To all of you watching the EU LCS and trying to predict the results of the matches, i salute you. Whether it’s for a Fantasy LCS league, for bets or to compose articles compilating the statistics produced by those duels, rare are the ones who would have predicted the standings after the first 2 weeks (see 0-4GIVEN to see what i’m talking about).
So here’s my analysis of the week, of the near unpredictable european region.
Unicorns Of Love. UOL stands strong with their odd methods, and as of friday actually won with one of their unorthodox pick against Roccat, a Nocturne top coming right out of Ninjaken book. While surprising, this pick was perfect for the matchup presented to them. Woolite, known for his positioning issues, was particularly exploited by this pick. Nocturne’s ultimate,paranoia , blocks the enemy team’s vision and jumps on an enemy in it’s range. On many occasions, that ultimate allowed Vizicsacsi to separate Woolite from his team or simply jump on him with no one around to stop him.
Roccat. Roccat is showing up what they could do if given the time and the practice, but with both lacking and relegation seemingly coming their way, the future seems uncertain for Roccat. Important to note, Jankos had an incredible 34 KDA at the end of the week, even if both of their games were losses, close, but still defeats.
Giants. Oh how the spaniards are defying the predictions of everyone, and may have saved themselves from auto-relegation. It’s far too early to count them entirely out of danger, but, with the way the team is playing recently, i could affirm that they deserve to be in the most competitive league of Europe. They played like a team, used strategies that the lower tier teams can’t seem to applicate, their rookie support is performing and even Adryh, who was the target of most criticism last split is making snipes on Ezreal. Hell, he is even placing second in the entire league in both Kills and Assists. In the meantime, PepiiNeRO is leading the league for the most gold per minute. I have hope for this team, and i predict a lot of good things for them if they can keep this rhythm
Origen. Denmark produces top tier mid laners, while Spain is producing rejuvenated teams? First Giants is impressing with their summer split start, but Origen is rocking the house right now. Gambit and SK Gaming are the bottom of the standings while Fnatic 2.0 is in 1st place, tied with Fnatic recharged. Their rookie ADC Niels is the #1 in Europe for KDA, Kills and second only to Giants PepiiNeRO. With impressive statistics for their debut and a duel against Fnatic only in week 5, sky seems to be the limit to the “veteran-new team”.
SK Gaming. I think that the sport psychologist should try to take some time to look at how his team seems to play, and compare it to last split when they still had FORG1VEN. Right now, it looks like the strong personality of the best ADC of the West by far absorbed everything that the rest of the team had. His style was the style they played, on his shoulders was always the carry mantle. Now, it’s like an empty shell composed of disoriented players trying to work without a voice to guide them. Individual talent is far from lacking; fredy112 was known as one of the best in the european top lane at the start of last split, Fox showed and keep on showing that he has the mechanics to go at least even with the best in his region and Svenskeren showed he can carry a game during the playoffs last spring when put on Lee Sin. I won’t comment much on Nyph, euhm i meant nRated, who still doesn’t impress at the moment. If Fox, Sven or fredy can take the helm of this team, i believe they can compete for the 4th spot in Europe during the season and maybe surprise in the playoffs. Until someone tries to fill the hole that FORG1VEN left, this team won’t impress anymore.
Gambit. The most aggressive bot lane in the LCS may have been talked about too much in the end. Salt and Pepper, as many called them, is still trying to fight a 2v2 since the beginning of the split. Junglers, mid laners, top laners, Gosu_pepper and FORG1VEN saw them all. The fixation of Diamondprox on Volibear has yet to produce result, as he picked the champion in twice of their games already and had relatively disappointing performances. Gambit is looking like a team searching for a style, and whether it’s FORG1VEN’s or another’s style is yet to be seen.
Fnatic. The number one team is still standing on the top of the standings this split, with a 4-0 record. This may seem like a good start for a summer split championship run, but their performances were, how do i put this..messy? The team doesn’t seem to have meshed completely with Rekkles and vice-versa. Triple threat teams have yet to work out in League of Legends history, and it will be interesting to see if Rekkles will take the place of Febiven or Huni in one of the two main carries spots available in a squad. Many analysts saw Rekkles as a direct improvement to Steelback, and on many fronts, that’s true, but they were all acknowledging the fact that Rekkles would play as Steelback did. Will Rekkles manage being the underfarmed carry of a team? Will he accept to lay low and let the Huni chants go wild in the crowd while he is the consistent ADC, not the star? Lots of hope for this team that has the potential to cause an upset on the world stage and beat Koreans in a Best of 5, but there’s still a few issues to be fixed until then.
Elements. Elements are an interesting team. It’s the third time in 2 splits that the team had made important roster changes, and they have yet to produce results. Saying that their play was awful would be exaggeration, but the third iteration of Europe “super-team” as yet to amaze and impress. With the rise of the Giants, the place of Elements in the league is unknown, and their lack of a clear identity is hurting them, a problem common to the teams dwelling the bottom of the league right now. Their support coming from soloq isn’t a total flop however, as Promiseq is performing at an LCS level since the beginning of the split. Elements are not living up to what is left of the hype that fans have for them, and watching Tabzz lose to Adryh is not a sight that one could qualify of satisfying. Lot of hope for the team filled with veteran talent, lot of disappointment for the moment.
Copenhagen Wolves. While top laners like Zorozero are still wandering the depths of soloq, top laners like Youngbuck are still losing lane in the LCS. There was improvement in the end of the last split, and the Wolves looked like they could become a middle of the pack team, which is an impressive feat with players that are the line between LCS level talent and Challenger Scene talent. They rely too much on Freeze to carry the games in a meta where the ADC is more of a supporting role than a 1v9 one. If they don’t adapt to the meta, i don’t believe the Wolves will play a lot better. The suspension of their coach isn’t gonna help them in that sense too, and the wolves may be contenders for the 10th position in the league if Giants can keep up. They have a week where they have chances, facing Gambit and Elements, but a victory from Copenhagen would be an upset unless Airwaks overperforms. Defeats are coming the Wolves week, next week may only be the last week of Autumn before the first storm.
H2K. The best third team in the league, H2K are looking good after a strong second week. Ryu is going back to his roots with some LeBlanc, Fizz and Kassadin, the “second Zed” is looking good after his strong performance in playoffs. The only dark point is that the three wins of H2K were on bottom tier teams, a real challenge is yet to be given to them with the likes of Fnatic and maybe Giants. A good start, but a lot to be confirmed with a real challenge coming their way next week.
