During the second day of the LEC Summer Split Playoffs, G2 Esports overpowered Misfits Gaming, sending them into the lower bracket and securing MAD Lions a spot for this year’s Worlds.
In a bloody series, G2 defeated Misfits 3-1, earning themselves a place in Malmo in the final upper bracket against Rogue. With this victory, however, G2 gave a gift to MAD Lions, who found themselves a guaranteed spot in this year’s World Championship despite their loss to the Rogues. This is because, in the regular season, MAD qualified higher on the leaderboard than Misfits. Therefore they moved directly to the third round of the lower bracket, automatically falling into the top 4 in the region.
For this reason, MAD found themselves thanking G2 and their peculiar drafts, which since game one has enthralled viewers and ignited fans in the studio. G2 took immediate possession of the series from game one, ruling throughout the map thanks to their early jungle invasion and meticulous vision control.
Misfits had a late-game scaling win condition on their side, but G2 stood in the way of their late-game domination, playing on flawless team fights and perfectly timed rotations. The only spot on this almost perfect game from G2 was the Baron stealing by the hands of Zanzarah. Despite that mistake, G2 quickly ended the first game without too many problems, gaining the advantage in the series.
The second game was revenge time for Misfits, who came into the series as the underdogs. With a slow start to the game, Misfits patiently grew in power while waiting for a mistake from their opponents, thus surpassing the ten-minute mark without drawing first blood. Tired of waiting, Misfits moved to action, ganking bot lane repeatedly. They obtained the first kills of the game and widened the gold gap between the two teams.
Thanks to that, Misfits now had the upper hand and forced engages and aggressive plays onto G2, taking down their opponents on every occasion. The decisive moment to strike back for G2 was in front of the Baron pit, but Misfits’ cohesive team fighting style and abilities combo wiped G2 out. With the Baron buff in their hands, Misfits moved into G2’s base to tie in the score.
The last two games were much more equilibrated than the first two. The second-to-last game was slightly in favor of Misfits at the beginning, thanks to their map presence and focused on neutral objectives. But the tables quickly turned precisely because both teams focused on one of those neutral objectives, turning the situation into a crucial teamfight won by G2 thanks to caPs’ mechanical prowess.
With the Emperor on their side, G2 had the road pavemented towards victory, and despite Misfits’ efforts to take their opponents down, it was G2 who concluded the third game of the series with a victory screen. The last game of the series was similar to the first, with G2 drafting a peculiar comp that saw caPs on Renekton in the mid lane.
But similar to the third game, Misfits began the game with an evident lead in gold and kills, showing their eagerness to bring the match to game five. Their eagerness and overly aggressive plays backfired as Misfits overextended and were caught off position by G2. With a small mistake, Misfits gave G2 a finger, but G2 took the whole arm and the whole game for themselves. After 15 minutes, Flakked’s Zeri was on a killing spree, and Misfits couldn’t find an opportunity to close on the enemy ADC to take him down.
G2 slowly took control of the map, and thanks to Jankos’ perfectly timed rotation and vision control in the jungle, Misfits found themselves backed into their base. At 20 minutes into the game, G2 conquered the first inhibitor and were 7k gold ahead of Misfits. Misfits put up one last defense, desperately trying to take down G2 and bring the series to one more game, but at 33 minutes into the game, G2 strength was overwhelming.
With their first win in the LEC Summer SPlit Playoffs, G2 secured a spot in the Finals of the Split, which will be played in front of a crowd in Malmö. Misfits are not done yet; they still have one chance to make it to the Swedish town and, most importantly, to Worlds. They will have to face and win against the winner of tomorrow’s match between Fnatic and Excel.
