The first LEC Split of 2024 has reached its climax, with the regular season coming to an end amidst the whirlwind of a new team, rookie players, and map changes. G2 Esports snatched the top spot from Team BDS on the last day, a surprising turn of events considering BDS’ stellar performance throughout the regular season.
Unfortunately, not all teams made the cut, as newcomers KarmineCorp and returning Rogue both found themselves out of the running until the Spring Split. While past results affected the expectations for the two teams, leading most to be surprised by their elimination so early in the tournament, for Fnatic’s bot laner they didn’t come as as much of a surprise.
“In scrim KC was good and Rogue was bad,” Fnatic ADC Noah admitted in an interview with Dot Esports, a sentiment echoed by Team BDS top laner Adam, who shared his opinion on PGL. But Fnatic’s bot laner pointed at a “big communication problem” that KC will have to work on before the next Split, further underlining his surprise at KC’s elimination stating: “I wouldn’t have thought KC would be tenth.”
On the other side of the rankings of the regular season, the two top European League teams, G2 and BDS, secured the power to handpick their opponents for the upcoming playoffs, which laid out the schedule for the upcoming matches.
G2 will face GIANTX, but while this might be considered to be the easiest to predict the result, G2’s mid laner Caps shared that the new meta changes a lot so it’s hard to predict who will be the strongest. Regardless, it’s likely the team that is more able to adapt will be victorious, according to the mid laner. Looking at their previous encounter earlier this split, the match between GIANTX and G2 was one of the shortest, with G2 quickly building early leads and capitalizing on them, effectively snowballing the game.
The other match on the upper side of the bracket will be between MAD Lions KOI and Fnatic, which is shaping up to be a close and exciting contest. In their best-of-one match, MDK emerged victorious, but Fnatic has been performing well throughout the season, leading fans to expect a tough and competitive showdown in their upcoming best-of-three.
On the other side of the lower bracket, Team BDS opted to face Team Heretics, believing them the “weakest team” of their pool of choice, according to BDS’ top laner Adam. Their previous match had seen the experienced TH roster giving up a promising early lead advantage, but thanks to a stellar performance from BDS mid laner Nuc and their junglers’ well-timed ganks, BDS was quick to react and turn the tables of the game, securing victory—and they expect to do much the same this time around in the playoffs.
Closing the first round of playoffs is SK Gaming against Team Vitality. The two teams started their seasons quite differently, with SK immediately picking up three consecutive wins and VIT suffering three losses in the first week—only for both of them to trade fates the week after. The changes coming with the new patch will bring a lot of versatility across the map, and once more the ability to adapt could make or break either of these two teams.
With no break week, the first round of LEC playoffs promises excitement, with all matches scheduled for next Saturday and Sunday. The stakes are high, as the victorious team not only secures the Winter Split domestic trophy but also earns Europe’s coveted first spot at the 2024 League Mid-Season Invitational.
