Today Day 1, Week 5 of the 2016 European League Championship Series (EU LCS) Summer Split.
From G2 Esports showing that they are prepared to win the EU LCS again, to Giants Gaming slowly climbing the standings, here’s how Week 5, Day 1 went down:
(2-5-2) Splyce TIE Unicorns of Love (2-2-5)
Game 1: Unicorns of Love continued to play well, following last week’s performances. The game was dictated by the Unicorns throughout, led by mid-laner Febian “Exileh” Schubert, who went 9/0/7 as Anivia. Overall, the Unicorns looked dominant, dropping only three deaths, while getting 21 kills against Splyce.
Game 2: Splyce was able to even out the series with a strong team performance. Exileh picked his LeBlanc, which is easily one of his strongest champions, but it was not enough to stop Splyce mid-laner Chres “Sencux” Laursen and his squad. Splyce was able to keep Unicorns of Love in check throughout the game, only giving up three towers.
(3-1-5) Giants Gaming 2-0 ROCCAT (1-4-4)
Game 1: Giants started off hot and it looked like an easy win, but ROCCAT had other plans. Despite being up in team kills, gold, towers and Dragons, Giants wasn’t able to close out the game until a rushed Baron and ensuing teamfight happened, which led to an ace and a giant victory.
Game 2: The second match was much more closely contested, as shown by the 14-12 team kills in favor of Giants. Despite being closely contested
(3-4-2) FC Schalke 04 TIE Team Vitality (1-6-2)
Game 1: Vitality’s starting jungler, Ilyas “Shook” Hartsema, carried Vitality to victory in his first game back as a starter. His 8/1/7 perfomance as Nidalee further proved how much carry potential Nidalee has when she goes unbanned. S04 kept the game close kill-wise – the team kills were 18-12 in favor of Vitality – but the lack of tower and objective control cost them the game.
Game 2: Despite a strong first game showing, Vitality fell to S04 in the second game, earning their sixth tie – the most in the EU LCS. S04 was able to take home the game thanks to a five-man stun by top-laner Etienne “Steve” Michels, who had a 1/1/7 performance as Gnar. Again, Vitality fell to yet another tie, slowly losing playoff hopes.
(3-5-1) H2K TIE Origen (1-5-3)
Game 1: The first game followed a new Origen pattern of long, drug out wins. The game went on 48:05 minutes, but only 12 kills took place between the two teams. Origen had complete objective control, taking three Barons and five Dragons to H2K’s zero. In the end, Origen took home the win.
Game 2: H2K struck back in the second game to tie the series. H2K jungler, Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, earned player of the game rights with a dominant 6/1/8 performance as Elise. This game underlined the problems that H2K has had since the first two weeks of the split: inability to consistently close out games. When H2K keeps their momentum through 20-minutes, they usually win.
(5-4-0) G2 Esports 2-0 Fnatic (5-2-1)
Game 1: In the first match, G2 looked a lot like their previous split form: dominating and punishing any enemy mistakes. The complete objective control of G2 only put salt in Fnatic’s wound. G2 AD-carry Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen gave Fnatic’s bot-lane a tough time, going 5/0/4 as Jhin.
Game 2: The second match followed the same pattern as the first, except G2 did better. The entire team did well, but it was jungler Kim “Trick” Gang-yun who put on a show, going 9/0/5 as Nidalee. Given this, G2 looks back in form and prepared to repeat their success of last split.
What are your thoughts on the EU LCS 2016 Summer Split? Who do you think will take the crown? Let us know in the comments below or on our Twitter – @GAMURScom
