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This is what we learned from the first week of LEC and LCS Playoffs
The first round of playoffs have been played in the LCS and the LEC. Here’s what we learned from both regions over the past weekend.
It's playoffs time in the League of Legends Championship Series and League of Legends European Championship, where we've just seen the first round wrap up over the weekend, and after a thrilling series matches we now have the final four teams in both regions.
With the dust settled from the weekend's frantic action, we've now got an even better insight into what to expect in the next week when play resumes. Some champions seem to have a lot of priority, especially in the jungle, and we have a new dominant top laner that pros seem to be putting a lot of priority on. The LEC and LCS both seem to have very similar metas, but some champions only see play in one of the competitions.
With the weekend's games now over, let's take a closer look and analyse which teams have the best chance of utilising the still developing playoffs meta, which teams can make the best use of the champions that have a lot of priority, and the tactics that come with it. How did the teams look in their first round of playoffs, and what are their chances against their next opponents?
Rek'Sai, the monster in the jungle
Rek'Sai is rising
© Riot Games
The weeks leading up to playoffs foreshadowed the increasing priority on Rek'Sai. During the playoffs, every team seemed to put a lot of priority on her; either by banning her, or by picking her early in the draft phase. Rek'Sai has received a few buffs to her ultimate (players can no longer flash out of the ultimate once she's burrowed underground, for example) which means that she's once again great in the jungle. In pro play, her burrowed passive provides a lot of vision and utility to the whole team.
Coupled with good early game clearing speed, damage, and gank potential, she becomes the monster in the jungle that we've known her to be in past seasons. Popping up in four games in the LEC playoffs (with two successful games from Fnatic's Mads 'Broxah' Brock-Pedersen and Andrei 'Xerxe' Dragomir, and in three games by Team SoloMid's Matthew 'Akaadian' Higginbotham), she's clearly becoming a solid threat in the right hands.
Hecarim in the top lane
The Shadow of War recently received buffs to his Q ability (Rampage), and whenever he hits an enemy unit, he gets more damage on his ability, which can stack up to two times. As Hecarim used to spam abilities so much, he'd run out of mana quickly; this broke him in the jungle and top lane as a result, because he wasn't able to pressure out enemy laners before he was out of mana. This is no longer a problem, as the Inspiration tree provides a lot of sustain to the horseman.
On top of that, Hecarim can start with a corrupting potion, which gives him enough sustain to start bullying enemies out of lane. Hecarim is at his strongest point when he completes a Trinity Force, which gives him kill pressure on almost any toplaner. SK Gaming's Jorge 'Werlyb' Casanovas Moreno-Torres showed off Hecarim's power in the top lane against Splyce, as you can see below, but even his solid plays weren't enough to take SK through to the next round.
Differences across the ocean
While champions like Hecarim and Rek'Sai both have high priority in both regions, there are some champions that pros from both regions seem to have different opinions on. In the LCS's FlyQuest vs. Golden Guardians series, for example, we saw a big priority on Varus. That was interesting, because we haven't seen Varus played since last year's Worlds. However both teams put priority on him, while building him in a different way. Golden Guardians put a lot of emphasis on his lethality build, while FlyQuest preferred his on-hit builds.
In Europe, Varus has barely been played all season, though, and even when he has, he hasn't been a viable pick. Pros also seem to put more emphasis on LeBlanc. Splyce, for example, really didn't want to play against the Deceiver, which is understandable, because she's so strong in the early game. She was used in SK's first win over Splyce, but was then banned in the latter games, which then lead to Splyce's overall victory.
What's next in Round 2?
In a best-of-five series, a lot of champions that do well get banned out. With five bans to every team, this means some players have to play on champions that they might not be comfortable with. Other than Hecarim and Rek'Sai, there aren't any really overpowered champions – we're in a fairly well balanced meta at present. That means teams can attack champion pools directly.
Some players have never really had big champion pools, which can make things very difficult for them in a multi-game series. Other teams, like G2 Esports, thrive in multi-game series', because of their drafting method. Splyce might have a harder time, since banning out late-game AD Carries is a good strategy against them.
Over in Europe, next week will give us a glimpse of the top two seeds. Origen against G2 Esports will set the tone for the finals, and it will be interesting to see how well G2 Esports have recovered after losing quite a few games in the later stages of the season. In North America, we'll see Cloud9 take on Team SoloMid. In the regular season, Cloud9 held a 2–0 record over TSM, but TSM looked extremely strong in their games against Echo Fox, so don't expect them to go down without a serious fight. Stay tuned.
