During Super Week, EG was a shadow of their former self. Week 3, they were at the top of the pack. This week, they had gathered their marbles again and showed up with a comp designed to catch out and kill stragglers. Despite the change in tactic, it was an EG game through and through. DragonBorns surprised nobody with an early lane swap of HoSan and Muvert to top and early aggression on Wickd almost picked up first blood at four minutes. A couple of minutes later, T1 towers were traded and then an early T2 in blue top lane was traded for dragon. This caused a horizontal map split which both teams seemed happy with, Shushei stole a blue, EG stole a blue. However at 11 minutes, EG’s game started: Light Binding, Cocoon, Cataclysm then Bullet Time and Final Spark. Froggen would catch someone, Krepo would root them and Snoopeh would dive on them, cue the remaining ultimates. It worked all too effectively, giving them map control, turrets and a 9-1 kill lead by 20 minutes. Everything was lining up nicely for EG, and by that I mean the DragonBorns were – EG did a great job of funnelling DB into a straight line for the ults, but sometimes DragonBorns looked all too eager to line up and be knocked down. There was a glimmer of hope for DragonBorns however, at 29:40 EG didn’t get their planned initiation and DragonBorns cleaned them up in a 5 for 2 trade, with a Quadra kill for HoSan. They picked up Baron off the back of it and decreased the gold difference to only 4k, but it didn’t matter: EG’s sniping snapped up a 1 for 4 trade at bot lane and finished it shortly afterwards, when Shushei engaged too hard on EG and was taken down early in a team fight which lead to a four for nothing fight and a nexus for EG. A new strategy, but the same old EG we know and love.



Nono spearheaded against All authority's come-from-behind upset of SK Gaming in the second game of the week by posting an impressive 14/3/5 performance on Vayne. SK Gaming took an early leads, with CandyPanda scoring first blood on Shlaya in a 2v1 lane bottom. With the only defender in the region removed, SK took both bottom towers within 6 minutes, giving them a very early 2000 gold lead that continued to swell in the early game. fredy122 was an unsung hero on Karthus, frequently giving his life to turn around teamfights in aAa's favor. Nineteen minutes in, Nyph lands a hook on Fredy and despite the seemingly favorable engagement, SK doesn't make much of their lead. As the game wore on, fights stayed close and SK failed to widen their lead and the sense grew that aAa would only get stronger behind Nono's 4/0/2 start.
The match turned nearly a half hour in, when aAa engages onto hyrqBot and picks up an ace. This fight allowed aAa to pick up a tower and Baron, evening out the gold advantage and tipping the odds in the favor of aAa's late game powerhouses, Vayne and Karthus. SK capitalized on late mistakes to stall the game, but against All authority slowly chipped away at SK's base. Despite the valiant defense, ocelote's desperate charge into aAa spelled doom for SK as four players were killed and aAa easily finished off SK's base.



After a crushing defeat by the hands of SK during the Super Week where they did not get a single kill, DragonBorns looked to take revenge on SK and improve their performance. Both teams brought out surprises from their Mid Carries with Ocelote and Shushei picking Zed and Elise, respectively. SK had one goal right from the beginning of the game - shutting down DB's Solo Lanes - and they accomplished this by their lane arrangements. SK sent their AD/Support duo to the mid lane to face off against Elise, which forced Muvert, on Thresh, to roam to mid lane to support Shushei. Once Thresh was permanently stuck in mid lane with Elise, SK moved on to the next phase by camping Hosan in the side lane. To his credit, Hosan used Miss Fortune's burst capabilities very well during the ganks since he would almost take down one of the enemy before his own death.

Even though the game was relatively close in terms of gold, SK's plan worked like a charm. Placing Thresh in mid with Elise hindered Elise experience gain, which placed her around three levels behind Zed once mid game came around. The deciding point was a fight over Dragon control which SK came out ahead with three kills while not losing anyone. At this point DB did not have any reliable protection for Miss Fortune, which meant she was easy pickings for Zed and Jarvan IV. With such a huge advantage, SK cleaned up the game within 30 minutes.



