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March 29, 2021
League of Legends
LEC Playoffs Week 1: A big upset, G2 struggling and Fnatic came to play
The first week of playoffs has ended and we had quite a few interesting series. Varying from a pentakill to a 3000 elo shockwave to methodical gameplay.
Against all expectations, there were no quick 3-0’s this weekend. However, some teams will have to step it up if they want to reach the League of Legends European Championship Grand Final and represent Europe at the Mid-Seasonal Invitation in Iceland.
Last year, we saw G2 Esports drop the first series in the Winner’s Bracket to then make the Loser’s Bracket run till the finals for both Spring and Summer. With the addition of Rekkles, the more “troll-aspect” of G2 Esports seems to have been reduced but not eliminated considering some games in the regular split. On the other hand, this was Fnatic’s time to prove themselves as they came in as the 5th seed in the Loser’s Bracket.
The 3000 ELO shockwave
Friday started with Fnatic taking on SK Gaming. It would be a battle of supports and a question of which one would have a bigger impact. Many analysts and casters predicted four games with most of them going 3-1 for Fnatic, but they all agreed that Treatz, the support from SK Gaming, could take over at least one game. Nevertheless, it looked like Fnatic came to play and had no intention of giving SK Gaming any chance to play the game.
With good drafts, new champions and impeccable early skirmishing, Fnatic quickly took the lead in the series. The Volibear jungle from Selfmade was a fine new addition to the championpool of the series and gave him enough firepower to challenge every jungler TynX had to offer. Fnatic held the advantage throughout the series but dropped the ball in the second game where SK Gaming took over. That was the only game where SK Gaming got to say anything and Fnatic marched to a 3-1 victory with a beautiful shockwave from Nisqy to seal the deal.
Full five games
G2 Esports had to battle Schalke 04 on Saturday in a match that was heavily favored for the European reigning champions. The spiciest prediction would be one where the series would go to all five games, but Schalke 04 came very prepared. From the first game in the series, it was clear that Schalke wanted to attack the topside of the map and punish the weak side tanks from Wunder while also banning a lot of Rekkles’ champions. In the first game, they tried it with a Wukong but it did not work out. Yet in the second game, we saw a Darius pick from BrokenBlade to try and turn the tides against Wunder’s Sion. It would not be successful from the start, as G2 Esports would also go on and win that game.
Nonetheless, the next two games would go straight to Schalke as the Darius counterpick top finally started to pay off with a pentakill in the third game to start off. The boys in blue did what no one thought possible and took G2 Esports to five games. In the fifth and deciding game, G2 Esports had a new and questionable draft at first but it came online after the midgame. With poor itemization from Schalke 04, G2 Esports finally booked their ticket to the second round in the Winner’s Bracket by winning 3-2.
The first big upset
We saw G2 Esports and Schalke 04 go the full five games, but the first upset happened in the series between Rogue and MAD Lions. Rogue came in as the big favorite as they had a very solid regular split run. Coming second only to G2 Esports, they looked like the heavy favorites to make it to the finals against G2 Esports. They first faced MAD Lions, a team they bested twice in the regular split. MAD Lions looked uncomposed in the last weeks, but they also did not show anything as they had a troll-game against Astralis.
After a decisive first game win for Rogue, it looked like all predictions would come through. However, in the next three games we saw a totally different MAD Lions that matched Rogue on every play they made. This resulted in MAD Lions winning the next three games and overpowering Rogue. This is the first upset of the playoffs as Rogue must figure out how to come back after this defeat. It looked like MAD Lions played their style but simply better.
Next week we will see three new Best-of-fives to decide who will be the first finalist of the League of Legends European Championship Spring Playoffs Finals.
