After the week long break that IEM provided, four of Europe’s top teams resumed play in the European League Championship Series on Thursday. Second-place Misfits took on fellow No. 2 Unicorns of Love first, and then H2k played Fnatic.
(6-1) Misfits 2-1 Unicorns of Love (5-2)
In this cross group matchup of second place teams, Misfits took the early edge against UoL. Misfits took the lead and played the typical Misfits style of slow controlled play to extend their lead. Though certain players made some mistakes that led to UoL taking some objectives, Misfits still never lost their grip on the game. Baron takes from key picks are what led to Misfits closing out the game and taking the game one victory.
Misfits made the plays to take the early advantage again in game two, with all five players collapsing on the bot lane to take two kills and first turret gold. Again, Misfits grew their lead slowly but a botched fight in the bot lane put their lead in danger. After that mistake, Misfits recovered and began to dominate the game again.
Despite coming back into their lead, UoL fought back to bring the game close and even took down both nexus turrets in Misfits’ base. The game was extremely back and forth, with both teams winning fights late, but the Unicorns won the final fight that gave them the victory to tie the series.
Just like the first two games, Misfits took the early lead due to global map plays. And just like in the previous game, Misfits grew their lead until mistakes led to UoL coming back into the game and taking down inhibitors. This time, Misfits gathered themselves and won the fights to win the game and take the series victory.
My player of the series is Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun. Though many may say Lee “KaKAO” Byung-kwon was the man of the match, I think IgNar was more crucial in creating the picks that led to successful teamfights. He set the pins up for his carries to knock down.
(6-2) H2k-Gaming 2-0 Fnatic (4-4)
From the very start of the game, H2k took control of Fnatic’s jungle and starved out Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen. Broxah was incredibly far behind and had close to no impact on the game. H2k controlled both jungles, and despite two fights where they overcommitted, H2k rolled through Fnatic in a dominant game one vctory.
Though Broxah was given more freedom in his jungle in the second game, H2k took leads all over the map. No lane was winning for Fnatic, while multiple lanes were ahead for H2k at all times. In this game, H2k did not make any mistakes as they shut Fnatic out of doing anything. H2k ended the game up 10k gold and cemented themselves as the top team in Group B.
My player for the series is Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski. Jankos completely dominated his opposing jungler in game one, with Broxah having little to no impact on the game, while Jankos helped snowball all of his lanes. The second game was another fantastic performance from Jankos, who kept H2k’s superiority in the jungle.
Will Fnatic still make playoffs this split? Tweet us your thoughts @GAMURScom
