EU LCS 2014 Spring Split Retrospective
Riot·4/23/2014, 11:17:01 PM·0 votes·1,311 views
In the end, Fnatic stepped up. After a season where they went from record-setting invincibility to painful mediocrity, the veteran League of Legends squad showed why they are still the best big-game team in Europe.
The ground has shifted beneath their feet, however. The spring split runner-up and Fnatic's closest rival, is the unlikely SK Gaming, a team that nearly missed out on the 2014 LCS season entirely. Third place belongs to ROCCAT, a new arrival on the LCS stage and one with almost limitless potential when they are on their game. The famed Gambit squad, meanwhile, is licking its wounds after the worst LCS result in the team's history.
The frontrunner might be the same, but everything else about the European LCS changed this split.
On paper, this team should have struggled to stay relevant in EU LCS, surrounded by so many breakout teams and star players. And at first, SK did struggle, hovering squarely in the middle of the pack while teams rose and fell around them.
But SK just kept quietly improving.
It was so gradual that it was easy to miss. SK never really had a phase where they looked as dominant as Fnatic did near the start of the season, nor did they have the “hot new team” factor that earned ROCCAT so much attention. But it didn't matter: SK was gathering steam and by the end of the season, they were a runaway freight train.
SK vs. Fnatic, Week 11
SK definitely have some great players (Candy Panda was one the spring's most reliable and dangerous ADs), but what defined them was their cool, unselfish play. Their final game of the season against Fnatic was one of their most important, but the contrast in styles is fascinating. SK are about minimizing risk and maximizing objectives. Fnatic, when they are at their best, are about shattering the enemy team by letting their star players run wild.
Fnatic's style worked brilliantly in their playoff matchup, and they have uncanny synergy of their own during full five-on-five team-fights. But SK's amazing season made a strong argument for running calculated, disciplined strategies with an unselfish lineup. They head into the All-Star break with a great spring record under their belts and tons of potential for improvement.
Gambit struggled to come to grips with ROCCAT throughout the spring split, and in the end it was ROCCAT who showed them the door out of the playoffs. But it's hard to draw any conclusions from Gambit's season. They were inconsistent, with flashes of brilliance offset by sudden fumbles. Their spring split came undone at the finish line when two bad weeks in a row set them up for their disastrous playoff encounter against ROCCAT.
More was expected of Gambit - as always. The legacy of Moscow Five is so strong that it's always a surprise when Gambit doesn't pull another unexpected composition out of their hat, or run another perplexing strategy that confounds their opponents. This spring, they still looked creative and daring... but their execution just wasn't as sharp as their new rivals, Alliance and ROCCAT. They have a lot to think about as they wait for revenge this summer.
For Millenium, the end of the spring split must be something of a relief. Their season was marked by mediocre results and unwanted tension behind the scenes that resulted in the departure of their biggest star and coach. Now they face a tough promotion tournament just to get back to the LCS stage where they struggled all spring.
Supa Hot Crew finished only one game ahead of Millenium, and the promise they showed in the spring promotion tournament against SK never quite materialized in the regular season. They do have some great moments to look back on, however, like their brilliant comeback against Gambit in Week 10.
Supa Hot Crew vs Gambit, Week 10
Games like that underscore just how much potential SHC have, and the late-season addition of Selfie in the mid-lane might prove a stroke of genius. But there is no denying that Supa Hot Crew had more bad days than good ones, and they'll need to play their best games in order to hang onto the LCS spot that fate dropped in their laps.
Copenhagen Wolves may be facing potential relegation, but they were much more competitive than either SHC or Millenium. They put a scare into Gambit in their fifth-place match in the playoffs, and made a huge comeback in the middle of the spring split. With Amazing in the jungle and Forg1ven in the bot lane, they stand a great chance of coming back in the summer to giving teams a run for their money.
SYNERGY OUTSHINING STARS
There's something very "Moneyball" about the way SK battled their way from the brink of LCS elimination in the spring promotion tournament to the top of the regular season standings. They had no superstars to anchor their lineup at the end of their disappointing 2013 summer, and no time to go find any. They had to rebuild only weeks before their promotion series against Supa Hot Crew, and then they had to replace Nyph almost immediately when he departed for Alliance.
On paper, this team should have struggled to stay relevant in EU LCS, surrounded by so many breakout teams and star players. And at first, SK did struggle, hovering squarely in the middle of the pack while teams rose and fell around them.
