Europe's best teams put on a marathon performance
Two Tiebreakers End LEC Superweek
The LEC regular spring season ended with a bang. With seven teams ending between 12-6 and 9-9 scores, the fifteen games of the superweek were not enough to decide the top 6 games and Europe's best teams had to play two more playoffs to settle the score.
The regular season of the LEC 2022 Summer Split ended as it began - with a three-day superweek. With only one team locked for playoffs and only one guaranteed to be out of the running, nine teams would fight for the top positions. Who would make it to playoffs and fight for a Worlds slot and who would stay at home?
Rogue and G2 Secure top spots after Game 1
Misfits Gaming opened the week with a confident victory against Team BDS. While the underdogs got first blood, Misfits equalized and as the game went on, outperformed their opponents in the teamfights to secure the clutch win. In the next game, SK Gaming picked a difficult composition to execute against Team Vitality and after an aggressive engage on the enemy backline 21 minutes in backfired and saw them aced, things looked dire. However, SK managed to get a few fights and ended up turning the game around for a win that keeps their hopes alive and keeps their playoff hopes alive.
Excel Esports looked on fire in the early game against Rogue, picking up several teamfights with and being very proactive. However, their overaggression hurt them badly in several fights. Rogue was gifted the lead and ran away with the lead they were gifted, ending with a stylish Pentakill for Markos "Comp" Stamkopoulos’s Sivir.
After trading blows through the early game, Fnatic slowly started extending the lead against Astralis. Marek "Humanoid" Brázda had a great performance on Leblanc and was a huge factor in the teamfights. Astralis had their moments but it was not enough to deny Fnatic the win.
G2 Esports had a great start against MAD Lions, punishing İrfan Berk "Armut" Tükek’s Jax before getting the first big teamfight. The Lions stabilized the game for a while, but when they chased too far 24 minutes in, G2 aced them and took the Baron to take over the game and eventually score the key win.
Fnatic Keeps Hopes Alive in Showdown with Vitality
After two kills in the first four seconds, Rogue should have been a shoe-in to beat Team BDS, but a series of poorly executed fights ended in the underdogs stamping their dominance over the mid-game. With a fed Swain and Sivir, BDS continued outperforming in teamfights before taking their fourth win. And while BDS and Rogue were playing mostly for pride, for Excel Esports and SK Gaming it was their playoff hopes on the line. SK punished Excel's scaling compheavily early on, getting several kills on Jean "Jezu" Massol’s Draven. It was not enough to take Excel out, however, and eventually well-executed series of lategame fights resulted in XL taking the win.
MAD Lions, meanwhile had to sweat against Astralis as the underdogs had a strong start and Kiss "Vizicsacsi" Tamás delivered an amazing performance on Shyvana. However, the Lions were able to recover in the mid-game and after some great teamfight plays by William "UNF0RGIVEN" Nieminen on Sivir secured the win.
Fnatic and Team Vitality took to the stage next and while Vitality got the early lead, Fnatic managed to get back into the game with some amazing plays from their bot lane. Elias "Upset" Lipp put the team on his back in several clutch fights to seize the victory in an over 50 minutes long slugfest.
G2 Esport ended the evening with a strong game against Misfits Gaming, taking the early lead and shutting the rabbits down in the mid-game with several key flanks by Rasmus "caPs" Winther. Two teams and a Baron 26 minutes in gave G2 the edge they needed to put Misfits down and guarantee their Worlds spot.
Excel and Fnatic Keep up the Pressure
Excel Esports kept their chances for the playoff with a clutch win against Astralis in the first Sunday game. The UK team got the first 3 champion kills and maintained a lead throughout the game, eventually taking over after an ace 30 minutes in to keep its playoff chances alive. MAD Lions and Team BDS followed them. The Lions got the early lead and despite a sloppy mid-game where the underdogs got gold on their carries, MAD stayed a step ahead, eventually ending the game after an ace 36 minutes in.
G2 Esports started strong against SK Gaming, but the German team equalized the gold and pressure in the mid-game until a close fight ended in an ace and Baron for G2. They quickly opened up a big gold lead and another big win by the Hextech soul secured them the game. In the next game (which we recommended you watch live) Team Vitality and Rogue traded blows for most of their game and neither team was able to amass a significant lead until Rogue's Baron 28 minutes in. With it, they broke into the Vitality base before ending the game several minutes later.
For the final game of the regular schedule, Fnatic had to take a win against Misfits to guarantee themselves a playoff spot. For the longest time, the two teams were neck and neck - even a Baron going for Fnatic . However, Upset’s Zeri got early kills and in the end, they turned to be key as he led Fnatic to several mid-game fights that secured them the win and a playoff spot.
Excel and Misfits Take the Tiebreakers
With even scores and the same record in the second half of the split, Excel Esports and Team Vitality faced off for the last playoff spot. The two teams went neck and neck for the first 25 minutes, but a big split fight went in Excel’s favor and finally allowed their mid-game focused composition to get ahead. The UK organization stayed a step ahead and after a decisive fight six minutes later ended the game, getting their revenge on Team Vitality for the spring playoffs and punctuating a horrible 0-4 superweek for the team that was almost guaranteed a playoff berth.
After squaring off earlier the day, Misfits Gaming and Fnatic clashed again, this time in a tiebreaker for fourth place. Despite a great start for Fnatic, who stomped Joel "Irrelevant" Miro Scharoll ’s Gnar in the top lane and used the pressure to dominate the map, Misfits came back with amazing teamfighting and ended up snatching the win.
Read More about the LEC Summer Split
- LEC Superweek 2022: Top Three Matches To Watch
- Our LEC MVP for Week 7: G2 Esports' Flakked
- Mad Lions are the First Team Locked for LEC Summer Playoffs 2022
The LEC Playoffs continue on Friday, August 26th with the first round of the upper bracket where Rogue take on MAD Lions and G2 Esports face off against Misfits Gaming. Don't miss it!