LEC Playoffs: Fnatic Look to Make Statement Against Vitality

We’re a day away from the start of the League of Legends European Championship Spring Split Playoffs and there is no better time to be a League fan. In Week 9 of the regular season play-in stage, some of the most lucrative wins and gut-wrenching losses took place. Now, with playoff glory on the line, we're bound to see some of this short-years' best League yet. 

With the rebranding and the birth of the LEC, comes a little bit of a different playoff structure. Developed for the sole purpose of entertainment and strung-out tension, the new-look LEC playoffs are laid out in this fantastically handy video from LoL Esports themselves.

Team Vitality vs Fnatic 

Tomorrow, Friday, March 29th, 2019, will see a best-of-five matchup between the 4th seed Fnatic, and 5th seed Team Vitality. A featured head-to-head battle will take place in the top lane as Fnatic’s Bwipo will go up against Vitality’s Cabochard for supremacy in their solo lane. These two stars have done nothing shy of played perfectly in their respective teams' climb up the ranks. Bwipo comes in as one of the most overlooked, and reliable top-laners, while Cabochard has single-handedly won Vitality multiple matches in the lead-up to the postseason.  

Ultimately, it’s a pretty tall order to ask Vitality to withstand an onslaught from Fnatic. As the boys from the once glorious franchise have managed to pick up their socks in the final 4 weeks, not dropping a single match. The Rekkles-led Fnatic squad look like the most deadly team in the LEC heading into the first split playoffs. 

SK Gaming vs Splyce

"In the right situation, I'm able to win everything."@SKGaming & @Splyce face off in Round 1 of the 2019 #LEC Spring Playoffs this Saturday! #SKWIN #SPYWIN pic.twitter.com/NMzbQwVXZO

— lolesports (@lolesports) March 28, 2019

On Saturday, we’ve got the magnificently hyped-up match between underdog SK Gaming -- who beat Vitality in the shortest game in LEC history just a few weeks ago -- and the feared Splyce team. This 3rd seed versus the 6th seed might be the highlight of the entire postseason tournament as on one side you have a shocking Cinderella story, playing against a squad with much more skill than they've shown thus far in the season. 

Plenty of Games Coming

With the new structure of the playoffs, one of those four teams might be able to make it all the way to the grand finals of the Spring Split playoffs, but there’s a big mountain ahead of them. In order to do so, there's a chance that the teams playing in the finals may have to win out or take part in four best-of-seven match-ups. That's a ceiling of 20 games, with a LEC average of 35:00 minutes per game. 

Next week, on the 6th of April, the leaders match will take place between the #1 seeded G2 Esports -- who come into the postseason pretty shaken-up -- heading up against the #2 seed Origen squad that has a whole pile of hot lanes right now. Nukeduck has been absolutely ruling the mid-lane all split long for Origen, and he’s not going to slow down now that elimination is on the line. Regardless of who's on their game, and which team comes out on top, the head-to-head is going to be electric. 

Beyond that, we’ll have to wait and see how things shake out further down the bracket. 

Heading into tomorrow, there are a lot of best-of-five matchups to chew up and enjoy as fans of the LEC will have 6 or more days of intense League of Legends to decide who takes home the crown for the LEC Sprint Split 2019.