Predicted to be a clash of styles hinging on a perceived Jungler mismatch our first Semi-Final was to be decided in the early game. Could clean up their act and dispatch a
team on a late season upswing that had secured them second place in regular season? After a shaky quarter finals against
in which
relied on their late game, the question was, could they survive
and their formidable early game? Let’s find out in this weeks EU LCS Playoff recap.
Game One:
Top: Maokai. Jungle: Skarner. Mid: Cassiopeia. Bot: Ezreal. Support: Shen.
Top: Kled. Jungle: Trundle. Mid: Galio. Bot: Varus. Support: Poppy.
The draft lived up to expectation. drafting three winning lanes and a champion for Kikis that would allow him to pressure and counter jungle Amazing and
drafting scaling lanes and team fight. Deviating from the script however Amazing was able to keep up with Kikis in the early game with successful ganks of his own. After a hotly contested early game in which Kikis secured Rift Herald and Infernal Drake,
made a critical mistake. Whilst attempting to escort Rift Herald to the mid lane inner turret of
, Jactroll was caught out by Skarner sparking the decisive team fight. Cabochard’s Kled ult was blocked dragging him under mid turret where Upset and Vizicsacsi killed him easily. A few seconds later a flank from Nukeduck’s Cassio secured them two further kills onto Attila and Jactroll. From here it was an easy transition to Baron. Despite
attempted smite steal, the Baron was secured by Amazing. From here with their scaling advantage and cleaner team-fighting it was only a formality for
to secure game one.
Game Two:
Top: Rumble Jungle: Skarner Mid: Irelia Bot: Ezreal Support: Shen
Top: Orrn Jungle: Trundle Mid: Taliyah Bot: Varus Support: Poppy
With comfortably securing a one game lead the pressure was on for
. Could Kikis return to his dominant form and lead
to victory? Sadly for Kikis game two began with a failed four man tower dive bot-lane. With Nukeduck and Vizicsacsi securing early leads
steamrolled
for a two game lead. Now on match point it was looking likely that
would clean sweep
unless they could fix the poor team fighting and mid game shot calling that had plagued them in the first two games.
Game Three:
Top: Cho Gath Jungle: Poppy Mid: Irelia Bot: Kai’sa Support: Alistar
Top: Sion Jungle: Kindred Mid: Galio Bot: Draven Support: Braum
With on the verge of a clean sweep
drafted for early game team-fights putting Attila on the Draven that they found success with at the end of the regular season. The game began with Kikis returning to form and pressuring Amazing early. With Skarner banned Amazing’s impact on Poppy was negligible resulting in a strong lead for
. A twenty minute pick on Amazing gifted
the Baron and an nine thousand gold lead. From here
cleanly secured bot and mid inhibitors as
watched.
then looked for the third and final inhibitor and crushed
in a team fight resulting in a Quadrakill for Attila. In a bid to secure the Pentakill Vitality ignored the open and damaged nexus and attempted the fountain dive. Despite failing to secure the Pentakill when
respawned they closed the game out with ease for their first win of the series.
Game Four:
Top: Poppy Jungle: Trundle Mid: Leblanc Bot: Jhin Support: Alistar
Top: Jarvan Jungle: Graves Mid: Galio Bot: Draven Support: Braum
With securing a win it was important to see
respond positively bouncing against a reinvigorated
.
started by drafting Nukeduck Leblanc and putting Amazing on Trundle for early pressure. In this game Amazing successfully ganked top to shut down the Jarvan and secured early kills for Nukeduck and Upset. With a 9k gold lead and a Baron
seemed to have shaken off the sloppy play that had begun to creep into the game. When
won a teamfight at their botlane inhibitor the comeback was on. Slowly but surely
began to claw the lead back. When Amazing got caught and died in the river
fans began to sweat as
eyed the Baron. The four man unit of
delayed the Baron long enough for Amazing to respawn and rush to the fight as
committed to the play. Although Kikis secured the Baron the ensuing fight was disastrous for
who were aced and had to watch as
locked their place for the organisations first ever EU-LCS Final.
Congratulations to on their first finals. It seems that the
Hype Train has well and truly left the station, destination Madrid.
Post written by: Hugh Mccormick