In Week 2 of the League of Legends European Championship, G2 Esports (G2) faced off against FC Schalke 04 Esports (S04) and Rogue Gaming (RGE). Last week, the team had lost two of their three games, and placed at 6th. Surprising, due to their usual top tier position from previous splits. They owe part of their loss to not being able to practice before the first week. This week, they climbed up to third place, but are tied with the other two top tier teams Origen and Fnatic, as well as SK Gaming.

It looks like the middle of the board teams have decided to shake things up and play better. Leading to RGE and MAD Lions sharing first place, SK Gaming tied with the three big teams, and teams like Team Vitality doing much better than it did last split.

G2 Esports vs FC Schalke 04 (0-5)

Unfortunately, like mentioned last week, Schalke 04 still has not been able to patch up their issues. In this game, they did not do bad in terms of early kills. The starting of the match had a relatively equal amount of plays from both teams and S04 was able to score kills with strong plays. But G2 had also been taking dragons while S04 pushed lanes.

Courtesy of @LEC

Then after a dragon steal that gave G2 the Dragon Soul and a team fight at 29 minutes, the game moved into G2’s court like usual. Momentum is their strong suit. In this game, it felt like S04 put up a good fight. Very good Yuumi ultimates from Minkook “DreamS” Han and they’re able to keep kills equal. However, there was no map pressure, so no objectives that they could rely on. Even with a slow damage composition, G2 had map control to rotate around and lure S04 into.

G2 Esports vs Rogue Gaming (4-1)

Courtesy of Riot Games

Rasmus “Caps” Winther, took his Twisted Fate all around the map and shot gold cards at everyone he could reach. Making for absolutely perfect plays and dealing crucial damage. In the first major team fight, he was able to get three kills for the team, then later made a kill in enemy base and narrowly escaped with his ultimate ability. He was able to keep the attention in the mid lane, so that Martin “Wunder” Hansen could focus on leveling up his Kayle.

In 30 minutes, the game ended with a G2 victory. Six kills for Wunder, five for Caps and 16 in total for the team. Rogue made out with 9 kills, with important counter plays in two instances, but could not hold their pressure to lead the game. G2 won by controlling the whole map through objectives and vision.

G2 Esports vs SK Gaming (3-2)

Week 3 will be exciting for G2. Both teams they will face are tied with them for third place.

SK Gaming (SK) maintained a strong push, winning two of their three games in Week 1. If they hadn’t lost against Excel Esports, they would actually be tied for first. So for G2, who never lost to SK before, will need to understand their game sense. What is SK’s game? Well, for one game they had Janik “Jenax” Bartels play an absolutely crazy (new) Volibear. In another game, Trick’s Sett stopped many shows.

It’s a very volatile game that they play. SK has been picking high damage champions and making plays where force is more important than strategy, so that even if they mess up, they still have a chance at redemption. Proof of this is the SK versus OG match. Last split, this was a definite OG victory, but this time SK beat them up. For SK, a hook or a stun means all-in. Just jump on, deal the damage, and then escape. Take the small victories and cut the losses for the next fight.

It’s smart, it’s brutish, it’s working. So when they go against G2, it’s to be expected that one of these teams will be able to continue to brute force their way and the other will have to play around. After a few head-on clashes, G2 should be able to figure out if they are the team that needs to play around the map or if they can take on team fights without a worry. When it comes to skill, G2 wins, but SK has made a compelling case that they can win with draft and player positioning.

G2 Esports vs Fnatic (3-2)

In contrast with SK, Fnatic (FNC) has been playing for a long time and has a history with winning, just like G2. Predicted to be Match of the Week, it will re-ignite the Caps versus Rekkles narrative even though Caps in the mid lane again.

Courtesy of @FNATIC

Fnatic is known to have a rocky start every split, but it’s the late split where they rise up and take their spot in playoffs. Last time these two teams faced, was in the LEC Spring Finals. And both teams have been taking losses here and there by teams they were expected to win against. G2 lost because they didn’t have practice and were walking into the split sort of blind. But Fnatic lost because of questionable drafts.

Who decided that it was a good idea to put all-star ADC Martin “Rekkles” Larsson on Soraka? Two times?! Both of FNC’s losses came up due to a lack of damage in team fights. This might have been an effort to maintain stamina in fights, but that worked for G2 because Wunder was playing it, not Luka “Perkz” Perkovic. When fights started, even with a great engages by Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov, FNC would lose out of the tail end and Rekkles would simply lose.

Hylilife pic.twitter.com/Zdj5Xlrywd

— LEC (@LEC) June 13, 2020

When it comes to facing G2, if FNC play a standard comp. they’ll have a great chance to win. FNC has already shown that they are strong in this split, but not with ADC Soraka.

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