League of Legends: LEC Summer Playoffs Preview: Schalke 04 vs. Team Vitality
Team Vitality: The Miracle Run Part II
Vitality’s group stage run in the 2018 World Championship had a global audience on the edge of their seat hoping for a miracle, now they’re hoping to replicate a similar story in their climb from a 6th place tiebreaker through to Worlds qualification.
An 0-4 start and an 0-4 end to the LEC Summer Split, despite qualifying for playoffs, gives you an idea of the level of inconsistency Team Vitality have displayed throughout 2019 so far. On top of that, their failure to pick up a single win in the final two weeks of the season, only being saved by a tiebreaker over SK Gaming, leaves the team with low expectations heading into playoffs.
Initially judged as a masterclass, Mowgli’s transfer to Team Vitality in the off-season has since fallen flat and the roster has struggled to find synergy in the regular season. Lacking identity, decision making, and fight during some parts of the Summer Split, the Vitality team will be hoping to turn it around in the final stage of the 2019 LEC season and that could all stem from their rock in the top lane.
One to Watch: Lucas “Cabochard” Simon-Meslet
Only Bwipo has a greater gold difference at fifteen minutes than Vitality’s Cabochard (583 to 576) demonstrating the skill gap between these two players and their counterparts. Although, even though his team focuses on a three-pronged threat set-up, the Frenchman’s damage share is towards the lower end for top laners.
Karma, Jayce, Renekton are all key champions in Cabochard’s repertoire, but his damage numbers are lacking. This could be due to Vitality’s poor regular season, or the focus on split-pushing, however you’d have to believe that this team would expect more from their star top laner, particularly after finishing 1st in the LEC All-Pro team in the Spring Split.
Facing veteran Odoamne in Saturday’s match-up is the perfect opportunity to regain some form and confidence shown earlier in 2019 for Cabochard. Schalke have been excellent throughout the regular season, but fingers could be pointed towards their top laner as a sign of weakness for the 4th place squad. Odoamne has been on the receiving end of solo kills, mis-positioning, and poor lane stats in the Summer Split, so perhaps this is the right match-up to put Cabochard back on track.
Pulling out a carry top laner, calling up Mowgli, and picking up some early kills could be a recipe for success in Vitality’s Round 1 playoff match-up. Everybody knows how talented Cabochard is, even more so when he’s the focus of attention, so maybe it’s time for YamatoCannon to shift the focus from Jiizuke to the French top laner over the next few games.
LEC Summer Playoff Prediction: Schalke 04 3 – 1 Team Vitality
Team Vitality are a volatile team, you never know what to expect when Jiizuke and company hit the Rift. There will be occasions when the Vitality mid laner pops off and can join up with Mowgli to snowball a lead towards the bottom lane in order to find wins in this series, but all in all, Schalke are the stronger line-up.
Trick can guide his team through the early game nine times out of ten, Schalke win their early game team fights nine times out of ten, and they can close out from a strong early position nine times out of ten. You’d expect Vitality to wriggle their way into a win in the best-of-five series on Saturday with a crazy draft and Jiizuke on an early game carry, but otherwise this should be smooth sailing for Schalke 04.
But, as proven in Friday’s match-up, anything can happen in the LEC playoffs.
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Who do you think will win the second match-up of playoffs? Can Schalke recreate their 2018 Summer achievement? Let us know what you think in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter!