esports
How did the top LoL teams in Europe and North America get to the playoffs? What are their playstyles, strengths and weaknesses? Join us as we examine the teams heading into the playoffs.
The League of Legends Spring season is drawing to a climax in North America and Europe and the playoffs are upon us. The regular spring split season was incredibly close and playoff spots were still up for grabs up until the very last week. In Europe, every team still had the chance to make playoffs up until the last day of play, while in things have never been so closely contested in North America, where every playoff team still had the chance for a bye, with the regular season ending with five tiebreakers.
Now that all of the playoff teams have finally been decided, we’ve decided to take a closer look at all the various teams and discuss how they ended up here. What strengths and weaknesses does each time have and will they define the championship results? Let's start by focusing on the EU LCS side.
EU LCS
G2 Esports
Analysts had mixed expectations for G2 Esports at the beginning of the split. The former kings of Europe switched up their roster with what was arguably an upgrade in the top and jungle role. G2’s issues lie mostly in their botlane however, as both Kim ‘Wadid’ Bae-in and Petter ‘Hjarnan’ Freyschuss took a while to get used to the team’s playstyle. G2 mainly plays through the top and midlane, with Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski trying to snowball either one of those lanes, which has produced some good results.
G2 showed some questionable decision making in the later stages of the spring split, which cost them some games – this is something they need to fix if they want to make a run for the trophy. There’s no denying their talent, though, and placing second under Fnatic is no mean feat.
Fnatic
Fnatic came to the spring split with a small upgrade in their support department, as Zdravets ‘Hylissang’ Iliev Galabov joined the team. Early in the season, however, Hylissang had some problems adapting to Fnatic’s playstyle and there were some rumoured internal issues, but they became more dominant as the split progressed. They hardly dropped any games near the end of the split, and it seems like Martin ‘Rekkles’ Larsson has yet to face a worthy opponent in the botlane as he appears to have dominated every lane so far.
Fnatic relies on their laners winning their lanes and snowballing their leads. They haven’t really shown any real weaknesses other than some passive play by Mads ‘Broxah’ Brock-Pedersen, which can create opportunities for opposing teams to create plays. With just four games dropped over the whole split, Fnatic are clearly a force to be reckoned with, and we could see them take home the trophy this season.
Splyce
Expectations for Splyce were high when their roster was announced. With a team consisting of veterans and playmakers, their goal was set on playoffs from the start. They had some trouble in the early weeks because they couldn’t agree on a defined playstyle, but since the second half of the split Splyce have ramped up to become the one of the best teams in Europe.
Andrei ‘Xerxe’ Dragomir could be the best jungler in the EU LCS right now. Splyce excels in team fights in the mid and late game, but are also able to snowball early game leads, as proven in their second game against H2K. Weaknesses include some slow and passive starts and Andrei ‘Odoamne’ Pascu giving up some early kills. Still, with a record this season that matches G2, it’s too early to rule Splyce out of a playoffs-winning run.
Team Vitality
The French organisation had a great start to the split. They dominated early on, but faltered in the second half of the season, when they dropped games left and right. The biggest problems they have is their botlane, with Jakub ‘Jactroll’ Skurzyński and Amadeu ‘Minitroupax’ Carvalho showing that they still lack experience in a region where there is so much botlane strength. Jacktroll seems to missposition a lot, which gives opponents free gold, while Erberk ‘Gilius’ Demir can be a great jungler but has shown questionable decision making and bad smites. Gillius essentially either creates game wins or game losses for Vitality.
Daniele ‘Jiizuke’ di Mauro, the midlane rookie, is one of the main strengths of the team. He normally plays a scaling carry like Ryze and pressures the sidelane in the late game, which gives the rest of the team freedom to pick up objectives. Let’s see if Vitality can show off their early-season form as they head into playoffs.
Roccat
Roccat’s dreams of making playoffs have finally come true. The last time were in this position was back in 2015. The team’s playstyle revolves around their jungler, Jonas ‘Memento’ Elmarghichi. He tries to provide his team with early deep vision to make it more difficult for the opposing jungler to gank. But this also means he doesn’t really gank often and his solo laners have difficulties generating leads on their own.
The hole in their game plan is that if they fall behind in the early game, they have difficulties coming back later. Their team fighting is pretty good, but can fall short against the better teams like Fnatic, Splyce and G2 Esports. With Splyce as their first matchup in the playoffs, they’ll really need to find their form.
H2K
H2K have had what you could call a weird season. In the beginning they managed to lose almost every single game. But when the second half of the split came around, they replaced their jungler and midlaner and looked a lot better. Then they went on to make the playoffs.
Marcin ‘Selfie’ Wolski is great at generating leads if he doesn’t get ganked early game, while Ilyas ‘Shook’ Hartsema provides a lot of support in mid-game ganks. But the star of the roster is the rookie ADC Patrik ‘Sheriff’ Jírů, who mostly plays late-game carries like Caitlynn, Kog’maw and Tristana.
H2K always picks for the late-game, which is where they win most of their games. But the problem with this game plan is that if they fall behind too far in the early game, their opponents can end things before any of their late-game carries reach their potential – as seen in their second game against Splyce. Shook doesn’t provide enough early pressure to generate leads, so most of the games are played from behind. Let’s see if this playstyle can take them through the playoffs.
NA LCS
Echo Fox
Rick Fox’s team had a great split. After almost being relegated in 2017, they pulled it back with a completely new roster. In the beginning of the split, analysts were skeptical if the team would work out, because the roster is filled with conflicting personalities. After the first few weeks, Echo Fox proved all those analysts wrong, taking games and showcasing some of the best plays in NA.
