One LEC team has already punched their ticket to the second stage of the 2023 Winter Split

Vitality are the first League of Legends team to lock in their spot in the second stage of the 2023 LEC Winter Split after demolishing G2 Esports in their much-anticipated match today. Clean team play and great individual performances resulted in a convincing execution of Vitality’s game strategy, leading the hive to their fifth win this split. 

The two teams came into the second week of the competition undefeated, but their dominance was brought to an end by SK Gaming, who elevated the stakes of the match between G2 and Vitality by defeating both squads this weekend. But from the start of the game today, it was Vitality who controlled the Rift, imposing their will in-game thanks to Bo’s ganks and, later in the game, Neon and Perkz’s heavy damage during teamfights. G2’s efforts closing the gap between them and Vitality only resulted in a longer-than-anticipated closure of the match, which came just before the 40-minute mark.

After three weeks of a best-of-one single round-robin, only eight teams will make it to the best-of-three double-elimination bracket in the 2023 LEC Winter Split—and Vitality are one of them. Since Astralis and Excel have lost five games each in the first two weeks of the competition, both mathematically can win a maximum of four games in this first stage of the competition. Thus, any team that reaches five wins should qualify for the group stage of the Winter Split.

Four more teams gained four wins over the past two LEC weeks and are now headed into the last days of the first stage of the Winter Split needing only one more victory to seal the deal. But if SK Gaming, MAD Lions, and Team BDS are one game away from securing a spot in the top eight, Astralis and Excel must win all of their next matches to possibly avoid being eliminated. 

The LEC Winter Split action will resume on Saturday, Feb. 4.