The LEC is officially here and the excitement is real!
A (big) number of technical difficulties, miscommunications and client failures during the broadcast of the first week of LEC were frustrating but all beginnings are hard. This is also the beginning of a new era for the newly franchised League of Legends European Championship.
Despite those issues, all teams performed at a very high level during both days of week one. However, some teams did shine more than others.
This article will take a look at all LEC teams and their performance during week one, highlighting the surprises and disappointments of the LEC debut.
Rogue (0-2)
Game one – Defeat against Misfits
Game two – Defeat against Excel
In the game against Misfits, Rogue were almost deleted from the map early in the game. While Misfits were running the map taking advantage after advantage, Rogue seemed unable to respond, ending up in a decisive win for Misfits.
In the second game Rogue faced Excel. Rogue did show that they have some fight in them with an excellent early game. However, during a couple mid-game fights, they over-committed to single picks, giving up control of the map and eventually the game. Issues of miscommunication and lack of decision making were very apparent in both Rogue games.
Fnatic (0-2)
Game one – Defeat against SK Gaming
Game two – Defeat against Origen
Fnatic was a big question mark during the off-season due to the loss of Rasmus “Caps” Winther and the addition of the new rookie mid laner, Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek. Unfortunately, the answers to the questions Fnatic gave during the first week of LEC were rather negative. During both games, the team seemed totally lost. The Fnatic aggression was not there and the jungle-mid, as well as jungle-support synergy Fnatic have exhibited in the past, was simply non-existent. Rekkles was, of course, doing Rekkles things but this time around this was not enough to carry his team to victory.
This performance could be perceived as a huge disappointment from Fnatic, however, knowing their reputation as ‘slow starters’ and ‘fast learners’, we should give them the benefit of the doubt and keep an eye on what they will have to show in the coming weeks.
SK Gaming (1-1)
Game one – Win against Fnatic
Game two – Defeat against Misfits
One of the biggest hypes of this split’s beginning was the return of SK Gaming. They haven’t been present in competitive LoL since 2015. During the first game against Fnatic, the teams were forced to remake after players reported latency issues. That first game was hugely in favor of SK and it looked like a certain defeat for Fnatic.
The remake shook things up a little bit since the second game took place on a different server and with a different draft. In the early game, it looked like SK were losing control but the key playmaking moves by Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek truly turned the tables in favor of SK. SK’s jungler was definitely the player to watch and rightfully earns MVP of the game.
Now, the second game of the week was nothing but the exact opposite of what SK had shown in game one. It was by far the most one-sided and dominant game of the week, but unfortunately, SK were the ones that got dominated. They failed to stand against Misfits and got deleted from the map resulting in the fastest game of week one.
Team Vitality (1-1)
Game one – Defeat against Schalke 04
Game two – Win against Splyce
Team Vitality built up the hype in game one with three interesting picks: Kennen in the top lane, Yasuo in the mid lane and Olaf in the jungle. Though this made for an exciting draft, they didn’t live up to the hype it created. All in all the game was full of close fights, and until mid to late game there was no meaningful gold advantage. Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro showed his world-class skill on numerous occasions, but Vitality as a whole showed crucial points of weaknesses with poorly executed fights, indecisiveness, and miscommunication. The most egregious example of these issues was the three times they baited baron that didn’t result in any winning fights or objectives. On the contrary, the third time around Schalke won the fight around baron, aced Team Vitality and ended the game.
In the second game of the week, against Splyce, Team Vitality managed to pick up the win in a more decisive manner. In the early game, Lee “Mowgli” Jae-ha applied pressure successfully on the enemy jungler and took control of the map, giving the floor to Attila to hard-carry the game on Vayne. Despite Vitality’s win, the game was indeed quite long, showing once again signs of inability to capitalize on leads and close out games.
Splyce (1-1)
Game one – Win against Excel
Game two – Defeat against Team Vitality
In the first game, Splyce struggled significantly during the early game with communication errors and Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir getting caught out of position. However, in the mid-game, the more experienced Splyce roster managed to win over Excel with a clutch team fight at 28:00. Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup carried his team to victory with his amazing positioning on Caitlyn, winning the MVP.
Decision-making issues became crystal clear during the second game. Splyce put successful pressure on Amadeu “Attila” Carvalho’s Vayne that pressure into a meaningful fight or Baron, later on in the game. A huge mistake from Tamás “Vizicsacsi” Kiss, who faced checked in his own jungle while Vitality was pushing mid lane, ended up giving over control of the map. This resulted in a Baron for Team Vitality and a huge fight in the mid lane during which Splyce was aced and lost the game. Generally, during both games, Splyce showed that they have the quality and experience needed. Nonetheless, positioning and decision-making issues should be tackled if this roster is to succeed.
