We are back again with another League of Legends European Championship (LEC) week preview, where we look over the five fixtures that are slated to be played and give our predictions no how do we believe the fixtures will end.
All the eyes this week will be on G2 Esports, who will do their best to keep their perfect record alive, while FC Schalke 04 and Team Vitality will look to pocket their first win of the season.
MAD Lions vs SK Gaming
Friday, February 7 – 18:00 CET
Despite what the betting odds suggest this match will be closer than expected. While there is no going around the fact that SK are 1-3 this split, they have not been playing as bad their record would suggest. In fact we liked SK in their games as they did not make many mistakes. Unfortunately, their execution was less than impressive.
MAD Lions on the other side are a team that have been putting up some solid results, but we feel like they are overachieving. Last week they bested Excel and Schalke which are both solid results on the paper, however, there is one thing we need to consider. Against Excel, MAD Lions played exceptionally poorly and were trailing their opponents throughout the whole game, but still somehow managed to clinch the W solely due to Excel’s miss play. The exact same thing happened against Schalke, which leads us to believe MAD Lions were lucky to win both games as they did not show any notable qualities.
Bookmakers believe SK Gaming are huge underdogs, but we feel otherwise. They have shown enough to push MAD Lions to the limits and expose their poor individual quality and with the inflated odds, we don’t need to think twice to back SK here.
Prediction: SK Gaming to win – 2.73 Pinnacle
Prediction: Over 23.5 kills – 1.80 Pinnacle
Schalke 04 vs Misfits
Friday, February 7 – 19:00 CET
A match we are most excited for, as it will pin together win-hungry Schalke and Misfits who have had their moments of greatness so far, yet failed to find any consistency to make us believe they are a team that will contest a playoffs spot.
Misfits are entering this bout as favorites, which considering Schalke have not yet won a match is reasonable, however, we would not write off Schalke just yet. Just recently, they have promoted their academy jungler Lukas “Lurox” Thoma to the main roster, which should, in theory, improve the team as a whole, considering Erberk “Gilius” Demir’s performances were slightly underwhelming in the opening two weeks.
Despite the fact that Schalke are 0-4, they have not been playing particularly bad. Furthermore, two of their losses came against two of the strongest European teams (Origen and Fnatic). As we see it this one will be a close bout, but when push comes to shove, Schalke have enough quality and experience to come out ahead.
Prediction: Over 24.5 kills – 1.89 Pinnacle
Prediction: Schalke to win – 2.19 Pinnacle
Fnatic vs Excel Esports
Friday, February 7 – 20:00 CET
In all fairness, this match can go only one way. Fnatic are the superior side in all aspects of the game and while they had a slow start of the season, we would not be too concerned with their chances to finish the split among the top three.
Excel have been playing well so far this split, but we were not all too convinced with what they have shown against Misfits in week two. As seen Excel struggled with Misfits’ aggression and considering Fnatic can be a very aggressive team, we don’t believe Excel have a chance to cause an upset here or even come close for that matter.
Prediction: Fnatic -8.5 kills – 1.88 Pinnacle
Vitality vs Origen
Friday, February 7 – 21:00 CET
No matter how we look at this bout, Origen are a far superior team to Vitality, who have not shown anything in the opening two weeks of the split. While Vitality have a team that is bound to improve and grow, as it’s assembled from mostly rookies, their chances to defeat Origen are very slim, and nearly non-existent.
We won’t beat around the bush here and just say it – Origen will win this one and we have a reason to believe they will do so with ease. Origen players have been performing incredibly well so far this season and while they lost to G2 Esports, we can’t deny Origen are one of the top-three teams in Europe and are bound to make a playoffs appearance if they manage to keep up the tempo.
Prediction: Origen -8.5 kills – 2.02 Pinnacle
Prediction: Under 20.5 kills – 1.90 Pinnacle
Rogue vs G2 Esports
Friday, February 7 – 22:00 CET
We really like Rogue and the way this team is playing, but considering they are facing G2 Esports, we would not count on any upset wins. G2 Esports are a team that are head and shoulders above almost all other LEC teams and they are not afraid to show that.
While they tend to drop some matches because they simply don’t care and start playing for fun, we don’t expect that to happen in the early stages of the split, meaning we can expect G2 to not put their foot off the gas until they are far ahead of the competition and until they do so, we will ride the wave and side with G2 Esports to produce another dominant win.
Prediction: G2 Esports -8.5 kills – 1.84 Pinnacle
Prediction: Under 26.5 kills – 1.86 Pinnacle
Best Bet Prediction: Origen -8.5 kills – 2.02 Pinnacle
