LEC Week 5: The Astralis comeback and Rogue as the new superstars

In week 5 of the LEC, Astralis once again proved they aren’t to be messed around with, while Fnatic can’t hide the fact their roster is still struggling.

Astralis is back, at least that is what it looks like. They had been written off at the start of the split as one of the worst teams in the league. Although they are not on G2 Esports’ level quite yet, they have made some good improvements. After five weeks of LEC it seems like they even have a chance of contesting a playoff spot with a miracle run. On the other side we have Rogue taking over the spot that Fnatic left in the top two and FC Schalke 04 cementing themselves as the kingslayers.

The comeback of Astralis

Nukeduck benched himself the third week of LEC and MagiFelix was brought in to bring new life to this team. Astralis has been struggling for almost a year now, not being able to break out of the bottom four in the league. Even with star toplaner Alphari, they could not advance further than last place. It was definitely not only Nukeduck’s fault, but he was not actively winning games for his team either. With the departure of Deficio, who is a great fan of Nukeduck, a new management wanted to try something new. Although Nukeduck benched himself, MagiFelix was the choice of a new coaching staff.

Surely our first perfect week won’t be a 2-0 against Fnatic and Rogue???

— Astralis LoL (@AstralisLoL) February 22, 2021

MagiFelix made his debut against FC Schalke 04 and had a nice start to the LEC. His lane opponent got first blood but that did not hold him back. With his signature scaling pick in the Corki, he dealt the most damage in the game. This already doubled the number of wins Astralis had and was setting a new trend for the organization. Misfits, on the other hand, was a game Astralis would rather forget. A poorly executed early game resulted in Misfits taking over the map with no chances of coming back for Astralis. G2 Esports was up next in a game that went very late and could have gone either way but was eventually won by superior decision-making by G2 Esports. Overall, after MagiFelix got subbed in, Astralis went 2-2, winning against EXCEL in their fourth game. This could be the first step towards a bright future for Astralis and the Swedish midlaner MagiFelix.

Fnatic out, Rogue in

Rogue had a great start to the LEC, only dropping two games and sitting comfortably with G2 Esports in first place. They lost against G2 Esports and FC Schalke 04 but won against every other team. Fnatic on the other hand have been struggling to get themselves through the early game. Whenever they do manage to get ahead in the early game, they will most of the time close out the game. With Fnatic changing their playstyle over to a more aggressive and (for now) less effective one, they left an empty spot at the top of the league for another team to fill.

Still #1 👍#GoRogue https://t.co/Kcl7CUW4xF

— ROGUE (@Rogue) February 20, 2021

That team is Rogue with their smart, adaptable and fast gameplay. The loss of Vander could have been bad for this roster, but with the addition of Odoamne we can finally see the latter one’s full potential. He might not be winning a lot of MVP-awards, but we know for a fact that he is a key player in this line-up. With Trymbi now also finding his flow, this roster is one to be feared. It looks a lot like this Rogue will contest G2 Esports in the LEC Spring Split 2021 finals.

FC Schalke 0-4

They might not be the flashiest team nor the most creative one, but they have one thing going for them: they can win from the best teams in the league. They showed us just that in the first three weeks, where they were the only ones to take down G2 Esports and Rogue. This dubbed them the kingslayers. However, week four and five proved more of a challenge. They went 0-4 honoring all the FC Schalke 0-4 memes because we could not use them at the beginning of the split. They dropped a game against Astralis and MAD Lions in week four and against SK Gaming and G2 Esports in week five. If they want to sit comfortably in the middle of the pack, they can not drop many more games. Their opponents in week six are Rogue and Misfits. Two teams they have already beaten and should be fun matches to watch.

.@G2esports get their revenge and take down @S04Esports! #LEC pic.twitter.com/zB3h7jcGVS

— LEC (@LEC) February 20, 2021

Overall, the LEC is still dominated by two teams at the top of the standings. This is followed up by a close middle of the pack where every win against each other counts, especially the ones against the better teams. Team Vitality, Astralis and Misfits Gaming are at the bottom of the standings, fighting to stay alive for a berth in the playoffs.

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Image Credit: Astralis (Twitter)