Keys to victory at the EU LCS Summer Quarterfinals
It's time to break out the body paint, oversized hats, and heart-shaped balloons -- EU LCS Playoffs are here!
Let's take a look at the two upcoming EU Quarterfinals matches, and talk about how the teams have fared in their face-offs before now, and what they need to do to win this time.
If you're looking for solid answers on what teams need to do to get to Worlds, check out our guide to the Playoffs structure, Best of 5 format, and Championship Points.
#3 H2K vs. #6 Giants Gaming
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Day: Saturday, August 8
Time: 4PM CET / 8 AM PDT
Record This Split: H2K (2-0)
H2K wants to repeat history this weekend. The team hasn't lost to Giants Gaming all year.
But Giants Gaming got a significant upgrade this Split in their support spot, with Oskar "G0DFRED" Lundström's arrival marking a big upsurge in the team's win rate. Both teams were sporting a solid 4-2 record when they first faced off in Week 4 of the Summer Split, but things went poorly for Isaac "PePiiNeRO" Flores' crew in that match. H2K's smooth rotations and perfect positioning took swift advantage of the Giants' lack of coordination.
Before that match, the Giants had typically won by playing safe in the laning phase. They didn't go for big plays and just tried to come out ahead in gold at 15 minutes. Then they could force a team fight at Dragon, get some kills, and snowball from there.
But H2K's emphasis on smart roams that set up surprise-it's-our-whole-team-in-your-lane ganks perfectly punished Giants' usual game plan. Mid laner Ryu "Ryu" Sang-wook was really the only player on H2K who stayed rooted in his lane -- and that was to keep the Giants' major threat, the explosive PePiiNeRO, in check. By the end of the match, Raymond "KaSing" Tsang, Petter "Hjärnan" Freyschuss, and Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu each had 81% or higher kill participation.
However, one thing that the Giants have excelled at this Split is using their early game playstyle to bait overaggressive teams. Check out this counter play when the Copenhagen Wolves tried to start the bloodshed early in Week 1.
H2K's strategy and positioning have been very messy in the second half of the Split, so Giants will be looking to exploit any players who pop out of position or stumble on the execution of the early tower dives they should suspect H2K are planning.
If Giants want to break their loss streak against H2K, they need to get PePiiNeRO going early. He's almost always leading the charge in their wins, but that's unfortunately not a secret to anyone. H2K knew the threat he posed and absolutely locked him out of both of their previous matches. (PePiiNeRO didn't even get his first kill in their Week 8 matchup until 30 minutes in!)
To do that, Giants will need to maintain vision to spot H2K's rotations early and then respond in time for the fight. They simply can't allow H2K to succeed at, once again, having a numbers advantage in every fight that matters.
#4 Unicorns of Love vs. #5 ROCCAT
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Day: Sunday, August 9
Time: 4PM CET / 8 AM PDT
Record This Split: Tie (1-1)
Both of these teams have shown wildly diverse performances, with the most stark example being ROCCAT beating Origen and losing to Copenhagen Wolves in the same week!
"While ROCCAT have been improving, they certainly seem to have upswings that fizzle out very quickly," notes EU LCS shoutcaster James "Stress" O'Leary. "On the other side, the Unicorns of Love are very difficult to read going into a Best of 5 series."
"ROCCAT will need to come into this game prepared for anything and have solid strategy behind their play if they hope to win," Stress continues. "If the Unicorns can re-kindle the fire from the Spring Playoffs, ROCCAT will struggle to pass the ponies."
Looking at the Summer Split as a whole, the burden is definitely on the Unicorns of Love to make changes that will open opportunities for them to exploit. That's exactly what they did in Week 2, when they beat ROCCAT in a long, bloody match.
The Unicorns set the trend early by ganking ADC Paweł "Woolite" Pruski -- but they stayed behind enemy lines long enough for Woolite to respawn, grab some buddies, and get a retribution double kill onto the overextended UOL players.
The whole match was a series of drawn-out team fights and jungle party ganks, prompting shoutcaster Trevor "QuickShot" Henry to warn that the Unicorns of Love's chaotic, "almost brainless" playstyle, will disrupt their opponents' strategy and force them to just fight them over and over.
And, in this match at least, ROCCAT fell right into UOL's trap. They were indecisive, seemingly content to always follow the Unicorns' lead, instead of trying to force their own advantages. That lack of initiative frequently left ROCCAT with weak rotations and fruitless meandering that squandered their on-paper lead. Despite being ahead in gold, kills, and objectives, ROCCAT suddenly lost the game after a bad team fight 55 minutes in.
ROCCAT learned their lesson though, and played with extreme restraint the next time they faced the Unicorns in Week 5. It took UOL 17 minutes to really force ROCCAT to fight them. And even then, ROCCAT didn't panic when they were put behind.
Instead, they kept playing safe, and waited for the Unicorns to get too aggressive and overextend -- which they almost always do if given enough time. In the clip above, Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek stayed in their jungle for just a little too long, and ROCCAT retaliated quickly to turn it into 4 kills, sending UOL into a confused nosedive.
That's exactly what the boys in blue will be looking to do again this weekend in the Quarterfinals. When the Unicorns, along with their new jungler Jae-hwan "H0R0" Cho, attempt to abolish safe strategy with constant aggression, the players on ROCCAT need to keep their cool and be willing to give up the occasional random death to secure larger objectives and maintain their big-picture strategy.
Watch Them Live!
You can catch all the action -- including the NA LCS Quarterfinals -- live here on Lolesports this weekend, starting at 4PM CET / 8AM PDT on Saturday.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Nunu, he's never enjoyed a Darius, and he will always go for the kill, even when he knows he shouldn't. He currently works as a game designer on EverQuest Next at Daybreak Games. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
