LEC Summer Playoffs Round 1 Preview – who is making to the Season Finals?

LoL Esports

July 10, 2024

Davide Xu

With the LEC Summer regular split over, teams are getting ready for the last spurt to qualify for Worlds: who is coming out victorious in playoffs? Let’s find out.

Image Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games

LEC Summer Playoffs – action is back after EWC

The LEC went on a one-week break given that FNC and G2 took part in the Esports World Cup. Now that the EWC is over and teams have gone back to Berlin, fans will be getting an explosive weekend to start the LEC Summer Playoffs. Let’s dive into each matchup.

SK vs TH

Playoffs kick off with the opener between SK Gaming and Team Heretics. Based on the performance shown recently, SK Gaming are definitely the favorite going into the matchup. They were first place in the regular split and have convincingly shown that the upgrades with the Korean bot lane have done wonders.

The question is not whether they will beat TH but more if they are going to maintain that form in the future: the team has often dropped a bit of form when it came to Best-of series. While I don’t think it will be the case this time around, SK needs to get a high placing if they want to qualify for Season Finals.

FNC vs GX

After what FNC showed during the last weeks and at the EWC, there might be some serious concerns about the team. Despite GIANTX not looking like the strongest opponent, FNC’s small slump might affect them more in the short term, especially given that they will have even less time to prepare compared to other teams. They are still the stronger team on paper, but the key to this series will be to understand whether they can bounce back.

BDS vs MDK

Despite MDK’s underperformance during the summer regular split, they still have a good chance of qualifying for the Season Finals. The same can be said about BDS, who has probably been the most consistent team in the LEC aside from G2. In particular, the French team continues to hone their macro-focused playstyle, which can be troublesome for a team like MDK. Based on what we saw so far, BDS is the favorite of this matchup but if there is one team who can surprise us, that is definitely MDK.

Image Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games

G2 vs KC

G2 have come back from the EWC after taking a hard beating from Top Esports. While the result itself is not that indicative, G2’s journey in Saudi Arabia might have an important influence on their preparation going into playoffs. Luckily for them, their spot at the Season Finals is already locked in so they shouldn’t have as much pressure as other teams going forward, especially with Hans Sama at the top of the LEC ADC power rankings.

For KCorp, instead, this might be the last chance: they need to get as many points as possible, hoping that their competitors do not also finish at the higher ends of the standings. If both teams are in form, though, G2 are still the hard favorites of this series.