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G2 Esports aren't resting on their laurels at the LEC 2022 Summer Playoffs – here's how they secured their first win en route to the semifinals.
It’s no secret that G2 Esports are known to sometimes take the pressure off when they're feeling secure, but that hasn't been the case in the first round of the League of Legends European Championship 2022 Summer Playoffs. Despite having already guaranteed their place at the League of Legends 2022 World Championship, the team are clearly looking to finish off the year in style with another LEC win. Taking their foot off the pedal was out of the question.
Case in point, their dismantling of Misfits Gaming in the first round of the knockout tournament. While the fourth-place finishers of the Regular Season did put up a valiant fight, leading to one of the bloodiest battles of the LEC this year, it simply wasn't enough to stop G2 on their mission. Let's take a look at what happened in the first round.
Straight out the blocks
G2 went straight into the first game hungry for a win and ready to fight for it. The squad immediately swooped in and took control of the map and the game, reaching ten kills before Misfits could find a single one. And Misfits simply couldn't find a foothold throughout the entire game, with G2 taking most of the drakes for themselves, as well as the Baron.
Picking up the Baron wasn't easy – Misfits picked up their second and final kill of the game during the battle – but from that point on G2 decided that enough was enough and set about their final push. With just over 30 minutes on the clock and 27 kills under their belts, G2 took down the Nexus and started their weekend off with extremely positive momentum.
Unfortunately, it didn't last long. Perhaps feeling a little too confident already, G2 midlaner Rasmus 'caPs' Winther decided to pick up Twisted Fate, a champion he doesn't typically take onto the Summoner's Rift. And while it takes more than one pick to mess up a game plan, it definitely didn't help when Misfits chose to focus their efforts on locking down G2's bot lane early on. The move not only held back G2's growth, it also drew all the attention away from the top lane, allowing Misfits' toplaner to take down a tower solo. The problems compounded from there, eventually leading to a surprisingly quick 25-minute win for Misfits.
A never ending battle
With both teams having picked up a win, the next game would be crucial. And what a game it would turn out to be. Six minutes in, there was a 3v3 fight in the bot lane which gave Misfits First Blood, but also provided enough distraction for caPs to pick up a solo kill in the mid lane while G2 picked up their own in the bottom.
From there, G2 took their split manoeuvres to another level. While Misfits continued to commit their resources to one objective at a time, G2 decided to spread out and keep their options open instead of trying to shut Misfits down. The tactic paid off – G2 managed to build their resources back up to match Misfits without losing unnecessary battles. And with caPs back on familiar footing with Pantheon, the team fights that G2 did choose to engage with started to go in their favour.
The game still looked like it could go either way until the half-hour mark, when Misfits went in for the Baron and G2 came calling to stop them. The resulting team fight was a mess, but one that went in G2's favour, and they seemed basically unstoppable from there. The battle wore on for another ten minutes, but after a forty-minute slog, with 31 kills to Misfits' 18, G2 finally took down the enemy Nexus.
Victory lap
To call G2's final game of the series a walk in the park would be an insult to Misfits – the team didn't exactly lie down and take the loss. But it certainly wasn't anywhere near as difficult a battle as the previous game.
Once again, G2 stuck to their tactic of spreading their efforts across the map, leaving Misfits unable to deal with any of the fronts they needed to fight on. A special shoutout has to go to Sergen 'Broken Blade' Çelik, who valiantly drew the attention of three members of Misfits in the Dragon Pit while the rest of his squad took down the Baron on the other side of the map – and Broken Blade added insult to injury as he refused to die and picked up the Dragon for himself.
With the Baron secured, G2 simply walked into Misfits' base, splitting their push across all three lanes so that Misfits didn't know which way to turn. A few minutes later, the minion waves came crashing down, and G2 had won the series 3-1.
Now G2 are guaranteed a top three finish, but they clearly aren't planning on settling for anything less than number one. Rogue are their next opponents – a team that G2 went 2-0 against in the Regular Season – so expect even more sparks to fly as G2 continue their campaign to be the champions of the LEC once more.