This article is part of our LoL Recap series.
ROCCAT vs. Fnatic
The second match of Week 8, Day 1 of the European League of Legends Championship Series in Berlin featured Fnatic and Team ROCCAT. With its 2-1 victory on Thursday, ROCCAT became the first bottom-four EU LCS team to win against a top-six team this season.
Fnatic jungler Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen set the tone for Game 1 with his early jungle invade as Graves. Within the first 24 minutes Fnatic had taken down five towers, a Cloud Drake and Mountain Drake, whereas ROCCAT (3-7, 8-16 match record) had taken down a lone Fnatic tower. However, 28 minutes in, ROCCAT initiated a Baron-deciding teamfight, which gave ROCCAT the buff and the perfect opportunity to take back the gold lead, eventually pushing into the Fnatic base.
Fnatic (4-6, 12-15) turned the game around by taking down Elder Dragon 37 minutes in, then rotating to and taking down Baron and pushing into ROCCAT's base. With double Epic buffs, Fnatic was able to wipe all of ROCCAT's base and members off of the Rift to earn a 1-0 series lead.
ROCCAT jungler Nubar "Maxlore" Sarafian turned things around in Game 2 by punishing Fnatic's early jungle invades. After securing the first Baron, ROCCAT began to split-push into Fnatic's base. After ROCCAT's Baron buff wore off, Fnatic fought inside its base and was one kill away from earning an ace until a pause came in by ROCCAT. After respawning, ROCCAT was able to take Elder Dragon and Baron. Again, Fnatic thwarted ROCCAT's attempts to win the game by killing three members in another teamfight. In the end, ROCCAT proved that third time's the charm as it was able to end the game with its third Baron buff push. ROCCAT was able to even the series, led by mid laner Felix "Betsy" Edling, who put up a 2/3/5 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) as Swain.
The third game was all ROCCAT, seemingly energized by its Game 2 win. ROCCAT was aggressive through the first 20 minutes and gave Fnatic a tough time early on. At the 27-minute mark ROCCAT began to dive under towers with little-to-no answer from Fnatic. After 33 minutes of play, ROCCAT rushed down Baron and began its split-push into Fnatic's base once again. Shortly after acquiring the buff, ROCCAT finally put Fnatic away, securing enough picks to eventually push the opposition's base down. This time around, ROCCAT was led by top laner Ambrož "Phaxi" Hren, who put up a 3/2/4 KDA as Gnar.
Next up for ROCCAT is Giants Gaming on Saturday at 11 a.m ET. Fnatic is off for the weekend and will face Giants Gaming March 25, at 2 p.m. ET.
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UoL vs. H2k
The first match of Week 8, Day 2 of the European League of Legends Championship Series on Friday in Berlin featured the top two teams in Group B. Unicorns of Love swept H2k Gaming, giving UoL sole possession of the top spot in Group B.
The first game saw a lot of fighting take place in the top lane, but UoL top laner Kiss "Vizicsacsi" Tamás asserted his dominance throughout. Despite H2k (7-3, 16-7 match record) picking a strong early game composition, UoL (8-2, 17-7) was able to hang around with one of the best early game teams in the region.
UoL broke the game open in its favor at the 20-minute mark when a 1-vs-1 in the mid lane skirmish turned into a full-blown teamfight that ended in a 4-for-2 trade in favor of UoL. Although H2k made a small rally, UoL was able to close out the game on a well-played Baron fight at the 39-minute mark. UoL was led by Vizicsacsi, who put up a 5/5/5 KDA (kill/deaths/assists) as Renekton.
The second game saw H2k return to its early game strategy. This was made easier by the fact that UoL drafted a relatively weak early game team composition compared to its first game. UoL tried to play around H2k's early game aggression and was aided by missteps and greed on H2k's part, but H2k continued piling on its lead over UoL.
That lead, however, was again short-lived.
Despite being down in the first 30 minutes, UoL played around the map well and was able to ace H2k and get Baron. UoL forced another teamfight at 43 minutes, aced H2k once again and finished up the series sweep to gain sole possession of the top spot in Group B. UoL AD carry Samuel "Samux" Fernández Fort put up a 9/1/8 KDA as Ezreal, illustrating his smart play throughout the game.
