We had almost a full slate of David versus Goliath style matches today on the 2016 EU LCS spring split week 4, day 1. The freshly reworked Shen was open to be picked, Kindred was re-enabled after sitting out a week due to a bug, leaving only newly released champion Jhin as the sole disabled champion.
We head into the first match of the week with Lucian in Top Lane!#ELWIN or #VITWIN?#EULCS pic.twitter.com/1iJ3DIi1yA
— lolesports (@lolesports) February 4, 2016
Game 1: Elements vs. Vitality
The action began with Elements taking on Vitality. Team Vitality had a great drafting strategy which involved banning Kalista, then picking Lucian and Corki first rotation, the remaining top tier AD carries after Elements chose to first pick Gangplank.
As the draft finalized and the players began swapping their champions appropriately it became clear that VIT Cabochard would be taking Lucian into the top lane. Lucian top is supposedly a pick Cabochard enjoys playing in dynamic queue with his team mates. Vitality thought it would fare well against EL Steve’s Gangplank, so the decision was made.
The pre-game draft was probably the most exciting part about this game. There was two team fights all game long. Vitality gave Elements a slow death, tower after tower was taken down until they were forced to kill a few Elements champions just to start hitting on the Nexus safely.
A bright spot for Elements was Sprattel showing proficiency on Thresh. He hit a number of max range hooks that didn’t amount to anything because of the state of the game, but still, a good sign. Since having his Allistar perma-banned Sprattel has struggled to deliver a strong showing on another champion.
Vitality wins.
Game 2: Fnatic vs. Giants
This one went just as you would expect. It wasn’t close, it wasn’t entertaining, it’s not worth watching.
Fnatic wins.
With Picks and Bans locked, tune in to this week's Match of the Week between Origen and G2 Esports! pic.twitter.com/ukAbNabdVC
— lolesports (@lolesports) February 4, 2016
Game 3: Origen vs. G2
Hyped up as the game of the day, Origen would attempt to put G2’s hot streak to a halt.
This was another AD carry focused draft. When G2 banned Lucian, Origen decided it was better to leave up the remaining S-tier AD carries in Corki and Kalista so that they would be able to snatch one for themselves in first rotation. With Gangplank the final ban, G2 locked in the Kalista, leaving the Corki open for G2.
At the end of the draft it was clear each team had different team fighting win conditions. G2 drafted a very ultimate oriented composition. They want to jump on Origen all at once and end the fight quickly. Malphite ultimate, Ahri ultimate, Braum ultimate, Graves ultimate, and then the Kalista ultimate for the re-engage. All of these abilities are best when chained together for a clean 15 second team fight.
Origen on the other hand wanted long team fights where they could reset the fight after G2 blows one of their cooldowns. They want to poke with blue build Ezreal and Corki rockets, and peel with Janna and Tahm Kench. The best case scenario for them surviving a Malphite/Kalista/Braum engagement, would be resetting the fight with a Janna ult, and then kiting out the enemy champions who are much less scary without any engage potential.
If the game was played perfectly by both sides that would have been an exciting cat and mouse game to watch. The reality was a fairly sloppy game. Origen had a number of highly questionable deaths. Amazing would get picked off for being at a random spot on the map at a random time. Mithy died because he tried to farm under a tier 2 tower, as Janna, with under 100hp after a team fight. Power of Evil was underwhelming on Corki. Origen has not, and does not, look like the same Origen from last year.
G2 wasn’t perfect either. Emperor died after wandering into the river alone, and then again when he flashed into three Origen players trying to finish off a low health Tahm Kench. This made things harder than they needed to be for the rookie LCS team, but still, their carries did not let up. Perkz continues to prove he may just be the very best mid laner in the LCS. Trick’s jungle Graves delivered. Even Kikis put in a great game on Malphite after a shaky early game.
G2 wins.
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We head onto Summoner's Rift with these picks for ROCCAT vs. the Unicorns of Love!#ROCWIN #UOLWIN #EULCS pic.twitter.com/u2r65UyOOE
— lolesports (@lolesports) February 4, 2016
Game 4: Roccat vs. Unicorns of Love
4 AD carries banned!
There was some fresh blood in this game: Tabbzz returning to the EU LCS as Roccat’s new AD carry, and infamous European solo queue player Rudy subbing in for UOL in the jungle position.
Rudy played very well for his first time on stage. There didn’t seem to be any nerves affecting the way he played the game. There has to be some credit given to the new look rag-tag UOL team for being able to succeed with so many last minute roster swaps.
Another relatively low-kill game. Unicorns of Love picked a scaling team composition and then dragged the game out until they were favored.
Unicorns of Love win.
We're heading into the last game of the day with these team comps!
Who will take this one – #H2KWIN or #SPYWIN? pic.twitter.com/3IUkuIKhbs— lolesports (@lolesports) February 4, 2016
Game 5: H2K vs. Splyce
Poke and peel team composition for H2K. Similar composition for Spylce, but less peel and more engage.
Jankos had a few missteps early. You may be able to chalk this up to underestimating Splyce, or he wants to really push his limits against a weaker team. He would give a kill (first blood) trying to dive Sencux, and then again shortly after when trying to steal a blue buff from Splyce.
This was your typical H2K game. It doesn’t matter who their opponent is, they are going to try and kill as many turrets as they can while exposing themselves to as little risk as possible. Despite the few kills handed to them early, H2K did what H2K does and won the game.
H2K wins.
That wraps up all of the action that took place on EU LCS W4D1. Tune in to the EU LCS tomorrow for Unicorns of Love versus Team Vitality!
