EU Masters Spring 2020: The Top 5 Teams in the Main Event
By Jack Coleman
#5 – LDLC OL
🇨🇭 Brian “Bando” Ferrando (Top)
🇩🇰 Kristian “TynX” Østergaard Hansen (Jungle)
🇫🇷 Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié (Mid)
🇸🇪 Volkan “Hades” Dinçer (ADC)
🇫🇷 Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim (Support)
Our fifth and final team is LDLC OL, the LFL runners-up and French second seed. They topped the regular season, only dropping two games (to GamersOrigin & Vitality.Bee).
The “King of the Hill” format the LFL playoffs operates under placed LDLC straight into the finals. Unfortunately, they were swept away by a resurgent GamersOrigin in their one and only playoff game.
One bad series doesn’t detract from LDLC’s dominance all split, and as such, they should still be considered as potential winners of this tournament. A first seed hasn’t won the EU Masters since the Mad Lions in 2018 and LDLC will be looking to continue this trend.
Once again, the biggest name on this roster is undoubtedly the team’s support Yellowstar. The legendary French support has won the LEC/EU LCS five times and has attended the World Championship five times, reaching the semi-finals twice and the finals once.
He was previously LDLC’s coach but came out of retirement at the beginning of the 2020 season to play as the team’s support. There is no-one more veteran than Yellowstar in the tournament, and LDLC will be looking to leverage his experience and “game-brain” to their advantage.
His bottom-lane partner Hades is a former TCL champion and attended MSI 2019 with 1907 Fenerbahçe. The teenage Swede then joined LDLC for the 2020 season. He and Yellowstar (who is almost ten years older) have looked a formidable duo in the bottom lane.
The seventeen-year-old mid-laner Vetheo is in his rookie split and almost took home his first championship only to have it snatched away by his fellow rookie mid-laner toucoille in the final. Vetheo played for a couple of amateur French teams before joining LDLC. He’ll now have his chance to test his mettle against the best teams across the ERLs.
TynX has been active in the European semi-professional scene since 2016 and has competed in Spain, Germany, and now France. The young jungler’s career is only beginning and winning the EU Masters is always great self-advertisement to the LEC teams.
The last player on the roster is top laner Bando who had a strong run in last split’s EM with Fnatic.Rising, going out in the semi-finals. He is also a former LFL champion, winning 2019 Spring with a different iteration of LDLC. He is a well-regarded top laner and will be looking to push on to the next level by winning European Masters.
LDLC will be competing in Group C with Vodafone Giants, Defusekids, and AGO Rogue. The same sentiment that has been applied to Giants can be applied to LDLC. Their biggest competition will be the Spanish champions, but the Polish first seed is perilously underestimated.
Defusekids will be looking to prove how far the Dutch league has come and need to be prepared against adequately. With a strong group stage performance and some momentum, there’s no reason why LDLC couldn’t go all the way.
Next. LEC Preseason Player Rankings. dark
Every team in the Main Event has its merits, you don’t get even this far in EU Masters without having talent. But the reality is that half of these teams will be exiting the competition in the group stage, defeated and eager to redeem themselves next split. Besides the five teams listed here, look out for Fnatic.Rising and AGO Rogue as dark horses to win the tournament.