(courtesy of lolesports)
Millenium is the top dog of EU CS during the Spring Split while Copenhagen Wolves have been struggling to find success after their relegation fron the European League Championship Series. Going into this series, we expect an easy win for Millenium. Wolves have replaced both their Mid laner and Jungler, bringing in some new blood but also a more experienced player. Who will be left standing at the end of this series? Are we going to get another 5 games in the semifinals of the EU CS?
Game 1
Millenium:
Bans: Alistar, Braum, Kalista
Picks: Riven, Kindred, Corki, Lucian, Thresh
Copenhagen Wolves:
Bans: Lulu, Gragas, Poppy
Picks: Nautilus, Nidalee, Twisted Fate, Ezreal, Morgana
There was not a lot of action in the early game; Millenium's top tower and Wolves’ bottom tower fell to the lane swap. After the initial tower swap, the game’s pace stayed very calm.
Millenium picked up first blood as Prodomos "Pretty" Kevezitidis delivered the package top lane and Charly "Djoko" Guillard secured a kill onto Mike "Wickd" Petersen's Nautilus. Top turret fell in the aftermath in favor of Millenium as well.
The game swung heavily in Wolves’ favor as they picked up kills onto Kindred, Thresh and Lucian. However, gold still favored Millenium even though the kills were not.
Kaze teleported bottom to pick up a kill on Marc Robert "Caedrel" Lamont but Wickd was there too and both teams collapsed. The fight resulted in 3-2, in favor of Wolves.
As we transitioned into the midgame, the kills were 10-4, in favor of Wolves. Turrets were even and Millenium were ahead in dragons (2-0.) Wolves do have a 3K gold lead.
Wolves escalated the game quickly, pushing down mid and picking up a kill on Casper "masterwork" van Kampen's Thresh. Clearing Millenium’s blue jungle and littering it with wards, Caedrel uses destiny’s gate mid and takes down Kindred and Thresh falls as well.
At 30 minutes, Wolves break into the base and take down multiple members and the nexus towers with precision. Wolves seemed to easily to take Game 1 of this series!
While it seems that Millenium were favored in this series, nerves seem to be getting the best of them in the offline environment. It doesn’t excuse the poor pick of Riven but Millenium seem out of step so far. Can Millenium come back from this unexpected loss?
Winner: Copenhagen Wolves
Game 2
Copenhagen Wolves:
Bans: Morgana, Gragas, Twisted Fate
Picks: Poppy, Nidalee, Lulu, Sivir, Janna
Millenium:
Bans: Braum, Kalista, Corki
Picks: Maokai, Rek’sai, Orianna, Lucian, Alistar
The first thing that Millenium should do is return to the winning formula they had where Kaze would be on a tank and supporting his team. Will we see this change up or is Millenium sold on the pocket picks?
The champ select seemed far more meta in game 2 and Millenium seemed to have learned their lesson from trying to style on Wolves in Game 1. The larger issue of if they are having issues dealing with playing in an offline environment is still in the air.
Early game, the lanes were calm but Tihn Tri "K0u" Lam Lam and Djoko fought from one side of Millenium’s jungle to the other, ultimately suffering no casualties. The first ten minutes were littered with strange skirmishes with no one dying. K0u seemed impatient to make plays, but Millenium seemed incapable of punishing him for the aggression.
At ten minutes, Djoko took dragon and simultaneously K0u and Wickd took down Kaze for first blood. Quickly, the pace picked up and Wolves’ bot lane went down, but they returned a kill on Orianna. The scoreboard is 2-2.
Wolves kept a stranglehold on this game, picking up another kill on Lucian and the bottom outer tower.
By mid-game, Wolves were already breaking into the base. Kills were 8-4, turrets 7-2 in favor of Wolves. Millenium may have gotten the two dragons in the game, but Wolves were still nearly 10K ahead of them at 23 minutes.
Wolves shut Millenium out completely in Game 2 and took them down in an unexpected 25 minutes.
No one expected Copenhagen Wolves to put up much of a fight but after such a clean showing in game 2, they’re posed to complete a clean sweep the favorites of the EU CS.
Winner: Copenhagen Wolves
Game 3
Millenium:
Bans: Braum, Nidalee, Twisted Fate
Picks: Shen, Rek’sai, Corki, Draven, Thresh
Copenhagen Wolves:
Bans: Gragas, Lulu, Kalista
Picks: Poppy, Elise, Lissandra, Lucian, Morgana
In Game 2, Pretty did not use cleanse once. It’s another factor that seemed to show that Millenium is having some kind of problem performing in the offline environment. They are not bringing to the table anything that we are used to seeing from them. One can hope they pull it together and execute an excellent comeback.
Champ select again drew a strange pick from Millenium. Welcome to the League of Draven. Even though Draven is Liv "hans sama" Steven's signature champion, it seemed somewhat overconfident to pick such an unreliable marksman.
In under a minute, Hans sama already burned flash and heal but managed to avoid dying and had to back and return to lane without full health.
Djoko is caught out in Wolves’ jungle and gives over first blood to Kristoffer "P1noy" Pedersen with the assistance of Risto "SirNukesAlot" Luuri and K0u.
At seven minutes, Millenium seemed to fall apart completely; their play riddled with mechanical errors. Wolves took down Hans sama and drew out Kaze’s teleport, only to kill him after. Masterwork then fell in a devastating blow to Millenium’s hopes of a comeback.
17 minutes into the game, P1noygot a quadra kill on his Lucian. Djoko managed to deny the penta, but the game was heavily in Wolves’ hands. They controlled the map and systematically choked Millenium out of resources.
Pretty delivered the package again and Wolves lost their bot lane, but Wickd stunned Hans sama into the wall and took back a kill. In the end, the fight was 2-2. Shortly after,\ another team fight broke out and Millenium managed to pick off Caedrel.
Millenium was aced at 26 minutes and Wolves took the mid inhibitor on the back end. Only a couple minutes later, Wolves broke the nexus and secured the series in a clean sweep!
Winner: Copenhagen Wolves
Series Winner: Copenhagen Wolves!
This series was anything but expected. Everyone had written Copenhagen Wolves off and wrote Millenium into the finals. Millenium completely choked and failed to perform this series. They came in too cocky and one could assume the initial loss broke the team’s mentality and they were simply not able to recover. These were the most important games of the Spring Split and only one team showed up playing to win.
