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After two weeks of play in the 2019 LEC Summer Split, the two teams at the top are finally on a collision course. G2 and Fnatic are the only undefeated clubs left, but that will change on Friday when they face each other for first place.
Well, they’ll be playing for first place in the standings at least, because as far as our power rankings go, it’s not close. Everyone knows that G2 are the kings of the world, and even if Fnatic somehow upset them, there’s a good chance that the voters will remain unmoved.
To see where these two teams stand and where the rest of Europe is behind them, we had our analysts rank each team from one point (worst) to 10 points (best):
| Rank | Team | Points |
| 1) | G2 Esports | 50 |
| 2) | Fnatic | 45 |
| 3) | Origen | 40 |
| 4) | SK Gaming | 35 |
| 5) | Splyce | 27 |
| 5) | Misfits | 20 |
| 5) | FC Schalke 04 | 19 |
| 8) | Rogue | 15 |
| 9) | Vitality | 10 |
| 10) | Excel Esports | 5 |
Here’s what happened in week three that led to the current state of affairs, including a massive drop in the rankings for one of last year’s darlings.
How the mighty have fallen: Rogue, Vitality, Excel
Last year, Vitality were styling on the best teams with their splitpush pressure, spicy Ekko play, and refusal to give in to the meta. It was both fun to watch and effective—they even eliminated the defending world champs.
But this year has simply been a disaster. Their numerous issues from last split continue to be exposed, namely their bot lane weakness and inability to get anything from jungler Lee “Mowgli” Jae-ha in the early game. Beyond that, their splitpush style has been figured out and their inability to group for objective control is really bad in this meta.
Excel lost two games last week, which is hardly a surprise at this point. But it’s really not fair to include Rogue in this tier since they’re actually playing well. Their solo laners have really popped off this split, showing that last split’s results were just growing pains for a predominantly young team.
All tied up: Splyce, Misfits, Schalke
This tier was interesting because it was the only one where our voters disagreed. All three of these teams can only blame themselves for creating that confusion. They each could’ve gone 2-0 last week to stake their claim in playoff pole position. And all of them blew it.
Misfits lost a winnable game against Origen because they didn’t realize that a composition with a Ryze and a Jax was going to outscale them. Then again, they wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it given their relative lack of engage.
Splyce jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir got his pants handed to him by Kim “Trick” Gang-yun. And even then, Splyce had a chance to win until their ADC flashed into melee range of a fed Sylas—not a good look. But then Trick wasn’t good enough to lead his team to victory in the next game against Fnatic. That was the toughest match for the three teams in this tier, but it’s one that Schalke needed to win to prove they’re better than fifth.
Holding steady: Origen, SK
Origen and SK lost to Fnatic and G2, respectively, in their first game last week. They’re clearly not at that level. But they’re still strong teams with good individual talent. Question marks remain, however: For Origen, the production they get from jungler Jonas “Kold” Andersen varies from game to game.
SK, on the other hand, need mid laner Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik to lane better and bot laner Juš “Crownshot” Marušič to stop dying in silly ways because he’s often all of their damage. Pirean’s lack of pressure against G2 made the game almost impossible for his star jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek.
Duel of fates: G2, Fnatic
This is it: The Friday match between these two teams will decide first place in the standings. But let’s be honest. Even if G2 lose, they still have the title of best in the world until they get eliminated in a best-of-five.
There are ways Fnatic can attack G2. They need a fantastic game from Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen. They need the solo laners to play much better than they did in last split’s playoff loss to Origen. And they need an answer for whatever weird comp G2 throw at them.
Even if Fnatic do all that, G2 still might win. They’ve been much tighter in late-game execution so far. But a Fnatic win would definitely make the rest of the LEC Summer Split a lot more interesting.
All photos via Riot Games
