both teams yet again set up in the mid lane, this time, Splyce was able to find some picks, getting them a delayed ace, as well as that first mid lane tower. Not too long after, Splyce found a pick onto Broxah, which made them attempt Baron, but they were stopped by Fnatic, resulting in a two for two kill trade. By 35 minutes, Splyce was able to rush Baron down, and follow it up by getting an Elder Drake. The combination of buffs allowed Splyce to take the middle inhibitor, as well as the top inhibitor tower, before Splyce backed off to reset things a bit. A second Baron buff was all Splyce needed, as their split push caused Fnatic to fully commit to a fight that they couldn’t quite run away from. This allowed Splyce to run down and clean up Fnatic’s base, taking the 2-1 series victory.

My player of the series here goes to Martin “Wunder” Hansen. His excellent Gangplank play in game two was a key advantage that Splyce needed to tie up the series. Then, in game three, his Rumble Equalizers were very impactful, allowing Splyce to pull ahead and close out the series.

What did you think of today’s matches? Let us know @GAMURScom, and stick around for more League of Legends content.