LEC Spring Split 2020 W1D1 Recap: Origen Cleanly Take Down Fnatic
The LEC is back! Ten teams took to the Berlin stage for the first day of games on Friday, so if you missed any of the action, here’s our recap!
Finally, the long wait is over! LEC is back on our screens! With plenty of new faces on refreshed rosters, the first day of games is always the most exciting. Who will match their potential? Who will disappoint? Who will make the big plays for their team? It’s all up in the air heading into W1D1.
Fans were keen to watch defending LEC champions G2 Esports in action against a rookie-filled MAD Lions line-up, but the most exciting action of the day undoubtedly came from the Match of the Week between Fnatic and Origen.
Here’s our recap of W1D1:
G2 Esports 1 – 0 MAD Lions
Player of the Game: Rasmus “Caps” Winther
The first game of the season was almost a huge upset as MAD Lions burst onto the LEC scene with an electric early game. G2 Esports and Jankos were on the ropes for the first fifteen minutes, giving up several free kills and failing to read Shadow’s intelligent jungle pathing and ganks.
Orome and Kaiser also impressed for the MAD Lions, but it was only a matter of time before the defending European champions found a way back into the game. Everyone knows that the G2 team fight is unmatched and MAD’s lack of stage experience meant they couldn’t stop G2’s engages, and this allowed Perkz and Caps to dominate skirmishes and turn the game on its head.
While it’s clear this MAD Lions roster has a ton of potential, perhaps it’s a little early for them to take on the second-best team in the world head-to-head. Meanwhile, G2 continue to give up early game leads to lesser opponents, but don’t seem to care as they can simply re-establish control of the map after winning team fight after team fight.
SK Gaming 1 – 0 Team Vitality
Player of the Game: Juš “Crownshot” Marušič
SK Gaming narrowly edged out by far the least exciting game of Day 1 against Team Vitality. Jenax and Saken were the players to watch in what was a slow-paced, low-action affair.
After a relatively quiet early game, Vitality began to dictate the tempo of the game with their minuscule gold lead, often being the first team to set up around major objectives. Skeanz grouped up with his mid laner to find picks across the Rift and extend his team’s gold lead, Saken’s plays on Cassiopeia being the only real highlights of the game.
With one exception: Trick’s Elder Dragon steal. Despite being pretty irrelevant for the entire game, Trick somehow sneaked into the dragon pit and stole Elder from right under Vitality’s noses, keeping SK in the game.
From there, the SK line-up could simply walk into the enemy base without any real obstruction from the Vitality roster and closed the game out at just under 51 minutes.
Rogue 1 – 0 Misfits Gaming
Player of the Game: Emil “Larssen” Larsson
If you were to rank all ten teams by early game strength on Day 1, Rogue would probably top the list. Inspired was the more effective of the two junglers during the laning phase, setting up plays for his bot lane, picking up a Rift Herald, and securing uncontested towers while Razork struggled in his first game on stage.
Rogue continued to snowball their advantage through the mid-game, but looked extremely indecisive around the Baron area and were unsure how to close the game out. This led to Misfits Gaming forcing an advantageous fight and punishing their hesitant opponents, picking up two kills without reply, and securing their own Baron Nashor.
This was the wake-up call Rogue needed to push for the win. Larssen’s Qiyana was a joy to watch as he found countless picks on isolated enemy carries (including a solo kill on Febiven) and opened up the map for his team to grab a Baron and push towards Misfits’ Nexus.
Excel Esports 1 – 0 Schalke 04
Player of the Game: Patrik “Patrik” Jírů
FORG1VEN’s plans to return to European League of Legends with a win were spoiled by Excel Esports in Game 4.
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Excel’s solo laners, Expect and Mickey, gifted four unnecessary kills over to Schalke in the early game handing the German org complete control over the map within ten minutes of minions spawning. Caedrel’s attempts to level the playing field with a bot lane gank were unfounded as S04 reached the mid game with a sizeable gold lead.
Nevertheless, FORG1VEN and co. were unable to push their advantage and squandered their opportunity to snowball the game. If not for a miraculous Baron steal from Gilius, Excel would have won the game much sooner after taking control of the north river from under Schalke’s noses.
But even from there the S04 roster lacked the synergy and decision making to use the Baron correctly. They were then caught out in the mid lane and lost the ensuing team fight due to huge performances from the new Excel bot lane, Patrik and Tore.
The 2019 Summer Split’s tenth-placed team used that team fight victory to push down mid and close the game out before the 40-minute mark. Schalke showed signs that this roster can push the top teams in the league this season, but need to work on their mid game shot-calling if they’re to find success in the Spring Split.
Fnatic 0 – 1 Origen
Player of the Game: Barney “Alphari” Morris
From early game, to mid game, to ending the game, Origen were dominant over Fnatic in the Match of the Week.
Selfmade’s repeated early game attempts to take down Upset in the bottom lane proved fruitless as the German AD Carry continuously denied the jungler with Xayah’s Featherstorm. This led to impatience from the Fnatic side and a forced bot lane play was punished by Origen, while Alphari twice caught Bwipo overextending in the top lane.
Despite a 4k gold deficit, Fnatic continued to skirmish with their opponents which ultimately ended in disaster for the 2019 Summer Split runners-up.
If not for a creative call to sneak a Baron while Origen were occupied elsewhere on the map, there would have been no positives to take from this game for Fnatic fans. Origen were by far the better team and look the more likely to push G2 at the top of the table after this clean victory over Fnatic.
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