The team plays most of their games through the toplane, where Heo ‘Huni’ Seung-hoon rules supreme – and with Joshua ‘Dardoch’ Hartnett supporting him, they seem like an unstoppable force. Huni plays the lane really aggressively and Dardoch tries to provide vision and early ganks for him to snowball lanes.
Echo Fox’s weakness is often their botlane. All of the attention goes to Huni, which often means that there’s little vision around bot-side. This makes it easy for the opposing jungler to gank and try to snowball the enemy botlane instead. In the later stages of the split, Echo Fox suffered from some poor mid-game decision making which cost them some games. But as the number 2 squad in North America, it’s well worth keeping an eye on them to see if they can pull off a playoff-winning run.
Cloud9
Cloud9 have had a strong roster this split, but they haven’t always been able to perform due to some inconsistency and bad calls. But they shouldn’t be ruled out of the playoffs. Dennis ‘Svenskeren’ Johnsen proved to be a valuable choice for the C9 roster and he’s always trying to snowball his lanes in the early to mid game. Nicolaj ‘Jensen’ Jensen, Zachary ‘Sneaky’ Scuderi and Andy ‘Smoothie’ Ta are part of the strongest laners in their respective roles – the team looks good on paper.
Their game plan, however, evolves around snowballing the mid and bot lane while trying to keep top lane even. Even though Licorice is a rookie, he’s still often able to hold his own against the top Korean imports from other teams. Cloud9’s weaknesses are inconsistency and bad shotcalling. For example, in their second game against Team Liquid, they managed to throw away a 5-0 score lead by taking bad teamfights over and over again. In the later stages of the split, Cloud9’s form took a nosedive and their loss against FlyQuest meant that they’re playing in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, starting with a match against Team Liquid, who beat them to a fourth place finish in their tiebreaker.
100 Thieves
Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag’s team had some troubles early on in the season as they settled down and established their play style. In the second half of the split, they showed the rest of the NA LCS what they’re really worth. Their strength is their shot caller, Zaqueri ‘aphromoo’ Black, who often dictates the game with his voice alone. This means that the team is really decisive in their plays throughout the game.
Kim ‘Ssumday’ Chan-ho is still a force to be reckoned with once he gets a lead, as is mid laner Yoo ‘Ryu’ Sang-wook. While Cody ‘Cody Sun’ Sun is a great team fighter, he tilts quite easily and if he falls behind early he has difficulties coming back in the later stages of the game.
100 Thieves’ game plan often revolves around trying to snowball any of their three lanes in the early game and to then play the game through that lane. For example, if top has a winning match-up, William ‘Meteos’ Hartman will spend most of his time on the top lane to try to take the first turret there. The downside to this is that the other lanes don’t get as much attention and might fall behind.
With their win against Echo Fox last week, 100 Thieves now place second and have a bye straight through to the semis – it’s well worth keeping an eye on these guys.
TSM
The former kings of the NA LCS had a really rough start of the season and they only narrowly made play-offs. Søren ‘Bjergsen’ Bjerg really stepped up towards the end of the split to carry his team for one of the last playoffs spots. On paper, TSM should be one of the strongest teams out there, as Jesper ‘Zven’ Svenningsen, Alfonso ‘mithy’ Aguirre Rodríguez and Michael ‘MikeYeung’ Yeung were extremely good last year.
The problem is that they somehow don’t fit together that well. While they’re able to generate early game leads, they have troubles closing the game out in the later stages. This means that their shotcalling is not as good as it should be. MikeYeung is great at ganking in the early game but has trouble with making the right plays in the mid and late game, and while Bjergsen is a solid mid laner on his own, he doesn’t roam as often as other mid laners. He might be sitting on a lead over his opposing mid laner, but he doesn’t use this to snowball other lanes as often as he should.
Let’s see if they can regain their form and retain their trophy.
Clutch Gaming
Coming into the split, analysts thought Clutch would be a middle of the pack team. No one expected that an upgraded version of EnVyUs would clinch a playoff spot. Their wins looked shaky at best, but they still managed to win some games week after week. The key to this is their consistency. Fabian ‘Febiven’ Diepstraten, the new mid laner from Europe, has been their superstar. He rarely loses lane and carries when it matters.
Clutch’s botlane has been stepping up as well. Earlier in the split, Apollo ‘Apollo’ Price managed to come back with clutch Baron steals, and Nickolas ‘Hakuho’ Surgent’s roaming has made it possible to generate leads where Nam ‘LirA’ Tae-yoo fell short. Clutch haven’t really defined their playstyle yet and it seems that they play a reactive style where they try to capitalise on the mistakes that their opponents make – this could give them an edge heading into playoffs.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid’s expectations have been high. They built themselves a superstar roster with the likes of Jung ‘Impact’ Eon-yeong, Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng, Kim ‘Olleh’ Joo-sung and Jake ‘Xmithie’ Puchero. The bar was set high, but the team had troubles showing up when it mattered. Sometimes they’d take wins in spectacular fashion; other times they’d lose games due to uncharacteristic mistakes. With a roster like this, Team Liquid should have easily placed first or second – instead they’re playing in the quarterfinals against Cloud9.
The biggest problem Team Liquid has is that they are trying out a lot of different styles, and it seems like they’re practicing on stage and don’t take the split as serious as other teams. However, in the last week, they showed that can stick to a specific game plan and win with it. It took them some time, but if Team Liquid stick to their guns, they’re certainly a team that can win it all.
