Splyce’s start to the 2018 EU LCS Summer Split could not have been worse. Instead of building on their success at the end of the Spring Split, they crashed and burned, going 0-4 in the first two weeks and looking like they had never played together before.
Week three was a crucial test for them—after losing to G2, Fnatic, and Misfits, they got a shot at two weaker teams in a bid to save their season. And despite some challenges, they pulled out a clean week to give themselves another shot at the playoffs.
That doesn’t mean the matches themselves were clean, however. In Saturday’s game vs. ROCCAT, a bungled call handed ROCCAT an inhibitor and a Baron buff. But Splyce fought their way out of that deficit, claiming a convincing teamfight victory as ROCCAT tried to retreat.
After that, Splyce took control of the map and the objectives. Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu, who had been struggling coming into the week, finally had a standout performance on old Aatrox, who is absolutely ridiculous. Even when ROCCAT managed to kill him, Splyce’s map control meant they took huge objectives elsewhere.
The rest of Saturday’s games went mostly to the favored teams. Misfits and Fnatic both won convincingly, spanking H2k and GIANTS respectively, to continue their hold atop the region. And Vitality ran away from FC Schalke 04 to round out the top four, with G2 yet to play vs. Unicorns of Love.
G2, Misfits, Fnatic, and Vitality are clearly the top four teams in the region right now. But there are a lot of matches left in the split and Saturday’s victory was huge both for Splyce’s chances at the playoffs and for their mentality heading into Rift Rivals next week.
