In today’s fiery debut of the LEC Spring Split 2024, Team Vitality blazed a triumphant trail against Team Heretics on March 9 and secured their first win of the regular season. Besides making a scorching debut themselves, Vitality also assured a winning first day in the LEC for the Fiery Fledgling Smolder.
With the implemented changes to the LEC drafting system coming to the league with this Spring Split, Vitality and Heretics drafted their team compositions behind the scenes before walking on stage. This gave them some time to think about which strategy to bring out on the rift for their first day of regular season, particularly crucial for Heretics who brought few changes to their roster and had to face a the first Smolder of the season as Vitality picked the small dragon for their bot laner, Carzzy.
The player would later say he felt “unfair” playing the game with Smolder, considering the champion’s “disgusting” power in the late-game stage. Knowing the power of the scaling composition that Vitality had, Heretics were proactive at the beginning of the game, capitalizing on Jankos’ presence on the map and Flakked’s Varus in the bot lane, resulting in three drakes and the first baron in their favor.
But Vitality had to just bide their time until Smolder collected a minimum of 225 stacks on his passive before raining fire from the sky—thanks to MOM. However, by the end of the game, Carzzy pushed the champion further, reaching an impressive 480 stacks, meaning Smolder could execute any opponent champion falling below 30% health. With two pivotal fights around the dragon’s soul and the second Baron spawned on the Rift, Vitality turned the tides of the match and swiftly ended it.
Relying on Smolder’s incendiary damage, Vitality executed Heretics on the first day of the LEC Spring Split, securing a victory to mainly be attributed to Carzzy’s Smolder, who closed the game with a flawless record, tallying 10 kills with no deaths to his name.
The LEC Spring Split has just begun, but after Vitality’s performance on the champion, fans can confidently say they’ll see Smolder—and his MOM—ignite the Rift again.
