LEC: Top 3 Candidates for Coach, Rookie, and MVP of the Spring Split
Voting for the LEC Coach, Rookie, and MVP of the 2020 Spring Split has started! Here’s a look at the top 3 favorites to win each award!
The LEC regular season is finally over and now we’re heading straight into the playoffs! Before that though, there’s some awards business to take care of involving the Coach, Rookie, and MVP of the 2020 Spring Split!
Earlier in the week, the LEC announced that voting for all three awards has started and asked the audience who they thought was deserving of the individual accolades.
If you’re struggling to decide on your Spring Split MVP, we’ve got you covered with our top 3 candidates for each of the awards:
Coach of the Split
Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez (Fnatic)
Obviously, Fnatic were expected to finish in the top three before the season started, but for Mithy to comfortably achieve his goals in his first six months as a League of Legends head coach deserves some recognition.
After building a reputation for being slow starters in the LEC regular season over recent years, Fnatic they managed to avoid that completely this season and kept pace with the likes of G2 Esports and Origen throughout the Spring Split.
Combine this with the intelligent early game drafts that enabled both Bwipo and Selfmade to make plays during the laning phase and it’s clear why Mithy should be considered for the Coach of the Spring Split award.
James “Mac” MacCormack (MAD Lions)
Heading into the 2020 Spring Split, MAD Lions were rated as one of the worst squads in the league with a bunch of unproven rookies making their debuts on the LEC stage back in January.
Now, they’ve clinched an LEC playoffs spot and gone toe-to-toe with some of the best teams in Europe along the way.
Tons of praise has been heaped onto the MAD Lions rookies, like Carzzy and Kaiser, but not much attention has been paid to the man who got them in this position, coach Mac.
After two years of guiding his previous team, Splyce, to four consecutive EU LCS/LEC playoffs from behind the scenes, Mac was given a chance as head coach at MAD Lions and has already proven himself worthy of that position.
While a Coach of the Split award would be nice, there’s no doubt Mac is entirely focused on nurturing this group of young talents with one eye on potentially qualifying for Worlds later in the year.
Alejandro “Jandro” Fernández-Valdés (Misfits Gaming)
The step up from coaching Fnatic Rising in back-to-back UKLC playoff triumphs to instructing Misfits Gaming on the LEC stage has proven to be no problem at all for Jandro. Despite entering 2020 with an inexperienced roster of rookies, the Spaniard has comfortably led his team to playoffs qualification showcasing some excellent League of Legends along the way.
As this is his first spell as a top division head coach, Jandro deserves all the praise coming his way for finishing fifth in the regular season with a playoffs run possibly on the horizon and it would be more than deserved if he won the award.
Rookie of the Split
Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság (MAD Lions)
AD Carry is one of the most unforgiving roles in competitive League of Legends. A single misclick or misposition and you’re dead along with the rest of your team after they lose the following team fight without their main damage source.
So, for Carzzy to complete his first split on the LEC stage receiving heaps of praise rather than criticism is a credit to how well the Czech has performed over the last three months.
With the exception of Caps and Rekkles, the MAD Lions marksman has the highest average kills per game in the LEC with 4, along with a 28.7% damage share, illustrating his importance to his team.
Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser (MAD Lions)
An ADC is nothing without his support, so it would be unfair to highlight Carzzy without mentioning his bot lane partner, Kaiser.
No player has been more dependable on the MAD Lions roster than Kaiser who boasts the second-highest KDA of any support in the LEC at 4.5, only behind G2’s Mikyx.
The German support’s champion pool has been something of note during the Spring Split, notching 9 unique champions throughout the regular season, including a Taric pick that shifted the bot lane meta entirely in the second half of the split.
Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz (Misfits Gaming)
Although his Week 1 performance left a lot to be desired, Razork completely turned his form around half-way through the season and quickly established himself as one of the best junglers in the LEC due to his aggressive early game plays that often created a large gold lead for his team.
While Dan Dan and Febiven receive all the plaudits, Razork often goes unnoticed with his intelligent jungle pathing and gank choices through the early game. The Misfits jungler received three Player of the Game awards throughout the Spring Split, but it could be argued that he deserved more.
MVP of the Split
Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski (G2 Esports)
Jankos has played 1 Sejuani game in 2020 and has lost 1 Sejuani game in 2020. Even though he’s clearly trying to sabotage his team’s chances of winning to avoid playing Sejuani through playoffs, the audience and analysts have looked right past that and have the jungler down as the favorite to win the MVP of the Spring Split award.
It goes without saying that, although G2 Esports consists of five hugely talented players with immense individual skill, Jankos is pivotal to his team’s chances of success. The entire game runs through him with his early game positioning being vital to G2’s cross-map plays and tower dives to quickly build a huge gold lead.
With eight Player of the Game awards to his name, it’s Jankos’ MVP to lose.
Luka “PERKZ” Perković (G2 Esports)
Right behind Jankos on seven Player of the Game awards is PERKZ who’ll be hoping to snatch the MVP of the Split award from under his teammate’s fingers.
It’s easy to forget that PERKZ is coming off the back of an entire season in the bot lane as he’s comfortably slotted back into his preferred role and re-established himself as #1 mid laner in Europe. If this wasn’t already obvious enough just by watching the LEC, his massive 5.1 KDA (1.0 ahead of every other mid laner) should be enough to convince you.
If Jankos didn’t exist, PERKZ would win the MVP award by a landslide. Unfortunately for G2’s mid laner, his team is stacked with immensely talented League of Legends players who will continue to compete with him for individual awards as long as the roster remains intact.
Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir (Origen)
Outside of G2, there are a few players who could stake a claim for Spring Split MVP but beating out Jankos and PERKZ would be an incredibly tough ask. Alphari, Finn, Rekkles, Upset, Nukeduck, and Nemesis have all had excellent seasons so far, but the closest player to the top two would have to be Xerxe.
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After a disappointing 2019 Summer, Origen have reshaped their roster and recaptured their form from twelve months ago, systematically breaking down teams in the early game and winning through a patient, calculated approach.
With early game control as focused and refined as Origen, it’s clear that a lot of communication and jungle tracking is required, which is where Xerxe comes in. Comfortably achieving a top-three finish with very few bumps along the road is a credit to the Origen jungler’s ability to shut down lesser junglers and guide his team through the early game to success.
However, finishing second and finishing joint-second are two completely different things and could cost the Origen players their individual awards for the Spring Split. Taking down Fnatic and cementing second place for themselves could have been enough, but failing to do so all but confirms a G2 MVP.
Next. LEC Playoffs Power Rankings. dark