League of Legends LEC playoff preview: is there a chance for Schalke?

Mid Lane

Felix “Abbedagge” Braun vs Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek

Abbedagge has been an absolute revelation for Schalke during the Summer Split. He’s been above average in just about every statistical category for mid laners in Europe and he’s shown incredible mastery of the meta champions. In the Summer Split, Abbedagge had one champion where his KDA was under 3.00 and he only played that champion (Neeko) in one game.

For a rookie, Abbedagge hasn’t been spectacular, his KDA and kill participation numbers don’t come close to the top players in Europe. He’s been able to do exactly what was needed of him by Schalke, which is to be consistent. “Consistent” might not be enough this time.

While Abbedagge might have been a revelation as a rookie, Nemesis has been the leviathan of the LEC rookie class. I say this without exaggeration, but knowing that many will take it to be so: he might be as good or better than G2’s likely MVP mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Winther.

If you doubt, look at their summer split stats head to head. Caps may trounce Nemesis in KDA, damage, and laning, but the rookie bests him in kill participation, gold per minute, and vision control. It’s certainly not clear-cut, and Caps certainly got the better of them in their head-to-head last week, but Nemesis dominated the match-up in the first three games of the series, proving he is the only player in the league close to Caps’s level.

Advantage: Fnatic