Next up, Unicorns of Love will face off against Origen on March 24 at 3 p.m. ET, and H2k will face off against Team Vitality on March 25 at 2 p.m. ET.
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ROCCAT vs. Giants
Team ROCCAT came up with an impressive 2-0 sweep of Giants Gaming on Saturday during Week 8, Day 3 of the European League of Legends Championship Series in Berlin.
Game 1 saw both teams put together an even early game, with Giants (2-8, 7-18 match record) taking an early 2-for-1 teamfight to get a quick advantage. That ended up being one of the few fights that Giants would end up winning, though. From then on, ROCCAT (4-7, 10-16) started to win fight after fight, taking a sizable advantage across the map. Even when Giants initiated fights, ROCCAT decisively wrestled away the upper hand.
ROCCAT's whole roster was on top of its game, but AD carry Petter "Hjärnan" Freyschuss' Sivir was the driving force in this ROCCAT win with an impressive 9/1/8 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) in 33 minutes. He helped clean up a teamfight win at 20 minutes to secure the Baron for his team, which pushed ROCCAT lightyears ahead of Giants.
Game 2 followed a much different script than Game 1, as Giants was in the driver's seat for most of the game. While it took quite a while after the early first blood for the teams to start putting consistent kills on the board, Giants excelled at it once the mid game started. At the forefront of this offensive attack was Giants mid laner Na "NighT" Gun-woo, playing on Talon. He picked up multi-kills left and right en route to an 8/2/7 KDA, which was good for 100 percent kill participation.
But everything changed when ROCCAT went for a decisive Baron play at the 35-minute mark. Even though Giants owned a 15-to-8 kill advantage at that point, ROCCAT managed to use the buff to its full extent and flip the game on its head. It knocked down towers all across the map and then picked up a 3-for-0 teamfight win inside the Giants base to lock up the 39-minute win and secure the sweep.
Team ROCCAT will look to continue its recent resurgence when it takes on Misfits on Friday at noon ET, while Giants Gaming will be back Thursday at 3 p.m. ET to face G2 Esports.
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Splyce vs. Origen
Origen has officially been sent to the Promotion Tournament with an 11th straight series loss, this time coming in the form of a 2-0 sweep at the hands of Splyce on Saturday to close out Week 8, Day 3 of the European League of Legends Championship Series in Berlin.
Game 1 saw Splyce (5-4, 13-9 match record) jump out ahead of Origen (0-10, 2-20 match record) from the very start, and it all began with a rarely seen Fizz pick from Splyce top laner Martin "Wunder" Hansen. He used the champion to get first blood and then continued to run rampant around the map, picking up kills with relative ease on his way to an 8/0/4 KDA (kills/deaths/assists). If he didn't get the kill, then Splyce jungler Jonas "Trashy" Andersen's Kha'Zix, who finished with a 4/0/3 KDA, was right there to pick up the kill himself. With these two dominating the teamfights, there wasn't much that Origen could do to get back into the game. Splyce amassed a 6,000-gold lead by 20 minutes and never let up from there. They easily took the Baron at the 27-minute mark and then finished up with an ace, which included a quadra kill from Wunder, at the 30-minute mark to secure the 31-minute win.
While Origen showed some signs of life at certain points in Game 2, Splyce still managed to snuff out any potential chance at an upset. Whereas it was Wunder leading the way in Game 1, the second game was all about the Vladimir of mid laner Chres "Sencux" Laursen. From the very start, he was owning the mid lane matchup against Yoo "NaeHyun" Nae-hyun's Talon on the way to a massive 11/1/8 KDA. With Sencux setting the tone, Splyce had put together an almost 6,000-gold lead before even going for the Baron at 25 minutes. Unfortunately for Splyce, Origen jungler Jakub "Cinkrof" Rokicki's Lee Sin snuck in for the steal, which gave Origen a sliver of hope at a comeback. The underdogs were unable to do anything at all with the buff, however, as Splyce continued to string together teamfight wins left and right to further grow its lead. Not even needing to go for a Baron of their own, Splyce simply secured the ace it had been looking for at the 33-minute mark to lock up the 2-0 sweep.
Splyce will open up Week 9 with a match against Team Vitality on Thursday at 12 p.m. ET, while Origen faces the Unicorns of Love on Friday at 3 p.m. ET.
