LEC Playoffs & the path to Worlds

LoL Esports

August 23, 2019

After nine grueling weeks of competition the LEC Summer Playoffs kick off later today with teams Splyce and Rogue taking on the Summoners Rift. Last week’s mind-breaker scenarios saw SK-Gaming out of playoffs after a lost tiebreaker to Vitality, while Origen fumbled the entire week and ended the split in 8^th place. A mistake was made in our article about last week’s scenarios in not taking into account the tiebreaker rule changes.

I have hoped for a three-way tie between the teams but the new rules have changed the way ties are played out. (Oops) Either way, four teams Origen, SK-Gaming, Vitality and Rogue ended their split on a 7-11 W/L record showing the parity in strength and the evolution of the LEC teams over the 2019 season.

Heading into Playoffs, G2 has already secured their Worlds 2019 spot by the amount of championship points they acquired. Even in an unlikely scenario that they lose both matches in playoffs, they would still end the split in 3^rd place and earn 160 Championship points which still makes them the bracket “King of the Hill” in 2019 and guarantees them at least play-ins.

Origen missed Playoffs in Summer but have their 70 points from reaching second in Spring. The way the Summer split standings played out, OG will have a shot at the LEC Regionals in September to earn their ticket to Worlds 2019 by starting from the bottom of the King of the Hill bracket.

In case they don’t win summer, Fnatic also have their spot for regionals guaranteed. This leaves us with the remaining four Playoffs teams battling for the last Regionals spot and a shot at Worlds 2019.

Playoffs: Round 1

As the third place in the Summer Split, Splyce had the chance of determining the starting matches in Playoffs. They chose Rogue as their opponent which also means Schalke04 and Vitality would be the second match in Round 1. With the matchups set it is time to put the analysis hat on and take a look at the first two best-of-fives happening this weekend.

We are starting with the lower seeds, Schalke04 and Vitality. During the regular season S04 had Vitality’s number both time the teams met. Abeddage, Upset and Trick had unchallenged games on both occasions and give the team the W twice. Vitality came into playoffs by the skin of their teeth, they won versus SK Gaming but even that tiebreaker was touch and go for a while. Nothing in this split is going right for the lineup. The botlane for Vitality is inconsistent in performance, the Italian stallion is just not having an impact for his team and Cabochard in the top lane is just not enough to give the team any stability. Overall Vitality is looking like a mess the entire summer season and it would be an absolute miracle if they come out ahead of Schalke 04 in Round 1. In coach YamatoCannon we trust.

The Friday matchup features Splyce and Rogue. During the entire 2019 season Splyce has easily dominated Rogue on all four occasions and are the absolute favorites in this one. Although Rogue has shown growth unlike any other team in the LEC during Summer, they are still not prepared to take on the seasoned squad of Splyce. There is not much to analyze in this one as both teams are fairly straightforward in their playstyle. The tons of experience Splyce has will be detrimental to Rogue’s hopes of advancing.

By the end of this weekend, we can be fairly certain teams Schalke04 and Splyce will be advancing forward to the next round.