European LCS Match Recaps Day 1, Week 1

It’s always nice to be back after an extended break, and while the action of tournaments such as the Mid-Season Invitational were cool, there’s nothing quite like home. Let’s take a look at the games from the first day of EU LCS Summer Split.

Vitality vs Splyce

The first match of the EU LCS and already we can see the adaptations to the meta coming in, as Vitality opted for Heimerdinger in the AD Carry slot over a more traditional pick. Despite what people might say on the matter, the fact is that with the support of the team, this pick turned out pretty ok, as Vitality quickly took the lead and ultimately secured their first win of the game. As a side note, we got to see an elusive Aatrox pick in the top lane, something many predicted wouldn’t happen until the announced rework comes in. It will be interesting to see how the current Meta changes champion pick rates overall.

Giants vs H2K

This was a close match, with both teams seeming to be fairly close in terms of their macro decisions and read on the Meta. H2K opted for another unorthodox AD Carry pick, running Karma in the bot lane over a more traditional pick. The Giants pulled away in the mid game, though it seemed H2K was on the verge of making a comeback. Unfortunately for H2K, they lost track of their opponents, leading to a surprising backdoor finish that saw Giants take the win.

Unicorns of Love vs FC Schalke 04

This was the first match to see both teams running a more traditional composition, with no real surprises appearing in the bot lane. UOL gained an early lead and managed to build it through the mid game, but S04 were able to pull it back once they scaled up, proving that late game compositions are still supreme if you can stall out the game long enough.

G2 Esports vs ROCCAT

The previous game was a nice reprieve from the so called “fiesta” lanes, however G2 seemed determined to use the new Meta to their advantage as they also opted to run Heimerdinger as AD Carry. It seemed to pay off extremely well, as they steamrolled their opponents the entire match, only losing two kills overall. With the stronger teams opting to try new styles of gameplay, we could be in for an interesting season.

Fnatic vs Misfits

The defending champions Fnatic opted to try things a little differently, running a triple support composition to try and funnel all their resources onto their mid laner. Unfortunately, Misfits had no intention of allowing one single player on Fnatic become too strong, targeting the side lanes to prevent any help from reaching the mid lane, before burning it down themselves. It was a nice try Fnatic, but a little more practice is going to be needed to try this again.

That’s the games wrapped up for the first day of the EU LCS Summer Split. For more on when these teams will be playing again, check out the official website, here, and for more on the recent changes to the game, check out our patch 8.12 breakdown, here.

(All images via Riot Games)