But SK just kept quietly improving.
It was so gradual that it was easy to miss. SK never really had a phase where they looked as dominant as Fnatic did near the start of the season, nor did they have the “hot new team” factor that earned ROCCAT so much attention. But it didn't matter: SK was gathering steam and by the end of the season, they were a runaway freight train.
SK vs. Fnatic, Week 11
SK definitely have some great players (Candy Panda was one the spring's most reliable and dangerous ADs), but what defined them was their cool, unselfish play. Their final game of the season against Fnatic was one of their most important, but the contrast in styles is fascinating. SK are about minimizing risk and maximizing objectives. Fnatic, when they are at their best, are about shattering the enemy team by letting their star players run wild.
Fnatic's style worked brilliantly in their playoff matchup, and they have uncanny synergy of their own during full five-on-five team-fights. But SK's amazing season made a strong argument for running calculated, disciplined strategies with an unselfish lineup. They head into the All-Star break with a great spring record under their belts and tons of potential for improvement.
MORE TO PROVE
If there were a reverse-image of SK this season, it would probably be Alliance. Alliance's lineup was carefully selected to give them the greatest firepower at each position, and they skimmed off the cream of 2013's LCS crop by bringing in Shook, Tabzz, and Nyph to complement Froggen and Wickd. For the longest time, it looked like the Alliance experiment was headed for disaster. Yet Alliance slowly stabilized around mid-season, then came roaring to life with a 4-0 Week 8 performance. Though it took them a while, they finally found a level of cooperation and trust in one another that had eluded them throughout the early part of the season. Their eight-game streak toward the end of the season proved what this team is capable of, and vindicated the vision that had brought them all together. But there is still a lot more work to be done, as their series against ROCCAT showed. ALL vs. ROC Game 2, LCS Playoffs ROCCAT's third-place finish was a solid result for the freshman Polish squad, and their form in the first half of the split established them as one of the most dynamic and exciting teams in Europe. In their maiden LCS voyage, their entire roster showed the kind of incredible individual ability that has kept Fnatic near the top of the world, and their strategy and coordination was some of the best in the division. The scary thing about ROCCAT, if you're anyone else in the EU LCS, is that they're really just getting started. With more time and more experience in pressure situations, this team could cause some major upsets.
Gambit struggled to come to grips with ROCCAT throughout the spring split, and in the end it was ROCCAT who showed them the door out of the playoffs. But it's hard to draw any conclusions from Gambit's season. They were inconsistent, with flashes of brilliance offset by sudden fumbles. Their spring split came undone at the finish line when two bad weeks in a row set them up for their disastrous playoff encounter against ROCCAT.
More was expected of Gambit - as always. The legacy of Moscow Five is so strong that it's always a surprise when Gambit doesn't pull another unexpected composition out of their hat, or run another perplexing strategy that confounds their opponents. This spring, they still looked creative and daring... but their execution just wasn't as sharp as their new rivals, Alliance and ROCCAT. They have a lot to think about as they wait for revenge this summer.
ON THE DEFENSIVE
Gambit, at least, are guaranteed another chance to prove themselves. That's not a luxury enjoyed by Millenium, Supa Hot Crew, or the Copenhagen Wolves, who have to win their series in the summer promotion tournament in order to get any rematches.
For Millenium, the end of the spring split must be something of a relief. Their season was marked by mediocre results and unwanted tension behind the scenes that resulted in the departure of their biggest star and coach. Now they face a tough promotion tournament just to get back to the LCS stage where they struggled all spring.
Supa Hot Crew finished only one game ahead of Millenium, and the promise they showed in the spring promotion tournament against SK never quite materialized in the regular season. They do have some great moments to look back on, however, like their brilliant comeback against Gambit in Week 10.
Supa Hot Crew vs Gambit, Week 10
Games like that underscore just how much potential SHC have, and the late-season addition of Selfie in the mid-lane might prove a stroke of genius. But there is no denying that Supa Hot Crew had more bad days than good ones, and they'll need to play their best games in order to hang onto the LCS spot that fate dropped in their laps.
Copenhagen Wolves may be facing potential relegation, but they were much more competitive than either SHC or Millenium. They put a scare into Gambit in their fifth-place match in the playoffs, and made a huge comeback in the middle of the spring split. With Amazing in the jungle and Forg1ven in the bot lane, they stand a great chance of coming back in the summer to giving teams a run for their money.
=UNSTOPPABLE :)