The spring split is coming to an end. One of the most competitive splits of the EU LCS is down to the final four and on the road to Copenhagen, many surprises occurred and we have not only the two most successful organizations but also two hungry organizations that have yet to win a title. Team Vitality didn’t even qualify for a playoffs spot since their inaugural season in spring 2016. So it is time to reflect on the first round of playoffs and take a look at what we can expect for the matches on March 31st.

This is what we learned from the first round of playoffs:


RED SIDE PRIORITY

From the eight total played matches in this playoffs we have a current rate of 100% win rate on the red side. Which is not that big of a surprise with 8.5 meta.

Seeing the high priority of picks like Caitlyn, Sion or one of the high priority jungle. The red side is able to secure two of those alone in the first rotation. Despite having to ban out meta picks and not as in the blue side where you are able to target ban picks towards the opponent’s players more freely, you also have the first pick after the second rotation of bans.

This is a key point as you can secure any power pick left, block out certain important picks completely from the opponent’s Draft. Besides the obvious vantages, a team gets in the draft phase of having the flexibility of the last pick on the red side, which got more important with carrying top laners and picks like kassadin in the mid lane becoming more and more relevant in this meta. The red side brings in a lot of advantages in this meta due to the priorities of the meta making it rather difficult to blind pick. The tendencies of reacting towards a pick and maintaining and setting up for that last counterpick have more weight than securing a pick or another right now.

One other aspect is obviously baron control. Since the past two patches, Baron has become the major star of closing out the games. Not as it wasn’t before but through the short banner of command meta and even until this patch against all the champions that are good on stalling out sieges to set up their split pushing top laners. Sole due to the positioning of the side selection you have advantages in defending baron as it is easier to steal from the red side and it is harder to get flanked when you fight around baron from the red side.


THE RANGE GAME

The meta has shifted in three important aspects:

1. Splitpush yes or no
2. Longe Range Engage or Peel / Kiteback
3. Longe Range Carry or Ground Control

The priority of tanks in the jungle, supports and your high prioritized Sion on the top lane is due to the mix of safety and keeping the flexibility towards the carries or the split pushing picks. The meta shifted to a sieged oriented style and due to the vision changes having not only kill pressure in lane but also good scaling are very important aspect nowadays.

The priority of these picks is a reflection towards of two aspects that changed the game in the past few patches. Not only the abuse of baron sieges with those ranged champions became popular but also champions that are able to zone them in team fights.

By taking a look at the mid lane picks of last week’s games. Only Taliyah is a mid lane champion that doesn’t scale too well into the late game. Otherwise, all the picks like Ryze, Azir, Kassadin, Cassiopeia, Vladimir and most importantly Swain bring that to the table.

With that in mind, the natural response to the long-ranged scaling options have been some sort of hard engage or long distance engages. Especially in the jungle with picks like Sejuani and Zac keeping their popularity but also the new rise of Jhin. That has become more popular lately. With those long-range engages you can not only set up the flanks for your top lane but stop the sieges from coming in. The meta is in a very versatile space right now.

Where teams figured out how to constantly to answer and respond to each other's picks.

Reflecting this on the series we will see in the semi-finals there is a lot to be hyped about. Mostly for the first encounter G2 Esports and Splyce.

Not only it is an important match for G2 Esports. It is probably the most interesting in terms of team play. Splyce obliterated Roccat during the quarterfinals, not only showing their improved team play but also a much more deep insight into the current meta.

Splyce showed in their Quarter Final series that they are indeed capable of playing around the top side just as well as playing your usual scaling tank top lane. The top side of Wunder has been the pillar G2 has built around. Their playstyle has only worked so well due to his individual performance of keeping up pressure on the top lane constantly and relieving the other lanes of stress. There are two ways Splyce could play off this series. By exploiting the weaker bot side of G2 Esports or committing to one of the solo lanes. Splyce invested a lot in the Roccat series towards their mid lane and Nisqy was really able to shine and play really well. However this time he will be facing off against Jankos and Perkz that are true tag team duo. The games should be very heavily focused in team fighting and should be a lot of fun to watch this series.

The same goes for the series on Saturday. Vitality and Fnatic should be a very fun match to watch as we see the young and talented rookies against Fnatic’s old guard. Caps and Broxah had their rookie splits last year and have to prove what they learned from a year’s worth of LCS and worlds experience. Not having sOAZ might hurt them in the course of a series, but Bwipo seems like the type of player that should be able to handle the stress of a playoffs series.

The most interesting aspect of this match won’t even be the strategical aspect going into the series if Yamato is able to shine in the drafting phase or if Youngbuck is able to lead a team to another win of the EU LCS. It will be to see Jizukee, Minitroupax and Rekkles individual skills clash against each other. Team Vitality showed prowess in adaptation during their series against H2K, but they won because of Minitroupax and Jizuke individuals skills in the deciding moments. Those are two incredible players with impressive raw talent playing against one of the best players we currently have in the European league.

(Photo Credit : lolesports Flickr)

Disclaimer: The following article was written freely based on the author's opinion, and it may not necessarily represent Inven Global's editorial stance. 

About the Author: 
Hello guys, Alexandre Weber also known under the ID: DrPuppet. I'm a Brazilian professional Coach and content creator since 2015, mostly focused on League of Legends. I worked with many teams throughout the years in major and minor regions, but my most known work was with Kaos Latin Gamers from Chile in 2015, where we played the International Wildcard Finals against Pain Gaming. Since then I have been studying Cinema in Hamburg and creating content on youtube and twitch, besides writing for respected sites in Esports. You can find me on the social networks under @drpuppetlp and on Twitch under DrPuppet.
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