The match between EG and aAa was highly anticipated by many after aAa shocked EG with an upset during the EU Super Week. EG was reminded of their poor performance by giving up first blood even though they were the initiators of the gank. It was another instance where EG was trying out a more aggressive play style than they were used to and it backfired on them. Their aggression continued with a four man invade onto aAa's Red, catching out Renekton all by himself. EG blew all their Ultimates onto Renekton and he barely died, which gave the rest of aAa plenty of time to converge onto EG and take three easy kills. aAa gained a lot of confidence after that team fight but they took it too far and it ultimately led to their downfall. The first major mistake was that Renekton thought he could handle EG's damage output due to almost surviving their previous engagement. He dove straight into EG by himself around the Dragon are before his team could arrive and back him up, but this time EG was ready and waiting with all five members and they took him out very quickly. aAa's second mistake followed soon after and it was the overestimation of their ability to burst down EG's Champions. They initiated a fight thinking they could take out Graves and Thresh but they split their damage too much and no one on EG died while aAa gave up four deaths.

Like most experienced teams, EG knew what they needed to do to win with a lead. They quickly took map control with an Oracle's Elixir and were able to bait out situations where EG could pick off one or two of aAa's players. Then all EG had to do was split push with their fed Zed and Malphite until they were inside aAa's base. An interesting note about this game was that Froggen did not hold the number one spot for farm priority on EG. It was like he and Wickd decided to switch their roles and it seemed to work out for them. We are finally seeing more experimentation from EG and maybe they will finally find another style that suits them with all the new changes that came with Season 3.



This game between Fnatic and SK was a very strange experience. There's a feeling that we were watching the same scenario again and again, and there's no way to stop the inevitable. We would watch and scream at the players, but they cannot hear us and repeatedly fall to their deaths. That's pretty much what happens when Kassadin and Zed both get fed and they set up ganks from the jungle. Even SK's beefiest champion, Singed, could not withstand the assault from Fnatic's assassin duo, feeding Fnatic kills to Fnatic and making things worse for the other SK players. Once Kassadin and Zed set their eyes upon a target, they were already dead.

Fnatic got off to a good start with the aforementioned pair taking first blood from Lux. They were building their lead slowly until they gave SK a perfect opportunity to get back into the game with an unwise tower dive behind the Top Outer turret. The highlight for SK was when Lux made the transition from mid lane and fired off a perfect Final Spark to evaporate both Nunu and Zed from Summoner's Rift. After that, it was pretty much all Fnatic as Kassadin and Zed started picking off any SK player who wanted to push out a lane. With assassination as the theme of this game, it was only appropriate that Kassadin used his Teleport to gank SK from behind while Fnatic was baiting out a Baron fight. SK's players had no chance to fight back as Kassadin and Zed took down Caitlyn within half a second. As insult to injury, Fnatic only needed two members to take out SK's Nexus while the other three took down Baron Nashor.



When an old idea becomes viable again, many rush to try it out. Usually this is confined to solo queue but in DragonBorns vs aAa, the game was defined by one poor decision. aAa brought the strategy switch to DragonBorns, putting their AD/Support at mid, AP at top and Bruiser at bottom, an interesting variation which allows them to take a few jungle minions from Malunoo but achieves little else aside from shafting Freddy112 who simply cannot farm in bot lane. Freddy112 does bait a gank which picks up first blood on HoSan and becomes the second of many odd decisions in this match. Freddy’s lack of farm allows DB to take the gold lead following a dragon, a two for two trade and a turret kill. From here it became a match of just about everyone getting caught out, & dying and turret taking. By 25 minutes DB are taking a good lead but neither team seems keen to win. A real ugly fight ends with a three to five trade in DragonBorn’s favour with a triple kill for HoSan. This leaves us with a game that shows no sign of ending any time soon. Then suddenly at 32 minutes something really surreal happens. DragonBorns initiate a base race at top while aAa push down mid. aAa were already closer to the enemy nexus when DragonBorns start. DragonBorns suddenly realise while at the top T3 that they need to send someone back but it’s too late. Spontexx can’t do anything against aAa and they take an easy nexus kill. You can see by the faces of aAa how bizarre a situation it was, smiles and laughs all round. For the spectators however, it looks like one of the worst decisions in competitive LoL’s history. Why DragonBorns expected this to work is a mystery to all: an unsatisfying end to an unsatisfying game.