Excel (1-1)
Game one – Defeat against Splyce
Game two – Win against Rogue
In both games, Excel showed impressive individual talent and early game team play. However, it became evident in both matches that the team was struggling with macro-play. Especially in the game against Splyce, they failed to translate their early game pressure to any meaningful map and objective control, eventually giving control over to the enemy team. In the second game against Rogue, the win was the result of Rogue’s poor gameplay rather than Excel’s exceptional plays. The choice to grant Raymond “kaSing” Tsang the MVP title, however, was rather questionable. Especially since Caedrel was the one who took over mid-game, translated leads into map pressure, and up until the final fight had 100% kill participation.
Schalke 04 (1-1)
Game one – Win against Team Vitality
Game two – Defeat against G2 esports
The game against Team Vitality was very back and forth up until the mid game. Schalke took advantage of numerous expended resources from the side of Vitality, but couldn’t translate it into map control. In this first game, the match to watch was definitely the long-standing rivalry between Attila and Elias “Upset” Lipp. Upset, the more volatile ADC, and Attila, the consistent and versatile ADC were not able to give us an impressive show this time. Upset, however, did come out on top getting the win with his team and the MVP title. All in all, during this first game of the year, Schalke showed impressive macro-play and decision-making.
In the second game, against G2, Shalke failed to step up. G2 dominated the game giving no breathing room to Schalke. Whether this defeat was a result of Schalke’s internal issues or due to G2’s raw dominance remains to be seen.
Origen (1-1)
Game one – Defeat against G2 esports
Game two – Win against Fnatic
The first game for the returning team of Origen did not result in a glorious victory, but rather a crushing defeat. However, the team did show potential, enough to keep the hype around their return alive. In this first game, Origen managed to gain some early game leads and the man whose performance had been under a lot of scrutiny, Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre, showed a pretty solid performance. Good collapses on the bot lane with excellent rotations by Jonas “Kold” Andersen and Barney “Alphari” Morris gave some early advantages to Origen. However, the transition to mid-game found the team unable to translate those leads into any further meaningful control, and G2 eventually took over the game.
For the second game, Origen faced off against Fnatic in what was labeled as the game of the week. Origen took a huge risk against Fnatic, drafting a very low-engage composition that relied on outplays and which they executed beautifully, doing justice to all the hype around the team’s return. Erlend “Nukeduck” Våtevik Holm’s mid lane Vayne was the absolute highlight of the match that won him the MVP.
Misfits (2-0)
Game one – Win against Rogue
Game two – Win against SK Gaming
Misfits were absolutely dominating during the first week of LEC. In both games, Misfits practically stomped on their opponents with Steven “Hans Sama” Liv being the absolute highlight. With his signature pick of Draven in the first game and Lucian in the second, Hans Sama took over the games and won the MVP title twice. Now, that is not to say that the two Misfits wins were solely because of Hans Sama, The team was dominant across the map during both games, especially against SK Gaming.
Based on this first couple of performances, the spotlight should be put on Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyeon’s addition to the roster. His style of support seems to have unleashed the beast of Hans Sama in a more concentrated and controlled fashion. Hans Sama is a hyper-aggressive carry and he has been criticized exactly for that in the past. Nonetheless, with GorillA at his side, it seems that he is on the right track to becoming one of Europe’s best AD carries, if not the best!
G2 esports (2-0)
Game one – Win against Origen
Game two – Win against Schalke 04
In the first week of LEC, G2 gave us some excellent League of Legends, shuttering the critics of their daring roster move in the off-season. During the first game, the team exhibited excellent synergy and communication, flawless decision-making, and macro play. Luka “Perkz” Perković didn’t satisfy the anticipation to see his AD carry prowess, since he locked in Zoe bot. Nonetheless, during the second game against Schalke he popped off, hard-carried the game on Lucian and won the MVP.
Despite this impressive start of the split, some doubts still remain. Will Perkz be able to adapt in different metas in bot lane, or will the hype die out after a couple of weeks in the split?
Conclusion
All in all, it was a rather impressive start of the spring split for LEC with the vast majority of the teams showing some impressive gameplay and brilliant individual talent. There are, however, some significant meta changes since the World Championship, with the emphasis put on the jungle and duo lanes, rather than the solo lanes (as it was during the World Championship) and solo laners moving over to the role of facilitators rather than carries.
Yet again, we are only at the beginning of the split and there are still many changes to observe and adapt to in the coming weeks.
The biggest surprise – Selfmade’s impressive LEC debut
The biggest disappointment – Rogue’s inability to pick up a win
The biggest hype – Origen’s return and win over Fnatic
Featured image via LoL Esports.
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