EU LCS Week 8 Analysis: They See Me Rollin'...

This penultimate week of the EU LCS held records galore. From complete turnarounds and surprising performances from bottom-of-the-table teams to some shocking picks and the fastest game time yet this split (let’s just say it almost couldn’t have ended as quickly even with a forfeit). Yes, this week has seen teams make and break themselves for the Playoffs. But without further ado let’s discuss some of the prioritized champions we saw coming out of this week’s games.

This week, the star of the show has to be Rammus. He popped up for the top lane game after game and primarily saw a huge amount of success with his insane tankiness and deceptive damage often tipping the balance for teams. With heavy emphasis being put by teams on AD champions, and as the ADC position remains ever prominent, this “armordillo” has been extremely effective. Aside from Rammus, Gragas was heavily prioritized for the jungle, Braum and Nautilus saw a lot of play. Lee Sin, Corki and Kalista also saw a lot of action.

DAY 1

Day 1 of the EU LCS kicked off with Fnatic vs Giants, in one of this week’s more “one-sided” games. Fnatic opted to pick up Jhin for the ADC role- a very strange pickup as his power has been questioned by many in the League of Legends community. However, they seemed confident in picking him up in both of their games this week! A very nice use of Corki’s package gave Fnatic an early lead, and from there the kills came thick and fast for this team. An absolutely fantastically orchestrated team fight by Fnatic in Giants’ jungle extended this lead, and the lack of any sort of proactive play on Giants’ side meant they lost out at 25 minutes.

H2K faced Roccat in the second game of this week. Sivir came out in the ADC position for H2K versus Roccat’s Kalista. Very poor positioning from H2K gave Roccat early kills, but H2K’s rapid response in applying pressure began to catch them out more and more. Odoamne’s tanky Rammus even baited two members of Roccat into a Double Kill! A brilliantly conceived team composition from H2K, combined with clever play gave them a clean win over Roccat.

Next it was Unicorns Of Love versus Origen, with the backdoor-king xPeke making a reappearance in the mid lane. UOL’s powerful lock-down and Crowd Control on Nautilus, Gangplank and Alistar was matched by a dynamic composition from Origen, which included Lee Sin, Corki and Lucian. A few messy plays early still resulted in success for both teams, and they were still even into the tail-end of the mid-game. Origen began to show some poor positioning, however, and UOL caught them out several times to open up a bit more of a lead. Incredible team fighting from UOL seemed to solidify their dominance towards the late game. Origen came back with an outplay and took Baron only to be pushed back to their Nexus turrets soon after! This was where “mistakes were made” by UOL, and with a far too aggressive push they conceded an Ace and the game to Fnatic.

The Vitality vs G2 game saw “The Cane” Nasus come out for Vitality. This was a ballsy pick, however, with their team comp lacking any real hard engage they were left with few options in that department. Cabochard performed well on Nasus early, picking up several kills for himself; although as time went on Vitality he dropped onto the back foot. G2, with their aggressive plays and map-wide pressure simply squeezed Vitality all through the mid-game. All seemed lost until Hjarnan pulled off a fantastic outplay on Kalista, securing a Quadra Kill and an Ace for Vitality. However, a close fight in their base eventually gave G2 the win.

Elements battled Splyce next, with one of the better games to see this week in my opinion. Splyce was caught out early with some over-aggression and gave up a few easy kills to Elements. Kill after kill raced in for Elements (the underdog), until one engage too many handed Splyce the advantage and they were able to take Baron. From there on out, Splyce upped the stakes and several fights around Baron were extremely close. In the end though Elements took another Baron and were able to siege down Splyce’s base, exploiting their mistakes very efficiently.

DAY 2

Day 2 began with yet another record-breaking game- the fastest yet this year. When I say that the game was G2 against Giants, those of you with any knowledge of this year’s LCS will perhaps have some idea of the devastation that occurred. In my humble opinion, Giants lost the game in champ-select by picking up a far too tricky a composition with the likes of Lee Sin, Poppy, Azir and Kalista. G2, on the other hand, picked up Lulu and Nautilus. The game was over just a hair before 21 minutes. There isn’t really much more to say about this game- so maybe just go and watch it. It won’t take very long.

