LEC power rankings: Week 2’s top dogs and lame ducks
By Michael Salt
After a commanding performance from Team Vitality taking down Misfits Gaming in Week 2. Today we’ll be taking a quick glance at the table and giving you our LEC power rankings moving into Week 3!
With Week 2 complete and LEC Week 3 almost upon us, it’s time to take a look and see the top dogs and the lame ducks of the LEC. There are a few teams separating themselves from the pack, Fnatic had a rough ride during their games last weekend and Schalke proved themselves as the best German organisation in the league! Now let’s get into those LEC power rankings!
10. Rogue (0-4)
In at number 10 for our LEC power rankings we have Rogue. What can really be said about Rogue? They’re doing about as well as can be expected, with a roster with one talented player hidden in a sea of mediocrity. Which one is the talent? I’ll let you guess that one for yourselves.
Game 1 of Week 2 versus Splyce was the only chance Rogue had to show that they might not become the second coming of that 2-16 run we saw last year. Some fancy footwork from Chres “Sencux” Laursen’s Jayce was the highlight of that entire game. But that’s hardly going to redeem them in the eyes of LEC viewers.
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Game 2 was never going to go well for the Rogue boys. G2 – as expected – absolutely wiped the floor with them. Martin “HeaQ” Kordmaa and Kim “Wadid” Bae-in between them went 0/6/9 which was painful enough. But then you factor in Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek’s Karthus pick, which got absolutely decimated. The poor guy never had the chance to scale and salvage the game.
9. Fnatic (0-4)
Oh, how the mighty fall, in at number 9 of our LEC power rankings we have Fnatic.
From the World finals in 2018 to a 0-4 record after Week 2 of the LEC. The golden boys of Europe seem to really be struggling this season, and it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly the problem is. On paper, this roster is stacked with both rookie talent in Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek (and Broxah/Bwipo to a lesser extent). And then you factor in the veteran presence of Martin “Rekkles” Larsson and Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov, it really looks as if Caps was the glue that held that team together during his tenure there.
Granted when looking at the schedule Fnatic had in LEC Week 2, you see how they could have lost to Vitality and Schalke when they lost to teams like Origen and SK Gaming. The meta certainly isn’t on their side and they can’t rely on Rekkles to scale into the late game anymore, so Fnatic needs to figure out their problems and fix them fast before they become a laughing stock.
8. exceL eSports (1-3)
Number eight for our LEC power rankings is exceL eSports. During the preseason, you could see that most people had their money on exceL sitting in dead last during spring split, by winning at least one game and staying ahead of Rogue and Fnatic I’m glad to see that’s not the case. In Week 2, Excel almost managed to take a game off of G2, the team that everyone (including me) had touted to be first place team at the end of the split.
Despite their surprising performance vs G2, exceL didn’t look anywhere near as strong when facing SK Gaming – a comparatively easier opponent. Going 0-2 in Week 2 is a bit disappointing, however with their high variance team, I think in the next few weeks they’ll shape up as a similar team to ROCCAT in previous years.
My advice to exceL would be to substitute in Joran “Special” Scheffer to the mid lane and give him a chance to outshine Fabian “Exile” Schubert, which I know he can do easily given the chance.
7. Origen (1-3)
Number seven in our LEC power rankings is the possibly the unluckiest team in the LEC – Origen.
As the popular EU meme asks…when does Origen play? And if you ask Misfits and Splyce during their Week 2 matches – they don’t get to.
Week 2 was a rough week for Origen, who found themselves going 0-2 against a really tough schedule. Origen found themselves pitted against the 2nd best team in the league and another playoffs contender. As for the gameplay itself, Barney “Alphari” Morris really didn’t seem himself playing a carry champion like Irelia, and in the jungle, Kold played both games on Xin Zhao and found himself with an overall KDA of 1/8/6 – really revealing himself to be the weakest link of the team.
I really think the forecast is pretty gloomy for this Origen lineup if the meta stays as it is. However, if things change towards a more late game focus, allowing for farming through the mid game and big scale team fights in the late game, then I’d expect to see Origen thrive. But for the meantime, I can see Origen’s losses spiraling out of control and maybe history will repeat itself? Hopefully not.