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Here’s how G2 Esports became the inaugural LEC Spring Split champions
We finally have our first LEC Spring Split champions: G2 Esports beat Origen and set a new record in the process. Here’s how they did it.
After three and a half months of upsets, outplays and tower dives, we finally have our very first League of Legends European Championship Spring Split winners. The three best European teams faced each other in a stacked finale in Rotterdam, the Netherlands over the weekend. Origen had to prove their strength on Saturday, where they played Fnatic to determine who played G2 on Sunday for the Spring Split trophy.
Origen managed to upset Fnatic and showcased their great macro in all stages of the game, setting the stage for a revenge match against G2 Esports after they were beaten in Stage 2. Yet, it was G2 who'd take the top prize, winning the finals in a convincing manner. The weekend was filled with weird picks, compositions and Sona Taric botlanes. Did you miss some of the action? Do you want to relive the best moment of the finals weekend? We’ve got you covered, read all about the LEC finals weekend – right here.
Origen vs Fnatic
The weekend kicked off with Origen taking on Fnatic on Saturday evening. Fnatic were the clear favourites coming into the series, continuing the newfound momentum they gained in the latter part of the Split. They'd just come off a 3-0 victory over Team Vitality and looked stronger than ever. Origen, on the other hand, had just taken a 3-0 beating from G2 Esports last week. As a result, the analyst desk predicted a 3-0 or 3-1 victory for Fnatic – but it wasn't to be a simple stomp for the Worlds 2018 runners-up.
In the first game of the series, the Fnatic bot lane locked in the infamous Sona/Taric duo. In lane, Sona tries to abuse Spellthief's Edge’s passive while Taric uses Relic Shield to generate massive amounts of gold and scales into the late game in a relatively safe way. However, the duo has definitive weaknesses like strong early game all-ins. Origen’s Alfonso ‘Mithy’ Aguirre Rodríguez showcased this with excellent Blitzcrank play. Enrique 'xPeke' Cedeño Martinez’s team were winning in every lane and managed to snowball their advantage into a victory. Game 1, Origen.
In the second game it was Origen’s turn to get the Sona/Taric lane. This time, however, Fnatic tried to counter it with an Annie support, but evidently The Dark Child wasn't enough to help turn the tide. Even though Fnatic found some pressure in the early game, they weren’t able to convert it into a victory. This meant that Origen showed off the power of Sona/Taric in the late-game bringing the overall game score to 2-0.
In the third game, Fnatic stuck to their roots. They played a more standard composition and by banning Sona, they forced Origen to play standard too. Fnatic looked better than in their first two games and managed to win the game pretty easily, giving Fnatic fans hope for their team to claw back from a 1-2 deficit. In the fourth game, however, Fnatic had to choose whether to ban Sylas or Draven. They banned Draven, which kept Sylas open for Erlend 'Nukeduck' Våtevik to pick. Sylas is very strong in the meta right now, which Nukeduck showed through a great performance. He used Sylas’s ability to steal ultimates, utilising Lissandra’s ults in key moments, and while Origen picked some questionable teamfights, they were still able to close the series out in a well-deserved 3-1 victory, knocking Fnatic out into third place.
G2 Esports vs Origen
Just last week, G2 Esports had a stellar 3-0 victory over Origen to determine the first finalist of the playoffs. However, this time, Origen had momentum, coming off a 3-1 victory over Fnatic. In the first game of the series, the G2 bot lane got their hands on Sona and Taric. This meant that Origen had to close the game fast, before G2 got the chance to scale up and wreak havoc. While they tried to up the tempo by aggressively ganking and getting a small gold lead, G2 managed to catch up around the 25-minute mark. After a few bad teamfights, G2 managed to take the first game in the series.
In the second game the roles were reversed and Origen got their hands on the Sona/Taric powerlane. G2’s response was interesting, as they picked a funnel composition. The goal was clearly to throw Origen off their game – and it worked perfectly. With Luka ‘PerkZ’ Perković on Xayah and Mihael ‘Mikyx’ Mehle on Rakan, they terrorised the jungle and the mid lane. All Origen had to do was survive the early game, but due to aggressive roaming from the G2 duo, this proved to be a difficult task. G2 were able snowball the game at a rapid tempo, resulting in a victory.
Origen were on their last legs. They had to prove that they still had fight in them in the third game of the series. The champion picks were rather standard (other than PerkZ bringing AP Neeko to the botlane), and it seemed like this was Origen’s shot to bring the series back in their favour. Unfortunately for Origen, G2 had other plans. Marcin 'Jankos' Jankowski aggressively ganked and G2 used their multiple teleports to gain advantages all over the map. G2 Esports were able to gain an incredibly large gold lead in the beginning of the game, which gave them access to an uncontested Rift Herald. After pushing down the mid lane, they were able to force Origen’s mid inhibitor down and finish the game on the 18-minute mark. This meant that G2 Esports broke their own record for the fastest game in Europe.
After the finals, Origen’s Nukeduck had a few words about his season and the future, telling us: “In the Spring Split, we built a good foundation and I think this foundation is strong enough to deal with most teams in Europe. G2 were just too strong for us and we need a little extra to be able to compete with them. For the Summer, we can shift our focus to developing new things just like G2 are doing.”
With G2 winning the first-ever LEC Spring Split finals, they advance to the Mid-Season Invitational to represent Europe. Here they'll face Team Liquid, SK Telecom T1 and the winner of the LPL finals, which will be played next week.
