The Recap: Europe Week 10

With the spring split in its final days, the EU LCS squads are scrambling to climb to the top of the ladder. Chief among them is Alliance, whose eight-game winning streak has skyrocketed them to the top of the rankings. However, the red hot SK Gaming, perpetual powerhouses Fnatic and Gambit Gaming, and ROCCAT are all hot on their heels.

Games of the Week

ROCCAT vs. Alliance We’ve known for a few weeks that Alliance had more than come into their own as a team despite their early season struggle, and their early game against ROCCAT more than cemented that. They may not have gotten a huge number of kills, but they managed to establish map pressure, something that they never let up for the rest of the match. The very presence of Evelynn on the map forces opposing teams to play on the defensive, and Shook’s positioning with the stealthy lady made sure that ROCCAT couldn’t play too aggressively. Without the ability to safely farm or take objectives, ROCCAT slowly fell further behind, eventually succumbing to Alliance’s sieges. Alliance vs SK Gaming Shook’s reign of terror on Evelynn continued on the second day of Week 10. Once again, he seemed to be everywhere at once, picking up kills and assists each time SK was even the slightest bit out of position. Despite valiant efforts from Svenskeren and Jesiz on Kha’Zix and Gragas respectively (including an excellent Explosive Cask right at the end of the game), SK couldn’t respond to Alliance's rotations quickly enough to shut down the siege coming from multiple fronts. SHC vs Gambit Gaming About halfway through the game, Gambit had a gold lead approaching ten thousand. They were taking objectives left and right, controlling both the dragon and Baron for much of the game. Slowly but surely, the late game potential of Mimer’s Ryze and Selfie’s Kayle began to take hold. They managed to defend Gambit’s Baron-buffed sieges, slowly chipping away at the gold lead. They sat back, waited for Gambit to make mistakes, and took full advantage every time Darien’s Renekton or Diamond’s Xin Zhao dove a bit too hard, forcing the rest of their team to back off. With each retreat, SHC responded with more and more objectives, finally taking the Nexus.

Overachievers of the Week

Shook Spikes. Spikes everywhere. No one could pin down Shook’s Evelynn in either of Alliance’s games this week as he ran around the map causing havoc in every lane he appeared in. His unrelenting assault allowed Alliance to play the objective game perfectly, putting map pressure everywhere at once. xPeke Fnatic has been on point the past few weeks, looking like their old selves, and xPeke is at the forefront of their push towards the top of the standings again. He showed off both a standby in Gragas and a new pick in Zed this week, playing near impeccably on both.

Surprises of the Week

The Rise of Ryze With the buffs to both Ryze’s range and the additional mana coming from Tear of the Goddess, the Rogue Mage is back in the LCS. As to be expected, his late game power is something that needs to be cultivated over time. Supa Hot Crew did so perfectly when Mimer brought the champion into the top lane against Gambit Gaming. Once he came online, he was able to tear through everyone on Gambit, helping SHC to come back from a huge deficit against the Russian squad.

Disappointment of the Week

Xerath’s First Strike Xerath’s rework was made available for LCS teams for a few weeks now, but this week was the first time he saw play on the Rift. Unfortunately, despite his extremely long range, he wasn’t able to really make full use of his new kit, as neither Copenhagen Wolves nor Millenium could find victories while using the magical sniper.

Related Articles

• All-Star Challenge Voting Info
• By the Numbers - Alliance
• The New Supa Hot Mid