esports
After a wild Summer Split and Playoffs, we speak to pros from FC Schalke 04, Vitality and G2 Esports for their thoughts on the road to Worlds.
After an exciting season full of ups and downs, twists and turns, the EU LCS Summer Split has finally drawn to a close, with Fnatic taking first place in a dramatic 3:1 finale over Schalke, punching their ticket for a spot at the World Championships in the process.
With Team Vitality also having earned their spot at Worlds, and the final EU team yet to be decided, we spoke to three star players from three of the season’s best teams – two of whom are still hoping for a place at Worlds – Tamás ‘Vizicsacsi’ Kiss of Schalke, Vitality’s Mateusz ‘Kikis’ Szkudlarek and Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski of G2 – and asked quizzed them on the season just gone, Schalke’s incredible surprising run and their thoughts on which region is strongest heading into Worlds.
Despite finishing third during the Summer Split, Schalke pulled off a second-place finish during Playoffs, both of which seemed almost impossible feats back in Spring when the German side were getting ‘easily defeated’. Vizicsacsi explains that remaining calm and taking a more knowledgeable approach has been key to their success, but just how did they turn their dismal form around?
“I think bringing in Maurice ‘Amazing’ Stückenschneider was definitely a good choice. He's quite a vocal member and he changed a lot of our routines in everyday life and around the reviews, so he was a big addition.”
“At the same time, every single one of us stepped up as well and we did realise that we get another chance to redeem ourselves after Spring,” Vizicsacsi tells us. “Because honestly, when we started the Spring Split we expected ourselves to get into the top four, because we knew that our roster is extremely solid and we are really strong on paper – but it just didn’t work out.”
“Somehow and we regressed a lot during the season, and this season we actually watched out to not make the same mistakes – and wherever we see a pattern that we’re forgetting something important, then we mention it and aim to return it to our play style,” he says. “This is the big difference.”
One of the teams Schalke overcame in their Summer resurgence to reach the final were Team Vitality, who had a great year in their own right. They managed to beat the dominant Fnatic when they matched up in Week 7, reached the semi-final of the Playoffs and took home third place after a dominant display over Misfits in the third-place match.
Kikis only joined Vitality in late July when the team were 5-5, but since his arrival, they won the vast majority of their games and managed to finish near the top of the pile. Kikis thinks it’s Vitality’s uncompromising style of play that's made it difficult for opposing teams to adapt to them, with his own contributions playing a big part in that.
“We’re not afraid to play aggressively and play the same way on stage as we do in scrims,” he says, “So, I think people don’t seem able to handle that aggression, because they’re like ‘Oh OK, they do it in scrims but they’re not going to do it on stage, right?’, but we actually do the same and even if they prepare, we do new things or things that are really hard to counter.”
“I tend to be much better than enemy jungles in the early game and get a huge lead on that. I’m getting early game hits on enemies which lets my team play however they want because they not only have my pressure, but I make enemy pressure non-existent by just being on the enemy jungle and always knowing where they are. I think with our aggressive play style and getting early game hits it’s really hard for teams to come back from that,” Kikis tells us.
G2, on the other hand, didn’t make it far in the Playoffs as they succumbed 3-0 to Misfits in the quarter finals. Even though Jankos described his own season as “nothing unusual”, he does think that the quality of the entire league has increased.
“I think this season, teams improved way more than they did in the last split. I think overall the teams are playing really good now and I think the playoffs are going to be more competitive than they were last split,” he says.
“Fnatic is obviously one of the top contenders, but I think on top of it we have teams like Misfits who are performing so well now, we have teams like Schalke. I think Splyce and Vitality are a factor as well even though you wouldn’t expect it three or four weeks ago, but with them improving I think all the teams are pretty decent now.”
With the Summer season nearly all wrapped up, with just the Regional Finals on the way to lock down that third EU ticket to Worlds, all eyes will soon be turning to South Korea for the World Championships – and the age-old question will be asked once again: can the Western teams compete with their Eastern counterparts?
Vizicsacsi is optimistic and thinks that if there’s ever going to be a chance then it’s probably going to be this year, as he thinks he’s spotted a weakness in the Korean teams.
“I’m watching a lot of Korean replays, of course like every pro player should, and what I saw during these play-offs is that actually they make some mistakes,” he says. “Sometimes down to a mechanical level; that was something I’m not used to from the Korean teams in the last few years.”
“They might pick themselves up in the Worlds again and play this perfect Korean style, but I think their main strength is game understanding. But right now, there are a lot of styles and different champions that are viable, so it’s not like there’s only two champions for each role – and I think that’s not good for the Koreans because they like to perfect one thing and now there’s much more variety, so you can surprise them,” Vizicsacsi explains.
Kikis, on the other hand, is more pragmatic in his view, claiming that he would never say the gap between the East and the West is getting smaller until they start actually winning some games against them. “Every year people say this is the year we’re going to show something, but until it’s done I really wouldn’t say so,” he says.
Jankos, however, disagrees and thinks the gap is in fact getting smaller.
“I don’t know if we're there yet, but when I’m watching the LPL or LCK teams I think, as Europeans and LCS, we can do the same. Now the question is whether we have good enough players to pull it off, good enough players to learn it.”
“I think when it comes to Fnatic, for example, their micro game isn’t as crisp as maybe Schalke’s is, but they’re going for so many out plays and it always works for them. If we can just play our game on our level, not only as individuals but also learn the micro game at the international level, I think we’ll be better teams at the Worlds for sure.”
.png)
