A strong showing by Ocelote and crew puts the full stop to the ninth week of LCS competition. Next weekend, the teams go against each other for the last time before the spring playoffs.
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Giants vs EG
As Sunday’s games started, LCS Europe welcomed the audience with the explosive show that was EG vs GIANTS. Krepo took first blood during the level one engagement but GIANTS would not let that go unpunished and returned three kills to EG before the laning phase started.
After the initial stabs, the game entered the relative calmness of the early and mid-game. EG took the lead in kills but Giants were ahead in towers and overall the gold count was in equilibrium, despite the little fights that broke out all over the place.
One single mistake grew into game’s turning point. After catching Wickd on top lane, Giants rushed towards baron knowing that Stand United is down and EG would not allow that to go uncontested – a decision that backfired horribly. By diving into a Slicing Maelstrom, EG gave an ace to Giants (as well as the Baron itself which was killed mid-fight). Knowing they are very much unstoppable at that point, Giants decisively marched towards EG’s nexus.
Fnatic vs DB
Compared to the EG/Giants face-off, the second match for the night was not nearly as exciting. Standing in the top two of the ranking, Fnatic came in the heavy favorites against the 8th place Dragonborns.
Despite the discrepancy in class, however, the early game was quite balanced in terms of kills. First blood went to Shushei’s Kha’Zix but not even that could win his lane. xPeke and his Zed won the CS race as well as the KDA one and Fnatic’s assassin became the much larger threat.
While the game was encased in kill equality, such was not the case when it came to towers. Fnatic’s coordination and alertness secured them an objective after objective and Dragoborns quickly started to lose map presence. The presence of Cyanide’s Nocturne made it even more difficult for DB to walk around the battlefield and Fnatic’s control was tangible. A 30th-minute team fight in DB’s own jungle ended with a quadra kill for sOAZ in a 4-for-1 exchange and a final push ended Shushei and his entourage.
Giants vs aAa
GIANTS scoreboarded their second victory of the day in one very low on kills game against aAa. From minute one, the Spaniards decided to not go after aAa’s players but instead focus their aggression towards farming objectives.
Although first blood only fell at the 13th minute mark, GIANTS were already very ahead at that point of time. Towers were 4 to 1 in their favor and the gold lead was circling 6K. As the game progressed, the kill count remained low and GIANTS’ advantage kept growing. More towers fell to fully deny aAa’s map presence and the Spaniards took the match 10-1.
Gambit vs SK
What was inarguably the most expected match for the night turned out to be an ugly slaughterfest. SK gave out first blood but that was one of only three for the entire game. Heavily stacking armor against Gambit’s quadra-AD composition with the unorthodox Rengar in the front line allowed SK to mercilessly decimate the Russians. Gambit lost every lane, every team fight and every objective contest to surrender the game at the 38th minute with 3 to 21 score. Exceptional showing by SK and one that would shoot them to 3rd position.
As the last playday before the super week ends, Gambit and Fnatic are dead even, holding the top two of the rankings with a good 12-point lead before SK Gaming. Next week, every team will get to play five more matches before the top six to enter the spring playoffs are determined.
