If you had told us, coming into a Week Four matchup between Misfits and G2 Esports, that Misfits would be the team atop the LEC standings and G2 would be the ones barely holding onto a playoff berth, we would have looked at you a bit funny.
And after Misfits were handed a beating yesterday by MAD Lions, the team looked as if it was about to go back for seconds against G2 Esports. G2 had held the advantage in this game for about 95 percent of the contest’s length until Misfits strung together a teamfight victory on the heels of an Elder Dragon take at the 31-minute mark.
Down by 10,000 gold, Misfits miraculously happened to find a fight in their favor, somehow managing to pull out a victory today against a G2 squad that had controlled the game from start to almost-finish. In fact, by the time Misfits took down G2’s Nexus, G2 still posted a gold advantage of over 5,000.
Over the last three weeks, Misfits had been rolling through the LEC with ease, winning game after game against teams that were fairly soft. Misfits had found favorable matchups against teams like Schalke 04, SK Gaming, and others, leading to a respectable record.
This weekend, however, was Misfits’ first true test of the Summer Split. After running rampant on the rest of the league through their first seven games and racking up six wins in three weeks, two matchups against the historically impressive MAD Lions and G2 Esports would most definitely serve as watershed matches for the up-and-coming squad.
And today, even despite the victorious result, it’s clear that Misfits have plenty to work on before the second round robin of the LEC schedule. Relying on miracles in order to pull out victories isn’t a sound strategy on which a playoff-caliber team can build a successful season.
Still, Misfits has a lot to be proud of from today’s game, particularly their late-game macro play. After noticing G2’s bottom lane duo attempting to recall with just 10 seconds to go until the Elder Dragon spawned, Misfits capitalized on their only win condition of the game, securing the objective while the window was open.
And although Misfits holds onto first place after today’s win, the team clearly has some elements of their gameplay to improve upon if they want to crack the ceiling of the LEC. When faced against the lofty triumvirate of Rogue, G2, and MAD, Misfits posted a record of 1-2 (and came just seconds away from going winless in those games if not for today’s miracle comeback). The team can tout all the regular season success they want—they’ll need to find a way to beat those three teams on a more consistent and reliable basis in the second round robin if they want to have any chance of making a deep playoff run.
As for G2, the schedule doesn’t get a whole lot easier moving forward. Next week, the team will have to battle against two of the LEC’s hottest teams — Astralis and Rogue. Granted, G2 beat both of those squads back in week two of the Summer Split, but with the team’s four-game losing streak in mind, their chances at repeated success could be in jeopardy.
