EU LCS Playoffs Day 1 Recap; Day 2 Preview
Riot·4/16/2014, 1:05:07 AM·0 votes·430 views
The EU LCS playoffs kicked off with an epic series between the Copenhagen Wolves and Alliance. The late game compositions that Alliance built with Ryze and Karthus as their core carries withstood the constant assaults from the Wolves and ground out two victories. Meanwhile, ROCCAT and Gambit Gaming concluded the day with their own battle. ROCCAT was able to punish any poor decisions made by Gambit and sealed away the Russians in two convincing games.
Ryze might be somewhat outside of Wickd’s traditional champion pool, but he showed off his ability to play the ranged champion in the final two games of Alliance’s quarterfinal matchup. In both games, he survived the champion’s weak early game while shutting down his lane opponent. Once he hit the late game, no one on the Copenhagen Wolves could deal with him, and he became a teamfight menace, dealing huge damage to everyone in his path.
Alliance may have looked dominant in their two wins against Copenhagen Wolves thanks to Wickd and Tabzz’s incredible performances, but they’re more than going to have their hands full with Fnatic.
First off, Wickd is going to have to take on sOAZ in the top lane. Known for his massive champion pool, Fnatic’s top laner will be able to likely have an answer to whatever Wickd will be able to throw at him. Even if Wickd manages to get his hands on his famed Irelia, sOAZ is almost guaranteed to be able to go toe to toe with him.
The biggest matchup tomorrow, though, will come in the bottom lane. Tabzz has been playing out of his mind recently, but the young phenom Rekkles will be doing his best to slow him down. Each carry has proven to be extremely slippery, rarely dying when their teams are doing well. Their supports Nyph and YellOwStaR are two of the most experienced players in the LCS, so watch for them to keep their aggressive AD carries alive while they do battle. It’s likely that whoever comes out of the laning phase ahead will carry their team to victory.
He may not have had the biggest KDA in the world, but every time Xaxus and his Jax showed up in teamfights, Gambit had to seriously reconsider their involvement in the brawl. He consistently dealt out huge amounts of damage, Counter Strike stuns on multiple targets, and provided tons of tankiness for his team.
His teamfighting may have been incredible, but he really shone when it came to his smart decision making. He knew exactly when to split push, when to teleport back, and rarely overestimated his - admittedly impressive - strength. His very presence on the Rift forced Gambit to send multiple members to deal with him, granting the rest of ROCCAT the victory.
ROCCAT looked amazing against Gambit, but their next challenge will be the red hot SK Gaming.
Both teams are full of players that can carry at any time, but our eyes are drawn to the middle lane, where ROCCAT’s Overpow will go up against SK Gaming’s Jesiz. Both highly adaptable players that love to outpick their opponents, champion select will be hotly contested between the two.
Once laning phase ends, however, the real action will begin. Watch for ROCCAT to take compositions that favor heavy crowd control, while SK Gaming will likely look for poke champions to fill out their roster. As a result, whoever takes control in the midgame will likely take the victory and secure their spot in the European Grand Finals.
Alliance vs. Copenhagen Wolves
Game 1 There are times when an early game mistake can cost you in the long term. Mere moments into the first game of the EU LCS quarterfinals, Alliance and Copenhagen Wolves were trading towers in the top and bottom lanes. When the Wolves took a second tower and went in for the third, Alliance should have headed home to defend it. They didn’t, failed to pick up a third tower themselves, and ended up losing both Youngbuck’s life and an inhibitor turret. From there, they struggled hard to keep up with Copenhagen Wolves’ engage-heavy squad. Tabzz and his Twitch did well, but could rarely stay safe long enough to get off a fight-winning Spray and Pray. It certainly didn’t help that Youngbuck’s Jax consistently took on the split pushing role, grabbing towers while Alliance dealt with the rest of the Wolves. After a pair of Baron buffs, Copenhagen Wolves finally managed to pick off enough squishy targets to safely take the Nexus. Game 2 When Froggen picked up Karthus to go up against cowTard’s Lulu, we knew one thing: He’d be doing a ton of farming in the middle lane. Knowing he’d be against a relatively immobile champion during much of the early game, cowTard went ahead and took advantage, wandering around the map, pressuring the other lanes by taking kills and turrets, doing his best to slow down the power spike of Alliance’s late game-focused team composition. Unfortunately for them, they weren’t able to win the game before Wickd’s Ryze got the items necessary to become an absolute monster, largely in part to Tabzz’s amazing Lucian play. Once he got going, he began punishing anyone who stepped even remotely out of position, dropping a Rune Prison and then bursting them down. Every time the Wolves lost a member, Alliance took advantage, methodically taking towers and chipping away at the deficit. Finally, once they’d taken the gold lead, Alliance pushed hard on the bottom lane, rolling through everyone in their path and tying up the series 1-1 Game 3 The a semifinal trip on the line, Copenhagen Wolves and Alliance weren’t willing to give up an inch to their opponents. Despite Wickd giving up First Blood at level 1, both squads played relatively safe for much of the early game, matching one another's’ rotations and disengaging from risky teamfights. Much like Game 2, however, Alliance began to pull away in the midgame. Wickd’s Ryze completely shut out YoungBuck’s Dr. Mundo, preventing him from achieving his hyper tanky state while simultaneously building up his own damage. Again, Copenhagen Wolves simply couldn’t deal with the pressure coming out of him and Tabzz’s Lucian, eventually being sieged out of the European LCS playoffs.MVP
Wickd
Ryze might be somewhat outside of Wickd’s traditional champion pool, but he showed off his ability to play the ranged champion in the final two games of Alliance’s quarterfinal matchup. In both games, he survived the champion’s weak early game while shutting down his lane opponent. Once he hit the late game, no one on the Copenhagen Wolves could deal with him, and he became a teamfight menace, dealing huge damage to everyone in his path.
