The final week of the LCS is here and the only thing teams are competing for is placement. Right now there is a three way tie for fourth which are the fourth fifth, and sixth spots. According to the bracket Origen hold the fourth spot followed by Fnatic and UOL. Even if two of them win out they can't catch up to Vitality and Splyce/Elements can't catch up to sixth, so things are pretty set going into playoffs. Here's the standings going into day one.
1) G2 Esports, H2K (13-3)
3) Team Vitality (12-4)
4) Origen, Fnatic, Unicorns of Love (9-7)
7) Splyce, Elements (5-11)
9) Roccat (3-13)
10) Giants (2-14)
The one thing that would make this weekend interesting is if, somehow, H2K or G2 managed to lose both of their games and Vitality won both of theirs. That would allow Vitality to move ahead of one of them giving them a by. A much more reasonable scenario would be one of the first place teams dropping a game and Vitality tying, but that itself is still a long shot considering the competition. Here’s the matchups for day one of the EU LCS: (Overall EU LCS record 16-4)
- Giants vs Origen
- Elements vs Fnatic
- H2K vs Unicorns of Love
- Roccat vs Team Vitality
- Splyce vs G2 Esports
Earlier this week it was listed that Origen will be without PowerOfEvil in the mid lane and xPeke will be back out with the team. Today, however, POE is listed as back in the lineup. Either way they have Giants so there isn't too much to worry about. With whoever in the mid lane this should be an easy matchup for them. With the substitution they went 2-0 last week in some rough looking games. Hopefully their lineup goes back to normal and today gives them some time to smoothe things out heading into playoffs.
Fnatic have Elements somehow got Jhin both games last week. They rolled over Giants with it and then played a tight game against Vitality, but ultimately lost. After their run at IEM that seemed to purely revolve around the Jhin pick you'd think teams would ban him from Rekkles, but it seems IEM wasn't watched by anyone. With or without that pick I don't see them struggling too much against Elements. Elements had a nice win against UOL who are struggling really hard as of late, but haven't found much against anyone else.
Speaking of UOL they take on H2k and well they've been 1-4 in the last two weeks. They've lost to mid table teams and Roccat at the bottom. H2K have continued to look good and shouldn't have any trouble today against UOL. Today should just serve as them solidifying their bye week.
Vitality dropped last week to G2 and subsequently dropped to third place. Though they don't get to compete for a bye, assuming things play out as they should, they do have an easy week on their hands. If one of the top two teams somehow manage to drop a game the sky may open up for Vitality. This week should just function as a fine tune up before playoffs begin.
All the top teams have an easy go of things to close this week out. Splyce shouldn't offer G2 anything crazy en route to them winning. They looked good last week taking out top team compatriot Vitality and didn't drop a beat against Giants. Unless something catastrophic has happened or Splyce really want me to eat my words this will be an easy win for them.
Game(s) to watch: Fnatic vs Elements is a battle of two mid table teams. One has secured a playoff spot and the other is on the outside looking in. There's no way for them to get in, but things aren't over yet. Hopefully Elements ban out Jhin so we can see what Fnatic have been working on. If they do we could have an interesting game on our hands. H2K and UOL is another good match not because of the matchup, but to see what's happening to UOL. They've had a rough go as of late and really need to find their footing. A win here would go a long way, but so would playing well in general.