2022 LEC Spring Split: Week 5 Day 1 Recap

Sjokz returns to the LEC for a day of major upsets centered around why a giant moving rock counters a handsome man with a hammer.

MSF vs BDS

In what was a largely must-win game for BDS if they wanted to entertain even the loftiest playoff aspirations, Adam single-handedly demonstrated once again why he was carried by that star-studded Fnatic roster of last year. Mispositioning in early to mid game with questionable flank angles, gave way for Misfits to roll over them in fights. Neon and Shlatan were key pieces in their team’s successes today, especially with League MVP candidate Vethero having a quiet game. Shlatan’s creative engage angles and 5 man kicks on Lee Sin combined with good teamfighting from Neon, allowed them to effectively knock BDS out of contention. #SaveCinkrof

BlogofLegends MVP: MSF Neon (1)

AST vs RGE: 0-9 > 9-0

Okay… Let’s not pretend like we all weren’t waiting for Rogue to flounder in playoffs, so we can eventually meme them for not winning the split. While that sort of Rogue disappointment is still a couple months away, they did deliver a sneak peek of what that disappointment would feel like against the winless Astralis. Now, I want to make one thing very clear – Rogue didn’t play terribly bad, Astralis just played way better. With MVP frontrunner Malrang not being able to find his early ganks and that red invade going horrifically wrong for him, Rogue could not find their footing and return decent counterpunches in the midgame – they were too busy getting rocked by the Astralis flurry.

BlogofLegends MVP: AST promisq (1)

Honestly, it was quite hard for me to discern who the MVP was since the mid/jg/supp combo from Astralis was absolutely fabulous to see, and that is a massive sign of improvement since the formerly winless team looked like a chicken without a head in almost all of their games. We all know they were capable of engineering early-game leads, but their lack of decisive shotcalling would eventually result in them taking the L for their efforts.

After what many felt like was his best game of the split in the heart crushing loss against Vitality, premier MSI-trophy-lifter promisq redoubled his effort in an absolute support masterclass versus Trymbi, a player who was arguably having his breakout split thus far. His rapid flurry of roams and ballsy engages are what eventually set up his rookie Dajor and veteran Kobbe to hand Rogue their first loss of the split.

XL vs VIT: Perkz Holds Flash For Next Game

The day of upsets continue with a riveting game between XL and VIT, which featured both teams playing a beautiful crossmap kill-trade dance all the way until the mid game. I was quite impressed with this sort of macro from XL, and it showed the teachings of coach Youngbuck is finally starting to take form as the roster has been riding the high of adding Mikyx to the roster. On the side of Vitality, everyone with the exception of Selfmade had anywhere between a mediocre to a straight up horrible individual game; Perkz not being able to flash Malphite ultimates twice or Carzzy squandering the lead that Selfmade worked hard to give to him in the early game.

BlogofLegends MVP: XL Finn (1)

It was a close-knit effort from the entirety of Excel in order to secure the dub from the brand new superteam – everyone played consistently at a high level to the point where they begun to abuse Vitality’s small mistakes and snowball that into getting multiple barons and decisive teamfights. Finn’s Malphite was deceptively a huge part of the team’s success; in a meta where top laners are constantly complaining about the lack of agency, everything from Finn’s intelligent teamfight spacing, to his AOE ults, and his heads-up side laning is a testament to the heights that this player is capable of.

FNC vs SK

The upset party came to end as Upset’s party completely decimated SK in under 25 minutes, off of a vintage performance from their new mid laner Humanoid. From a couple of very cleanly executed top dives into masterfully accelerating the Ryze split push into, Fnatic gave very little room for SK to make any sort of plays. The Malphite, piloted by Jenax this time, was able to find some key plays in early to mid game but it was largely for not as we finally get to see a top LEC team actually play like a top LEC team and take care of their business.

BlogofLegends MVP: FNC Humanoid (1)

G2 vs MAD

As per my predictions ahead of this match, G2 walk away with a decisive victory, off the back of Caps and Targamas. Mad Lions’ mid lane gamble with the Irelia counterpick into Caps’ Orianna fell horribly flat on its face when he died in a skirmish near red buff in the early game, completely taking him out of the game for good. While Armut was ahead in top lane, MAD Lions could not find any way to deal a major blow to G2 as Caps steadily outpaced Reeker throughout the game and as Targamas proved himself the major piece in almost every teamfight.

BlogofLegends MVP: G2 Targamas (1)