Up Next for Alliance - Fnatic
Alliance may have looked dominant in their two wins against Copenhagen Wolves thanks to Wickd and Tabzz’s incredible performances, but they’re more than going to have their hands full with Fnatic.
First off, Wickd is going to have to take on sOAZ in the top lane. Known for his massive champion pool, Fnatic’s top laner will be able to likely have an answer to whatever Wickd will be able to throw at him. Even if Wickd manages to get his hands on his famed Irelia, sOAZ is almost guaranteed to be able to go toe to toe with him.
The biggest matchup tomorrow, though, will come in the bottom lane. Tabzz has been playing out of his mind recently, but the young phenom Rekkles will be doing his best to slow him down. Each carry has proven to be extremely slippery, rarely dying when their teams are doing well. Their supports Nyph and YellOwStaR are two of the most experienced players in the LCS, so watch for them to keep their aggressive AD carries alive while they do battle. It’s likely that whoever comes out of the laning phase ahead will carry their team to victory.
ROCCAT vs. Gambit
Game 1 If anyone thought that the match between ROCCAT and Gambit would be heavily favored either way, the early part of Game 1 showed off just how evenly matched these two teams were. Fights went back and forth early, with Gambit taking advantage of their pick composition to seize map pressure while ROCCAT looked to force their opponents into full blown teamfights. Things looked good for Gambit when they took a convincing victory over ROCCAT at the Baron pit, but as soon as the Polish squad respawned, they sprinted to the Dragon pit to stop Alex Ich and company. Thanks to an immensely strong Jax coming from Xaxus, ROCCAT easily stomped the grouped up Gambit. From there, the team sent Xaxus off to split push while they sieged down towers. Then, after a few amazing Thresh Death Sentences from VandeR, they took down as many squishy targets as they could, allowing them to take the first game of the best of three. Game 2 If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Despite Xaxus’ Jax, VandeR’s Thresh, and Jankos' Elise being dominant in Game 1, Gambit didn’t feel the need to ban them out. Of course, ROCCAT went ahead and grabbed the trio. This time around, things went even worse for Gambit, as Jankos sped around the map, nabbing kills and assists for his teammates at a rapid pace. From there, his Elise frightened off anyone she crawled towards. It didn’t help that Gambit couldn’t seem to stop making mistakes, consistently getting caught out by the crowd control of every champion in ROCCAT’s lineup. Each time any members of Gambit stepped out of line, ROCCAT was there to punish them, and then take the objectives necessary to take a firm lead over the Russian stalwarts. Again, Xaxus went off on his own to split push, while the rest of his team shoved primary objectives. And again, it worked. Gambit couldn’t deal with the siege on multiple fronts, and ROCCAT fought their way to a semifinal matchup against SK Gaming.MVP
Xaxus
He may not have had the biggest KDA in the world, but every time Xaxus and his Jax showed up in teamfights, Gambit had to seriously reconsider their involvement in the brawl. He consistently dealt out huge amounts of damage, Counter Strike stuns on multiple targets, and provided tons of tankiness for his team.
His teamfighting may have been incredible, but he really shone when it came to his smart decision making. He knew exactly when to split push, when to teleport back, and rarely overestimated his - admittedly impressive - strength. His very presence on the Rift forced Gambit to send multiple members to deal with him, granting the rest of ROCCAT the victory.
Up Next for ROCCAT - SK Gaming
ROCCAT looked amazing against Gambit, but their next challenge will be the red hot SK Gaming.
Both teams are full of players that can carry at any time, but our eyes are drawn to the middle lane, where ROCCAT’s Overpow will go up against SK Gaming’s Jesiz. Both highly adaptable players that love to outpick their opponents, champion select will be hotly contested between the two.
Once laning phase ends, however, the real action will begin. Watch for ROCCAT to take compositions that favor heavy crowd control, while SK Gaming will likely look for poke champions to fill out their roster. As a result, whoever takes control in the midgame will likely take the victory and secure their spot in the European Grand Finals.
