MAD Lions vs SK Gaming
SK Gaming got off to a flying start of their LEC Summer campaign and picked up wins against Origen and Schalke in a fairly dominant fashion. Although their won over OG was a fluke more than anything else, SK Gaming played well against Schalke and rightfully came away as the winners. I predict this team will continue seeing plenty of success as long as they can play around Crownshot, while we also must give some praise to ZaZe, who showed he can hold his own and compete even against some of the best mid laners in the league.
MAD Lions, on the other side, suffered a humiliating loss against G2 on an opening day but managed to bounce back with a win over Excel this Saturday. There is not a lot to be said about that game, as MAD Lions completely outclassed Excel, which was expected, albeit it was not a massive achievement since Excel looked very bad so far this split.
In terms of individual quality, MAD Lions have an advantage over SK, but their overall performances were rather shaky. MAD Lions make way too many mistakes in lane and often tend to play too aggressive, which can backfire against teams who know how to counter that.
SK looked far better so far this split, and while I’m not ready to say they can defeat MAD Lions, this match will likely be very close with plenty of kills across the board.
Prediction: Over 24.5 kills – 1.806 Pinnacle – Best Bet
Schalke 04 vs Rogue
There is really not a lot to be said about this bout. Rogue are a class above Schalke with their superior laning strength and a far better macro play. While Rogue still need to show a bit more against top teams for me to see them as a team that will represent Europe at Worlds, they should have no issues defeating Schalke, who seemingly started the 2020 Summer the same way they did in Spring.
Prediction: Rogue -7.5 kills – 1.917 Pinnacle
Origen vs Misfits
After suffering a humiliating defeat against SK on day one, Origen bounced back and completely stomped G2 Esports on Saturday to leave a huge statement. Misfits, on the other side, showed a lot of quality when they came close to defeating Fnatic on day one, but suffered a complete stomp against Rogue on day two.
What became obvious on Misfits’ game against Rogue was that as long as the opposition can shut down Kobbe and Doss, Misfits will fall apart relatively fast. This nicely shows the meta shift which favors strong bottom lanes and when we talk about strong ADC-Support combos, there are not many that can compare to Upset-Destiny. What’s more, Alphari looked very solid in the game against G2 and I’m not sure whether Dan Dan is at the level needed to compete with him.
The biggest factor that led to Misfits’ defeat was the disastrous performance from Razork, who got out-jungled by Inspired to a degree it was just sad to watch, however, it’s fair to say it was just an off-day and that he will improve here
I expect OG to win here at the end, but Misfits will not just roll over and die. They still have enough talent in their roster to compete with Origen and while it won’t be easy to keep up the pace with them, forcing this game to go very late should be achievable as long as Doss can improve his performance.
Prediction: Over 21.5 kills – 1.854 Pinnacle
Fnatic vs Excel
If the opening two games of the split are anything to go by, this just might be one of the most one-sided matches of the day. Fnatic looked solid in their opening fixtures and although they should have lost against Misfits, the fact that they managed to hold on and turn the game around speaks a lot about this team and their quality.
Excel, on the other side, are struggling and even that is an understatement. As mentioned before, they have a solid idea of how to approach games but lack the quality to execute those ideas. Lane-by-lane, Fnatic are much stronger and while I am tempted to predict a fast match, the current meta, that is slightly more late-game focused suggests this game might be played for a bit longer.
Nevertheless, Fnatic should come out ahead with no issues whatsoever, especially if we can another strong performance from Nemesis and Rekkles.
Prediction: Fnatic -9.5 kills – 1.917 Pinnacle
