The kings of Europe are dead. All hail the new kings of Europe. But who are they exactly?
If you missed the games this week for the European League of Legends Championship Series, you missed what could be called the proverbial passing of the torch. The old rulers of Fnatic and Origen underperformed heavily this week and we seemingly have our new teams to beat in the form of H2K and G2 Esports. Despite the standings feeling more clear-cut now, there was a whole lot of action that occurred this week. Here are just a few of the top matches:
Highlights
G2 Esports vs Origen
Origen ran a poke/siege comp that oddly echoed what G2 Esports ran the previous week to great success. But, G2 showed that they are for real, running a slick engage/team fight comp in response. They had very tight coordination in their movements, knowing exactly when their allies would be able to turn an engagement in their favor. A few slip-ups due to overaggression gave Origen a few windows to get back into the game, but OG showed that they are still grasping for what they used to be and never really looked to be on entirely the same page.
Unicorns of Love vs Team Vitality
In a fireworks match between two top teams, Unicorns of Love pulled in a sizeable lead early over Team Vitality with an incredible performance by UOL's Kiss "Vizicsacsi" Tamás on Poppy. Vitality's Petter "Hjärnan" Freyschuss on Jinx ran into similar problems he has had this season where he got caught out way too times. But, a few gusty Baron fights and base defenses by Vitality kept it close enough to delay until Jinx came online as the late-game hyper carry that she is. Despite Vitality's efforts, this isn't Season 5 anymore and the Jinx wasn't enough to trap UOL who pulled out the win.
ROCCAT vs Fnatic
In a surprise sequel to the UOL/VIT match, ROCCAT looked to pull off a huge upset over Fnatic. ROCCAT's Karim "Aïrwaks" Benghalia had a monster performance on Kindred, helping to put Fnatic's Martin "Rekkles" Larsson in a huge hole early on Caitlyn. But, ROCCAT made just enough mistakes and just wasn't able to close out in a heartbreaking loss. Fnatic, on the other hand, have to take this victory with a grain of salt, as they really lucked out from ROCCAT's indecisiveness and ultimately looked really sloppy against a team they were expected to beat handedly.
Standings
After the dust settled in Week 4, G2 Esports and H2K are still standing as the leaders of the standings at 7-1. G2 definitely had the more impressive week out of the two. This could be somewhat expected as H2K is still visibly adjusting with the loss of Ryu "Ryu" Sang-uk. With H2K being the only squad to hand G2 a loss, we'll have to see if they can repeat it with their sub Marcin "Selfie" Wolski next week as the timeline for Ryu's return still hasn't been said. G2 also faces Team Vitality (5-3) next week who look to hurdle themselves over their mistakes and back into the conversation of top playoff teams.
Fnatic and Origen, two teams who dominated Europe and both made semifinals at Worlds last year, find themselves staring at the middle of the standings. Fnatic's problems stem from predictable issues of communication with new members coming in and players adjusting to new shotcalling roles, but Origen's continuted struggle to find themselves again is what astounds many. The AD Carry formerly known as Niels, Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen, remains a bright point for the squad, but their signature team synergy is still missing in action even as we near the halfway point of the split.
Teams near bottom of the standings like ROCCAT (1-7) and Elements (3-5) had incredibly frustrating performances this week. There were points in some of their matches where they had victories and upsets in their grasp, only to see them slip away due to sloppy mistakes or indecisiveness. On the other hand, GIANTS Gaming (0-8) still remains the sole outlier as the team who looks absolutely clueless as to how to play this meta or how to succeed at all as a team.
