Elements this split.

Elements are a team in the EU LCS, a professional european league for league of legends which showcases ten of the best teams in europe against each other in a 10 week season. These teams look for players that perform at an elite level in the game and get together teams with both the players skill and their combined level of teamwork to dismantle teams

Elements are one in ten of these elite teams. Last season, Elements had players that were of high caliber, but unfortunately did they did not achieve the results that they would have hoped for. This split around, Elements lost their star player, Froggen, a dane, and instead piled their hopes around a group of less rated players, and it sort of worked.

What went right:

The players. While Elements were last in finding a team for the EULCS, the players that Maelk, the manager, managed to acquire last minute have really shone through this split. In the top lane, Steve showed his ability on several different champions, notable trundle, gnar and tahm kench. Steve displayed his skill at engaging and directing his opponents in a teamfight, as the rest of his team backed him up with their damage. His early laning had also changed alot since his introduction to the LCS, with him picking up more cs than previous splits. It wouldnt be too farfetch’d to say that this split has been Steve’s breakout season. MrRallez was also a player with Steve on Roccat, and has also been able to escape relegation’s playoffs, a feat their former team was unable to achieve. Being the tallest professional league of legends player ever, MrRallez’s daunting figure translated from real life into game as he constantly proved to be the most lethal point of Elements. Gilius also turned into a massive shock, as he was often able to find picks, a skill that has gotten him to the top of the leaderboard in Europe. With that being said, Eika seemed rather shaky in his first split, and it showed, as Elements went into games lacking a mid presence, often losing their towers early, which allowed their map to be opened up for the enemy team.

Element’s manager Maelk, also known as Jacob Toft Anderson.

Improvements for next split:

While it is totally unclear how Maelk is going to change the team, the cunning castrated coach will certainly pull some unexpected moves. I myself would personally like to see Elements stick together as a roster and focus on their champion pools as well as their teamfighting. Sprattel has looked very good on Alistar, the cow, Morgana and Thresh, but has struggled to make himself relevant on other characters, often disappearing from the team after the first few minion waves besides the odd death here and there. Eika also seemed to have a relatively small champion selection, with viktor being his main pick and still having a lot of rocky moments on the machine man. He did show play some surprise picks, such as morgana and karma, but they lose their element of surprise after the fourth game. Elements also displayed some major mispositions in their fights, as Steve, Gilius and MrRallez never really looked to be on the same page in the mid, with multiple examples of one person going in, but another damage dealer lagging behind. The teamfight against splyce was a perfect example of this, having gotten baron but then getting wiped a few minutes after. Elements imo should look to try out different styles of shotcalling, which is something I imagine Maelk would experiment with the team on.

Elements Lineup from right to left; Steve(top laner), Gilius(jungler), Eika(mid laner), MrRallez(carry), Sprattel(support).

Conclusion:

Going into the second split, Elements look to themselves as heavy underdogs. Although they have managed to secure 7th place and avoid relegations, each split is relentless and any team could find themselves facing the drop. However, I believe that Elements have a good chance to reach a top 4 finish if they can fix their major problems.