Next Fnatic went head to head with Vitality, and Fnatic’s little Jhin quivered before the terrifying composition of Nautilus, Gragas, Gangplank, Kalista and Thresh carried by Vitality. Despite this insanely overloaded team, Fnatic took a slight lead early on by splitting up a Vitality team fight, and a terrible Baron attempt by Vitality gave Fnatic even more of an advantage. Great use of Curtain Call by Rekkles showed us that perhaps Jhin has a place here after all. Although perhaps next time Fnatic won’t attempt a dragon steal (even when it’s the fifth dragon) when Cabochard has Teleport available. Vitality win with Hjarnan finishing 11/1 on Kalista.

In the third game of Day 2, Splyce was squeezed and suffocated by H2K until they begged for mercy. Zed came out for Splyce to little effect and H2K picked up Rammus, Nidalee, Leblanc and Lucian. H2K showed dominance throughout the game and exploited Splyce’s bad positioning. Their superior mechanical skills (especially on Vandor, who got off several montage-worthy hooks on Thresh) left Splyce in the dust and they wiped the floor with them, not giving them any room to breathe and ending with 13-2 on the scoreboard.

Elements were matched with Unicorns Of Love in the second to last game of the second last week. Elements came out with a shocking, “devil-may-care” style comp. They picked up Trundle, Karma, Miss Fortune and Morgana. Both teams had a lot of wave clear but that’s where the similarities end. Elements counter-engaged well on UOL and punished them early; however, UOL took Baron and responded with several kills of their own. Several lackluster Bullet Time ultimates from MrRallez on Miss Fortune made me doubt him somewhat as a high-tier ADC. Despite UOL coming back into the game with a few good picks, Elements was able to secure Baron and push down UOL’s base taking their first win since Week 5. This was great to see from a low-tier versus a high-tier team!

Finally it was Roccat versus Origen. The game began with excitement for once; Origen pulled off a successful invade into Roccat’s jungle and secured the Red Buff and a kill. xPeke feel in the mid lane and Amazing was taken down only to get revenge soon after. The most valiant attempt to juke out of a bad spot by xPeke on Leblanc unfortunately ended in failure and Roccat began to create a sizable lead. In fact a Baron, two inhibitors and a dragon later to Roccat, Origen appeared completely washed out of this game. This was when sOAZ pulled the backdoor out of the bag and distracted Roccat’s attention long enough for Origen to take Baron, push and win the game!

Aside from seeing some highlight personal performances and big turnarounds for teams, this week has given us a fairly decent look into the final Playoffs of the Spring Split. Obviously H2K and G2 are leading the table and look safe coming into next week. No one is expecting any big surprises there, as these teams have remained consistent throughout this Split. Moving down, Vitality ais looking extremely strong, despite some mistake this week, and I personally think this team has big things in its future. Origen cleaned up this week and with the return of xPeke are looking as strong as ever. So long as they keep focus in their games and don’t make overly risky moves they have a lot of potential, despite their past failures. Fnatic and Elements are looking stronger, however, I personally wouldn’t put any eggs in these far too inconsistent baskets. Unicorns Of Love are wavering and Roccat and Giants are not going anywhere.

As far as picks are concerned, a lot will depend on any upcoming patches, but it is safe to say that most of the picks mentioned a lot in this article will be returning. As predicted, Kog’Maw was not quite as heavily prioritized this week and Rammus came to the fore. Next week, I think Kalista may be banned even more (especially away from some specific players… ahem… Hjarnan), as will Corki.

All in all, this week was explosive and surprising in many ways. We are all excited to see who will be the final victor next week, and who will be going home. Good luck to all players out there, and don’t forget to check in next week for the final round-up on the EU LCS Spring Split of 2016!