Vitality vs Excel – LEC Spring Playoffs Match Preview

LoL Esports

March 23, 2022

Davide Xu

LEC Spring Playoffs are a few days away and it’s time to check out the first round of Losers’ Bracket between Excel Esports and Vitality!

Who will advance and who will finish their Spring Split after the series? Let’s dive into it.

Vitality vs Excel Esports – LEC Spring Playoffs Loser Bracket

Both Vitality and Excel have made it to the playoffs, prevailing over the 7th place MAD Lions at the very end of the regular split. While the two teams have ended with a 9-9 record, the impressions given by the performances of the two have been very different.

On one hand, Excel Esports were fairly consistent throughout the split, winning most of the worst teams and occasionally beating a team slightly higher than them. This was mainly thanks to the arrival of G2’s former support Mikyx, who elevated the team’s potential just enough. With him, XL broke the long playoff curse that the team has had in the past few years in the LEC.

The team mainly plays through its bot lane, since Patrik is a very solid ADCs who excels in teamfights. Aside from the first minutes of laning, jungler and support are mainly responsible for the early-mid game transition, as the two usually roam together to make coordinated plays. Whether it’s to pick up the Rift Herald or find potential lethal on a lane, XL have found their own dimension. After returning to the LEC, Finn has been playing at a high level among top laners, and he’s been very convincing when it comes to secondary carries and split pushing potential. As a consequence, mid lane Nukeduck covers more of a supportive role with good scaling at the later stages of the game.

Vitality, instead, have a very unique playstyle that differs from most teams in the LEC. Not only do they rely much more on the individual talents in the roster, but they also allow jungler Selfmade to be a carry. He’s very comfortable on carry junglers and isn’t afraid of risking the play. Alongside him, Alphari and Carzzy are the two primary damage dealers in the team, racking up almost 50% of the total damage done.

One of the big problems on the Vitality roster is their consistency. With the talent that they have managed to put together, Vitality shouldn’t have any problems entering the top 4. They have shown they have the potential to beat G2 but that was it. They beat all the bottom-tier teams, but they weren’t able to match the higher seeds. While everyone says we need to wait for Vitality in Summer to see their real value, I think that Spring Playoffs should be indicative of what the real expectations for this team should be.

Vitality vs Excel Esports Series Predictions

With that being said, this match is a tough one to make a call on. If we’re looking at past matches, XL won both Bo1 against Vitality. They should be the favorites coming into the series. However, Vitality have had two weeks of preparation and they might have worked out something against XL.

I’m expecting it to be a close series between the two, with wins by both teams. A 3-1 score should be a reasonable result, and I’m favoring XL Esports also this time around. The best odds for this series, though, are not related to the result itself. I suggest looking at the usual bets regarding first blood and objectives, while also looking at the map duration. Below are the LoL odds offered by GG.BET: