League of Legends European Championship Week 9 Recap

Wyatt Fossett,

March 17, 2019 1:02 PM

The final week of the League of Legends European Championship has concluded. After crazy tiebreaking surprises, fairytale stories, and placements shuffling all over the place, we take a look back at the last two days of action.

As we settle back into our seats from a day of sitting on the edge, we now know who will be playing in the League of Legends European Championship Spring Split playoffs. On this side of the gloriously tense weekend that was the LEC Week 9, it’s clear that the past few days have been some of the most entertaining games of League of Legends in recent memory. 

There was a lot of playoff opportunities on the line heading into Friday, including multiple scenarios that would completely shuffle around the final two playoff spots, and a feisty battle for the 2nd seed heading into the Spring Split tournament. 

(a fan holds a 'Fnatic 4Playoffs' sign)
(a fan holds a 'Fnatic 4Playoffs' sign)

Friday

Splyce won out the endurance race against Misfits as the Kobbe-led squad finally secured the Nexus kill after 40 minutes. The matchup was fairly low on kills, but the grind was real. Misfits held in as long as they could, keeping the snowball from building too large, but eventually fell under the grown pressure of an 11,000 gold lead by Splyce. 

Starting the amazing weekend they would have, SK Gaming would take the next match against the last place ranked Rogue in a far closer game than it needed to be. We’ll get to more SK heroics in a bit, but it’s truly Rogue that could have taken a lot from this head-to-head. With a few more clutch abilities landed, or one fewer tower diver, Rogue could have easily stolen the air from SK’s balloon with their 3rd win of the season. In the end, they lost and SK survived.

Match of the Day - Continuing their epic revival, Fnatic played G2 Esports in what has been crowd the ‘Game of the Century’ by LEC play-by-play broadcaster Medic. You can find more about this epic battle of the Titans in our recap of one of the best League of Legends Esports matches ever played. 

With blown voices across the LEC, Vitality took the stage in an opportunity to pad their lead in the playoff race against a 4-win squad in Excel, but the wires got crossed, and Vitality couldn’t overcome a very rough laning phase, and the youthful Excel took it to them in less than 30 minutes. 

Schalke 04 had the perfect opportunity to put some distance between themselves and 7th place SK Gaming when they went up against Origen on Friday, but the cooler heads prevailed. Origen didn’t let up on Schalke 04 for a second, adding more fuel to the playoff race fire. The quiet players of Origen even threw a bunch of BM (bad mannered) at S04, delaying the Nexus kill. 

Saturday

The Misfits kicked off the LEC schedule on Saturday by surprising audiences all over the world when they easily handed G2 Esports their 5th loss in the last 5 weeks. Even though the veterans of Misfits had already missed out on the playoffs, the ability to perpetuate G2’s lack of confidence heading into the Spring Split Playoffs makes every bit of effort worth it. 

Schalke 04 kept their thin lead over Fnatic, making tthe final playoff spot intact with a decisive win over Rogue in Friday’s second matchup. Momento’s Jarvan IV was a performance that every aspiring Jungler should watch on replay. On the other side, Rogue entered the break with a record of 2W-16L and will have a lot to figure out before the next split kicks off. 

Match of the Day - The final hopes for Schalke 04 to have an easy route into the playoffs died as SK Gaming took the odds and tossed them out of the window, dismantling Team Vitality in what was the fastest ever game of professional League of Legends played in the European regular season. The win earned them a chance to fight for their playoff lives, in a head-to-head tiebreaker against Schalke 04 later in the day. 

Origen took a final game off of Excel in a match that didn’t see the XL squad earn much momentum. While Origen continues looking like a very polished, and growing team, Excel just didn’t function well in any lane, at any stage in this head-to-head. 

We all thought they were out, but Fnatic hadn’t lost a single game since Week 5, and they didn’t stutter today, rolling over the formidable Splyce squad that came into the head-to-head one win up on Rekkles and company. In what has to be the greatest, and most beautifully dominating turn around of a series, Fnatic closes out the Spring Split 4 games above .500, and stole the 3rd place in the league heading into the postseason.

Tiebreaker

Only one tiebreaker was needed, and it didn’t disappoint when it came to the drama. Slugging it out on the rift in order to win the right to claim the final seed in the Spring Split Playoffs, SK Gaming pushed through Schalke 04. On the back of an amazing performance by Selfmade on Lee Sin, SK Gaming completes their Cinderella story climbing up into the playoffs after looking like all hope was lost. 

Earning six ‘Player of the Game’ awards over the past handful of weeks, SK Gaming’s Selfmade truly cemented himself as a player to be feared in the jungle. The entire squad head into the postseason with a large target on their back, but a wave of momentum bigger than most we’ve seen in Esports. 

The Playoff Picture

LEC Spring Split 2019 Playoff Bracket
LEC Spring Split 2019 Playoff Bracket

Our League of Legends coverage will be going deeper into what can be expected from the LEC Spring Split Playoffs soon, but for now, we at least have a full picture of what the bracket looks like, and there is nothing more excited than some good old fashion playoff competition. 

Will the dream team of G2 Esports shake off the jitters that have seen them lose 5 games in the last few weeks? Or is this Fnatic’s Split to take? How and when will SK Gaming’s glorious run-up to the postseason conclude? Perhaps with some shiny new hardware?



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