It had only been one LCS week since Wolves and Fnatic last met – memories of the tense slugfest from super week were fresh the minds of the fans. Would the rematch live up to the past? This game was the Hollywood remake of rematches – it looked kind of the same but it was not the same game. The picks were pretty standard, the most interesting being xPeke on Zed and Cyanide on jungle Gangplank. It started slowly until Bjergsen was caught at his Wraiths by Peke and Cyanides ult and at 10 minutes, simultaneous ganks on top and bot lane ended with a two for two trade across the map. Bjergsen isn’t looking too comfortable on TF with many ineffective ults, meanwhile sOAZ is looking really strong on Elise at top. Wolves grab their first turret by Fnatic chase and punish them for a double kill, catching Bjergsen out. A massive fight at dragon broke out but only ended one for one, Wolves disengaged when things got rough. From here, Fnatic farmed away and surged ahead while the teams traded in fights after turrets. However, Wolves suddenly find some ground: They get a brilliant initiation on Fnatic in a fight that starts by their blue and ends by Fnatics wraiths – an ace and a delayed pentakill scored for TheTess and a free Baron for Wolves. While they were still behind in gold, Wolves now had the chance to take map control, they pushed to Fnatic’s mid but made a mistake reminiscent of their previous game against Fnatic: They caught a member of Fnatic in exchange for a large amount of damage but played it risky and stuck around too long. Fnatic pounced and aced Wolves in a 4v5. Wolves had totally blown their chance at coming back in the game as Fnatic pushed down to mid inhib. This inhib proved to be key in breaking the Wolves’ defence. Fnatic were held off thanks to good teamfights and defence from Wolves, but the inhibitor force Wolves back into their base. A Baron bait is sidestepped by Wolves and they rush straight for Fnatic’s base, but it’s too late and Homeguard boots save the day. Fnatic get their first perfect initiation shortly after at Baron and picked up the buff. After 50 minutes, Wolves get a trademark initiation but it was too late. Fnatic were too far ahead in gold and items and they clean up, taking the Nexus shortly after. Fnatic looked smarter and safer but still clearly have problems breaking Wolves’ defence. It’s all one can to do wonder – what if Wolves hadn’t thrown away that Baron?

Bans:       

17              Fnatic              83.0K
vs.
16        Evil Geniuses        75.6K

Bans:       

Fnatic narrowly edged out Evil Geniuses in a long, drawn out affair reminiscent of EG's infamous match against World Elite at the Season 2 Championships. Replete with technical difficulty, Fnatic and EG first faced off on Saturday, but technical difficulties struck a few minutes in and after a two hour delay, the match was postponed until Sunday. The teams maintained a sense of humor about the ordeal and unusual delay, cheekily spelling out USA SUX with their ban picks in Sunday's rematch. With the initial opening strategies revealed, the teams had a full day to ponder the specific matchup and come back with forethought into the regame. EG's opening invade was spotted with wards on Saturday, and Fnatic chose to send their AD Carry and support top before the technical difficulties struck. On Sunday, each team swapped their duo lane and the game unfolded with a more traditional 2v1 top for EG as Purple side.

EG headed out to an early lead with a 4 man gank on sOAZ in the top lane, bringing the extra man from mid to overpower Cyanide who came up to guard against the common 3 man gank. EG attempted to keep the pressure on sOAZ but overplayed it, with Cyanide once again coming to assist his beleagured teammate. Cyanide and sOAZ picked up a kill apiece on Snoopeh and Yellowpete, giving Fnatic a 2-1 lead in kills and neutralizing sOAZ's farm disadvantage from the early gank. Great awareness from Fnatic's botlane to clear a ward dropped by Krepo as it was placed enables Cyanide to sneak into the bottom lane bush before Krepo can reward, enabling Fnatic to kill Krepo and yellowpete. However, the rest of EG comes down to counterattack and the recoup two kills and take dragon to boot. After another technical delay, the game resumes with EG taking Fnatic's inner mid turret with Fnatic unwilling to engage from the side to defend the tower. The teams dance around dragon in the midgame, with EG taking a slight lead in objectives while Fnatic has trouble putting pressure on EG's turrets.

The tension is finally broken midgame when Froggen is forced to pick up his Blue buff to maintain mana to stall Fnatic's pressure on the low hp outer mid turret. xPeke and nRated initiate the fight with their AoE ults as EG attempt to defend their doomed tower. Fnatic pick up a 3-1 exchange, along with egging Froggen and getting most of EG's inner mid turret. As Fnatic kept the game neck and neck through the first 35 minutes, their seemingly stronger late game with Nunu, Varus and Nasus seemed make EG's slow and deliberate pace work against them.

