The LEC Spring Split has come to an end and G2 esports are the team to come out victorious. But, that is not the only highlight of this split’s playoffs. Both in the round three matches and finals teams showed some high-level League of Legends with G2 breaking the record for the fastest game in the history of the European Championship.
ROUND THREE
In round three of playoffs, Fnatic faced off against Origen as the losers of the juggernaut game in round two. As predicted in the previous part of this LEC recap series, Origen, despite not being able to pick up a win against G2 during the juggernaut matchup, they took the series against Fnatic 3-1. Their clean and methodical style was indeed superior to the reckless, overconfident gameplay Fnatic exhibited in their match against Splyce.
Unfortunately, this is not the only point of criticism one could make against Fnatic in this series against Origen. On the contrary, Fnatic seemed severely disconnected with bad choices coming up both during the draft phase as well as inside the game. Starting with the draft, Fnatic insisted on prioritizing the Sona-Taric bot lane, a composition that was doomed to fail. Back in the wild mages-in-bot lane meta, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson benched himself with Gabriel “Bwipo“ Rau stepping in after he had serious troubles adapting to the changes. One of West’s best ADCs looked dreadful on picks like Janna, so why go back to this type of composition and especially in a series that was to determine if Fnatic get the much-desired ticket to the finals?
As expected, the Sona-Taric bot lane in game one was a fiasco for the Fnatic squad and so was the questionable choice of Twitch-Annie bot lane in game two. In game three, Fnatic finally opted in for a more traditional bot lane with Vayne and Pyke and dominated Origen. However, in game four despite picking another traditional bot lane duo, Fnatic did not manage to pull through and Origen punched their way to the finals.
The next point of criticism would be Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov ’s performance who one could argue
was Fnatic’s downfall in this series. Hylissang has been constantly criticized for his shortcoming throughout the split but this series showcased some grave mistakes that could be argued cost his team a trip to the finals. Countless time in the series against Origen, Hylissang was caught out of position, checking vision on the one side of the map while the rest of the team was moving on the opposite side. He would be over chasing and diving
while the rest of the team was hesitating – mistakes that make issues with miscommunication and decision making apparent. In many cases, those mistakes cost Fnatic advantages over objective control and numerous teamfights that could have won if only Hylissang wouldn’t have died momentarily after fights began.
Having said that, it is also worth mentioning that despite his shortcomings Hyllisang was the winner of the AMD MVP award.
FINALS
The LEC 2019 Spring Split Playoffs Finals was one of the most dominating, one-sided series in the history of the European Championship. Origen has been praised numerous times for their smart, methodical gameplay and although G2 Esports do have superior individual talent in every role, Origen are the perfect example of a team that is more than the sum of its parts. So, the 0-3 loss against G2 in the juggernaut matchup in round two maybe was the opportunity for Origen to study their opponents, check their own limits and come back strong in the finals.
Unfortunately for Origen, that was not the case. G2 annihilated Origen with a 3-0 sweep and a new record for the fastest game and series in the entire history of the European Championship.
In game three of this series, Origen got completely outclassed in any possible way while G2 made a strong case for themselves as the most dominant squad in the west. This game ended at 18:31 with the major highlight being the Rift Herald knocking down a nexus turret at 16 minutes.
Going into MSI as the LEC representatives, G2 definitely look in excellent shape. It remains to be seen if this squad that dominated Europe can make it into an international setting against some of the world’s finest.
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Featured image via LoL Esports.
