Today, Day 2, Week 5 of the 2016 European League Championship Series (EU LCS) and Day 1, Week 5 of the 2016 North American League Championship Series (NA LCS) Summer Split took place.
From Fnatic having their first winless week to Team Liquid slowly climbing the standings, here is how yesterday’s action went down:
(3-6-1) H2k-Gaming TIE ROCCAT (1-5-4)
Game 1: ROCCAT was able to take an early lead thanks to nabbing first blood and two dragons. It was not until 16 minutes that H2k even got a kill. H2k was unable to stop ROCCAT mid-laner Felix “Betsy” Edling, who had a 3/1/6 performance as Viktor and is making a name for himself as one of the better mid-laners in EU.
Game 2: Thanks to a strong 3/1/11 Rek’Sai performance by jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, H2k was able to even out the series and walk home with a tie. The game was back-and-forth until H2k took a Baron while three ROCCAT members were dead, then H2k utilized the Baron buff effectively to take the game win.
(3-5-2) FC Schalke 04 TIE Unicorns of Love (2-3-5)
Game 1: UOL came out of the gates strong, slaughtering S04 13-5 that ended in a victory. The top performance for UOL was by mid-laner Fabian “Exileh” Schubert, who had a 5/0/4 as Viktor. This comes to show how powerful of a pick Viktor can be when he is protected during teamfights.
Game 2: Following yesterday’s pattern, UOL was routed in their second game after winning their first. All of S04 did well in the second match, only dropping four deaths while nabbing 14 kills. However, the bot-lane duo of AD-carry Rasmus “MrRalleZ” Skinneholm and support Hampus “sprattel” Abrahamsson shined, going 7/1/5 as Jhin and 1/1/11 as Karma.
(3-5-2) Splyce 2-0 Team Vitality (1-6-3)
Game 1: The first game did not have much happen in it other than 35 minutes of farming and item building until a late-game teamfight took place. The teamfight went in favor of Splyce, who then pushed to Vitality’s nexus and won the game.
Game 2: The second game saw more fighting, as shown by the 11-12 team kill spread, which went in favor of Splyce. The game was fast-paced, but Splyce was able to take the win thanks to a stronger mid-game team composition than Vitality.
(5-5-0) G2 Esports TIE Origen (1-6-3)
Game 1: The first match followed Origen’s seemingly preferred pattern of victory: long, drawn-out matches (this game went on for 68 minutes) that come down to long death timers and split-pushing to victory. The game saw Origen win, but G2 AD-carry Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen walked away with the new single game Creep Score record of 946 as Sivir.
Game 2: G2 decided not to play into Origen’s type of game, playing aggressively and punishing mistakes. The jungle pressure by Kim “Trick” Gang-yun, who had a 10/1/12 performance as Olaf, allowed the rest of G2 to push every lane resulting in getting fed and an eventual victory.
(4-1-5) Giants Gaming 2-0 Fnatic (5-2-3)
Game 1: The first match looked brutal for Fnatic, as Giants constantly punished the aggressive playstyle of Fnatic. The entire Giants’ squad did well, only dropping four deaths while grabbing 16 kills on the current split’s runner-up.
Game 2: The second match followed the same pattern as the first, Fnatic playing over-aggressively and being punished by Giants. Again, the entire Giants’ squad did well, giving Fnatic a hard time and their first 0-2 week of the split.
(5-4) Team Liquid 2-1 Cloud9 (6-3)
Game 1: The first game saw C9 go off, dropping only one death while getting 10 kills. The entire C9 squad did well, proving that they deserve to be considered one of the the best teams in NA. Despite going to 44 minutes, C9 never gave up the lead and was able to secure the game one win.
Game 2: Liquid struck back, giving C9 a loss in a close match that simply did not end in C9’s favor. The biggest factor in Liquid winning was the strong 6/3/6 Viktor performance by mid-laner Kim “Fenix” Jae-hoon.
Game 3: Liquid gave C9 a taste of their own medicine, absolutely dominating the third game. The entire Liquid squad did well, but it was jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett who shined, going 6/0/11 as Rek’Sai.
(6-3) Team EnVyUs 2-1 Echo Fox (1-8)
Game 1: Echo Fox gave EnVyUs a run for their money, mostly thanks to mid-laner Henrik “Froggen” Hansen (7/2/9 as his S-tier Anivia) who roamed effectively and dominated teamfights, and support Terry “Big” Chuong (0/1/16 as Karma) who helped every Echo Fox laner.
Game 2: The second game went in EnVyUs’s favor throughout, until 35-minutes, when a bad teamfight for EnVyUs led to three deaths and a Baron loss. Despite this, EnVy was able to secure the victory thanks to successful defensive play and solid split-pushing.
Game 3: The third game mostly followed the same pattern as the second, but it was Echo Fox’s lack of objective control and pushing power that led to a loss. Echo Fox won the team kills 11-10, but those 11 kills only resulted in three towers compared to EnVyUs’s 10.
What are your thoughts on the EU LCS 2016 Summer Split? What are your thoughts on the NA LCS 2016 Summer Split? Who do you think will take the respective crowns? Let us know in the comments below or on our Twitter – @GAMURScom
