The Challengers of EU Summer Promotion
Tickets are still available for the Promotion Tournament
Through two Challenger Series and a hard fought playoffs, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Cloud 9 Eclipse and Denial Esports emerged victorious over their peers. They earned a shot to battle relegated LCS teams for a position in the Summer split of the European LCS. All that stands between all three squads are three wins. Can they net the requisite victories, and etch their names in LCS history?
Ninjas in Pyjamas
NiP enters the game having earned the most Series Points of any Challenger team during both Challenger Series. They scored second place, where they lost to Cloud 9 Eclipse, in CS 1, and won CS 2 with a resounding 2-0 over Denial Esports. Unfortunately, NiP stubbed their toe against C9E again in the playoffs, but they still enter as a team with force throughout Challenger since their demotion in the Spring Promotion Tournament.
Stylistically, this series promises to be interesting. The Ninjas in Pyjamas have developed a very slow style where they don't take risks, and don't reap huge rewards. They prefer the slow-and-steady approach. It cuts down on mistakes, and allows for their carries to power up to the point where they can win a decisive engagement. Millenium is a wild card. Top laner Kev1n has exceptional mechanics, and midlaner Kerp is no slouch either. The knock on Millenium has been poor communication throughout games. If NiP tries to slow play against them, Millenium is a mechanical match, if not NiP's mechanical superior. From there, poor communication can be masked by an enormous gold advantage.
Cloud 9 Eclipse
Cloud 9 Eclipse had an up-and-down Challenger season. They stormed out to a resounding Challenger Series 1 victory, but didn't record a single win in CS 2 when they were unceremoniously swept by Denial Esports. The team regrouped, and brought jungler k0u back, to win the Spring Challenger Series playoffs where they swept Ninjas in Pyjamas. They are matched up against Supa Hot Crew in the Summer Promotion Tournament, but they will be without underage k0u in the jungle. The most glaring point for this team is adjusting to a new jungler. A large part of their loss during CS 2 was k0u's replacement during the tournament, Ihaz, not being able to provide the same type of play that has made Cloud 9 Eclipse so successful. Ihaz has stepped aside to make way for Santorin. He has some competitive experience previously as jungler for The Fox Sound among others. Santorin faces the same questions Ihaz faced during CS 2. Can he adequately fill in for what many consider one of the best up-and-coming players in Europe?
The style comparison between C9E and SHC is tough to pin down due to Santorin's presence. k0u is an aggressive, mechanically sound jungler with a noticeable tendency to be in the right place at the right time. He turned several enemy ganks on their heads during the playoffs. If Santorin cannot do that for C9E, they'll have to play a more passive game. SHC has been all over the place this split. They'll pull off a spectacular game, and then have a dud the next day. If AD Carry MrRalleZ can get rolling, it'll give SHC control of the tempo of the game, something that C9E is used to having on their side. How C9E responds to that paradigm shift will be key to how this best-of-five plays out.
Denial Esports
Denial Esports enters the Summer Promotion Tournament on the back of a third place finish in the Spring Challenger Playoffs and a second in EU CS 2. They managed to qualify for the bracket stage as Pulse Esports in EU CS 1, but Cloud 9 dismissed the team in the round of eight of that tournament. Denial has a multitude of threats for the Copenhagen Wolves to deal with. Midlaner niQ 760 has been a pillar for the Denial squad. He is primarily a ranged AP Carry player with recent solid performances on Nidalee and Ziggs. Top laner Babunia has played a bunch of Trundle throughout the Spring Challenger Series, and has posted impressive results. While Trundle is generally picked to counter bruisers, Babunia has shown to be an excellent bruiser player in his own right. The two times he tried Ryze in the playoffs yielded mixed results, but it is a completely different sort of champion than what he had shown up to that point.
Finally, the Wolves have to devise a strategy against AD Carry Woolite. Woolite played Lucian and Twitch during the playoffs a few weeks ago, and the results were mostly excellent. He did have an 0/4/0 game on Twitch, but he responded with a monstrous 13/4/7 performance while playing Twitch in the very next game against Cloud 9 Eclipse. Denial went on to lose that series, but such a hard carry from any single member is cause for concern for an opponent. Denial faces just as stiff a test to prepare for the Copenhagen Wolves. Denial's bottom lane duo is solid, and if they're able to perform, will be a major step towards unraveling the Wolves and taking their LCS spot.
What's Next?
The Summer Promotion Tournament kicks off on Thursday, April 24th at 8:00AM PST / 17:00 CEST with Millenium battling Ninjas in Pyjamas with a spot in the LCS Summer Split on the line. Catch all of the actions on lolesports.com