Giving Froggen his signature champion is always a very dangerous gamble however, no matter what plan is concocted around stopping it. Froggen starts a key fight 38 minutes in forcing Fnatic to react to a great wall. Fnatic choose to stand and fight but EG gets 3 kills without losing a single champion of their own, leading to the mid inhibitor turret and a Baron pickup for EG. Despite having exposed Fnatic's middle inhibitor, EG sieges the top inhibitor tower as the Baron buff fades and they bring it very low. With the buff gone, xPeke begins to split push and threaten EG's bottom turret, relying on his Teleport summoner spell to let him rejoin any potential fights. Instead of posturing at Baron, EG react and trade their bottom inhibitor and a Nexus turret for the top and middle inhibitors of Fnatic as game looks on the brink of a base race. EG loses two members as they retreat coming out, and this allows Fnatic to take Baron. With the Baron buff active, Fnatic holds out despite the inhibitor disadvantage until all the inhibitors can reset. The game climaxes as EG moves in to retake Fnatic's mid inhibitor. Cho'gath gets caught as EG retreats from taking the inhibitor, and Miss Fortune's ultimate misses all members of Fnatic attempting to cover the retreat. Fnatic leap on the opportunity to engage at an advantage and kill 3 members of the fleeing Evil Geniuses. With a 5 on 2 advantage, Fnatic sprinted up the middle lane to take down EG's Nexus before enough defenders could respawn. After an exhausting 24 hour ordeal, Fnatic emerged victorious after an hour of total gameplay in one of the most tense and even matches of the season.

The EU LCS is on the road for the first time! Week 6 stops off at Lilles complete with promotion qualifiers, a larger crowd and an extended lineup of twelve matches!

Each team has three matches to play and it’s mostly a fair split with EG arguably having the easiest week and Giants the hardest. However, Giants have had three weeks to prepare for these matches, with week 5 as a rest week and the previous week being IEM. This time to get their heads in order will be imperative if they wish to regain their early form. For EG, it’s a simple case of putting Week 4 behind them and playing their game. They’ve shown that they can try new things in Week 5 and it seems like Week 4 was a just a bad dream.

Gambit return to tussle with Fnatic for the top spot - Three games each tie in with a head to head to help discover who the better team is. Both teams have looked incredibly strong barring an off week or two, Fnatic finished with a flawless score in week 5 while Gambit were jetting off to America to face some of the world’s best. Another stressful week of travel could spell disaster for Gambit but if these teams come to play, there will be blood.

SK have been contentedly winning in the LCS now and have a good chance to see that continue. They look like a safe bet against aAa but few fancy their chances against Gambit. Speaking of aAa, they’ll need to step up to the plate this week, with games against SK, EG and the scarier looking Wolves. You can bet they won’t have these games handed to them.

Rounding up, Wolves and DragonBorns return to the fray still with something to prove. Wolves still looked good against Fnatic and have a shot at going positive this week, especially after watching aAa and DB’s performances in Week 5, how they do against EG is another question but one where neither answer would be a surprise. They have what it takes but you can’t forget, they still need to score these victories. DragonBorns also have a tricky week, their match against Wolves looking like their best hope. Playing Fnatic and Gambit in the same week is bad enough, but after their bizarre showing in Week 5, it’s impossible to know which DragonBorns will show up.


Gambit Gaming: (9-2), Last 5: WWWWW
Fnatic: (11-3), Last 5: LWWWL

The top ranked teams clash on Saturday with Fnatic eager to put an end to the hot streak of the current LCS leaders and finally claim an LCS win against their Russian rivals. Gambit Gaming has not lost an LCS match since week 1, putting up an impressive 8 game winning streak going into Week 6 in Lille. Fnatic kept the Russians on guard throughout their most recent match in Week 4, taking a narrow early lead but failing to hold on as control slipped back to the Russians during later teamfights. Despite the winning streak in the LCS, Gambit Gaming lost to KT Rolster B 2-1 in the finals of MLG Dallas' International Exhibition last week, showing some vulnerabilities once more against stiff competition. Expect Fnatic to study up on what worked and didn't work for KT Rolster in Dallas to see if they can synthesize a solution to their Russian problem.

The key matchup for this game will likely be Alex Ich against xPeke in the middle lane. Both teams rely on the mid laners as playmakers, whether it's Alex's champion choice dictating Gambit's teamfighting style or xPeke teleporting for ganks and splitpushing around the map. Both teams frequently bring unusual champion picks, with Diamond changing the European metagame with his jungle choices for Gambit and sOAZ playing perhaps the LCS' deepest champion pool as Fnatic's side laner. Both teams have strong but conservative duo lanes, anchored by two of the best supports in western competitive play. With Evil Geniuses and SK Gaming barely above .500, Fnatic vs.Gambit looks to be the marquee matchup in the inaugural LCS.