Wins for the Favorites as the LEC Starts

The League of Legends European Championship started on Friday, kicking off a three-day superweek. The first day saw MAD Lions come out swinging against the star-studded Team Vitality roster, followed by several wins for the expected favorites - though not without a fight.

The winter break is finally over and the LEC started its 2022 Spring Season with a three-day first week. As per tradition, the first game of the split featured the reigning champions, MAD Lions, who would take on the squad rumored to be the LEC's new superteam, Team Vitality. The rest of the card looked more one-sided - though so early in the season and with the LEC's history of surprises, upsets were all but expected.

The opening game saw MAD Lions carry out a ruthlessly efficient early game, shutting down Team Vitality mid laner Luka "Perkz" Perković with two early ganks by jungler Javier "Elyoya" Prades Batalla. The Spaniard was on fire this game, delivering a standout performance on Diana. After deciding several key fights, he led his team to a dominant victory with a 8/1/10 on his scoreboard.

Game two featured another of 2021's big names, Rogue, as they took on SK Gaming. The early game went quite even despite the German squad taking first blood. It was Rogue who landed the first major blow, taking three kills and the drake 18 minutes in. Newcomers Markos "Comp" Stamkopoulos in the bot lane and Kim "Malrang" Geun-seong in the jungler got a good start and proved key in the mid-game. Rogue secured and early Baron and after catching SK unprepared, pushed into their base and ended the game several minutes later.

After two pretty one-sided games, it was high time for our first nailbiter and Excel Esports and G2 Esports delivered, keeping a close fight for over forty minutes. While the 2020 LEC champions wold often have small advantages with their better map movement and had a good performance from both star mid laner Rasmus "caPs" Borregaard Winther and the team's new bot lane. Excel struck back, however, even taking the first Baron. It came to a smite fight near the Elder Dragon, where Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski secured the big buff that let his team push on to victory.

In the match against Astralis, Misfits Gaming lost first blood but replied with several kills. However, despite being behind for most of the game time and again Astralis found picks and clutch fights to delay the game. The two teams traded blows and it was still anyone's game when Misfits found a pick on their former AD Carry Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup and shut down his fed Jinx, allowing them to steamroll the Astralis base.

The final game on Friday featured Fnatic taking on Team BDS. The newcomers were off to a great start, getting three early kills. Adam "Adam" Maanane on Darius looked great against his former team. However, Fnatic were not going to roll over either and support Zdravets "Hylissang" Galabov showed up with several great Rakan plays to set up his team's comeback. A four-man Quickness led to a Fnatic teamfight win and Baron 23 minutes in, then after Team BDS again took the lead he led a clutch engage to defend Fnatic's base. In the late game,  With Elias "Upset" Lipp piling on the damage, Fnatic started their season with a victory.

Read More:

• Players to Watch in Spring 2022
• Who's Top and Who's Not in the LEC in 2022
• Preview: LEC Spring 2022 Day 1
  

The LEC continues on Saturday with a bout between Rogue and Misfits Gaming. For more League of Legends news, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!