The favorites in the EU LCS continue to pull ahead

After spending a split in the shadows of Fnatic, G2 Esports are ready to reclaim their rightful place atop the EU LCS.

They look totally at home in a meta that prioritizes strong jungle play and solo lane pressure. G2 punish teams for even the tiniest mistakes.

On Saturday, their victims were H2k, who are at the bottom of the table. G2 would have stomped H2k anyway, but then they got first blood on a coordinated invade of H2k’s red-side jungle.

That’s just a damn shame. Ilyas “Shook” Hartsema was so close to seeing G2, but he was instead surprised when three people flew out of a bush. The moment was made even worse by the fact that G2 picked a composition totally focused on funneling gold to mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perkovic’s Lucian. So it was perfect that Perkz got first blood.

Perkz finished the game with an 8/0/6 scoreline and a hand in nearly all of G2’s kills. There just wasn’t anything that H2k could do about him after that play.

The other team that’s looked so good in this meta is Misfits, but for different reasons. ADC Steven “Hans Sama” Lipp is the best in the region right now, and he’s winning games on his own.

This is why it was shocking to see GIANTS totally disrespect him in the draft phase on Saturday. They picked Tristana for ADC Pierre “Steelback” Medjaldi. Hans Sama is a monster and Steelback, well, isn’t—so how is it even possible that Tristana was an option for them?

Heading into the day, Tristana has only been picked twice this summer—and only one of those picks came from a major region. She’s just terrible in this meta, especially into Hans Sama’s Varus. Then, to add insult to injury, GIANTS also failed on an early-level play that could have turned things around.

Add it all up, and Misfits basically walked all over their opponents. After missing the playoffs last split, Misfits should be hungry to prove they deserve to make it back to Worlds, where they made the quarterfinals last year. And going 4-0 in the first two weeks of the 2018 Summer Split is great progress on that path.