The European League Championship Series kicked off its’ 2017 Spring Split with two matches today. The first game featured H2k-Gaming, the team that made it to the semi-finals of the World Championship and Origen with a totally revamped roster.
The second series was hyped as the match-up of the week and was between to European favorites G2 Esports and Fnatic. G2 came into the game with the exact same roster that won both splits last year, while Fnatic only kept one play from last year but filled the squad with LCS veterans. Here’s how Week 1, Day 1 went down.
(1-0) H2k-Gaming 2-0 Origen (0-1)
In the first series of the EU LCS, H2k took on Origen. Both teams made multiple roster changes with H2k coming in as the favored side. In the first game, H2k went for a heavy dive comp centered around and that comp was successful with Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, also known as “The First Blood King,” helping H2k secure First Blood. The game quitied down after the kill and the two teams played even until around 25 minutes in. At that point, H2k got a pick onto Wisdom and quickly took down the Baron. After securing the Baron, H2k steamrolled over Origen to a comfortable victory.
The second game, H2k fell behind early as OG took two kills and a dragon early into the game. H2k progressively got themselves back into the game, but the match ended up being very sloppy. Both teams were continually caught out and the game ended with 35 kills total. Despite the fiesta type nature of the second game, H2k won the game and closed out the series 2-0.
My MVP of the series is Jankos. The Polish jungler was able to continually get picks in both games for his team that opened up the map and gave H2k advantages.
(1-0) G2 Esports 2-1 Fnatic (0-1)
G2, the team that won both splits last year, plays the most successful European organization in the series of the week. Though Fnatic has been successful in the past, Fnatic’s roster moves have set the expectation bar relatively low. G2 exploited the new roster in the first game, controlling the game from start to finish with a global comp and Kim “Trick” Gang-yun making plays all across the map. G2 easily closed out the game with Fnatic looking very unsteady and not together as a team.
In the second game it was Fnatic who got off to the early start. The great play of Rasmus “Caps” Winther and the roams by all players helped them to secure kills across the map, giving themselves an early lead. G2 caught up with kills of their own and taking down turrets. Heading into the mid game, Fnatic had a slight lead over the defending champions. The game became immensely exciting as teams were throwing punches back and forth. The game had a surprise ending as sOAZ took the attention of the G2 team while the rest of Fnatic went behind and killed the exposed Nexus, taking the series to a game three.
Game three kicked off in picks and bans as G2 picked up Ivern for Trick and Martin “Rekkles” Larsson took Kennen as an ADC. Through early-mid game, both teams played to their strengths and the game was fairly even. G2 started to take a lead as they caught out Caps and chained those picks into multiple objectives on the map. G2 closed out the game as they continued to take objectives despite a few members getting caught out.
My MVP for the series was Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen. Zven played only Ashe during the two games. His Ashe Enhanced Crystal Arrows were extremely on point and helped secure key kills for G2. He continues his performance as one of the top European ADC’s.
