The Summer Split of the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) has been extraordinarily close and surprising, making it extremely difficult to predict any match.
For the first time ever, Europe will send four teams to the World Championships which can only be qualified for by making the playoffs. The stakes couldn’t be higher in the penultimate week of the Summer Split so here’s all you need to know about this week’s most important games.
Schalke 04 (2.30) vs Excel Esports (1.60)
After failing to find a win in eight games, Schalke looked dead and buried but a sudden resurgence has seen the 10-man squad pick up three wins and keep their Playoffs dream alive — though it’s still extremely unlikely.
Schalke were superb last week with dominant victories over Misfits and, more surprisingly, G2 Esports. Meanwhile, Excel also had a great week picking up wins against Team Vitality and SK Gaming. Neither of those performances were overly convincing but great results nonetheless.
Judging by the cleanness of their games last week, you would be justified in backing Schalke here. However, the strongest point of Excel is their incredible bot-lane duo of Patrik “Patrik” Jírů and Tore “Tore” Hoel Eilertsen who should match-up against Schalke quite well. Those two alone could take over the game.
Misfits Gaming (2.06) vs SK Gaming (1.74)
Misfits are in desperate need of wins after poor performances vs Schalke and Rogue last week. They certainly have the talent to do so, we saw the potential of this squad after their immense victory over league-leaders MAD Lions.
However, SK Gaming will not be easy opponents considering they also managed to defeat MAD just last week. SK have shown very good game-sense and macro play in a vast improvement from last split but in the last few weeks have struggled for consistency. Case in point, they also lost to Excel last week.
The player to watch here is SK’s top-laner Janik “Jenax” Bartel who has been superb since his role-swap. He will likely be the difference-maker in this otherwise close match-up.
MAD Lions (1.41) vs Origen (2.84)
Origen have a lot of quality in their ranks but MAD Lions will still be heavily favoured to pick up a win here. The young side of MAD have been incredible this year which is why they’re currently top but that only puts a target on their back.
Support Jakub “Jactroll” Skurzyński initially had a big impact on Origen after joining mid-split but was poor last week as were his teammates. MAD’s Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser has looked like the best support in Europe this split so this could be quite the mismatch.
Origen will be relying on top-laner Barney “Alphari” Morris who is a world-class player. However, MAD’s top-laner Andrei “Orome” Popa proved against Fnatic that he is also a superb player who can carry the game. He’ll need a similar performance to set up MAD for success this week.
The first match of a huge week for Fnatic, the Spring Split runners-up will have to try and defeat Rogue who are currently tied for first.
Fnatic have really struggled this Summer but after a solid performance against MAD and a convincing win over Origen, things are looking up. Rogue, on the other hand, have been phenomenal this split but will be disappointed they threw their last game against G2.
This match-up will likely come down to the mid-lane in which Emil “Larssen” Larsson has been one of the best players this year while Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek really struggled initially though he has performed better in recent weeks.
G2 Esports (1.77) vs Fnatic (2.02)
Back in spring, these two were far and away the best teams in Europe but both are now struggling though have shown glimpses that they’re getting back on track.
G2 will be bitterly disappointed with how poor they were against bottom of the table Schalke last week but the incredible team-fighting the team showed against Rogue proved this squad are still very difficult to beat.
After taking an extended break from competing, Luka “Perkz” Perković has struggled to return to his best which could be a major factor in this match considering Fnatic’s lethal bot-lane duo of Martin “Rekkles” Larsson and Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov.
However, Rasmus “Caps” Winther has been immense recently and G2 as a whole are wildcards who can always pull off something special. This is a difficult match to call but it will certainly be entertaining.
