A failed invade by aAa onto Fnatic's Blue at the beginning of the game foretold the woes that were awaiting aAa. They thought they could steal Fnatic's Blue before taking any of their own buffs but Jarvan was too quick, so aAa wasted a lot of time in the beginning and hindered the development of Volibear's strength going forward. Fnatic's lead only grew from there with a first blood going to sOAZ who Flashed over Elise's Cocoon to get the kill. By the sixteenth minute, Fnatic's lead had expanded to 9K gold with multiple Dragons and three turrets ahead. The game was essentially over, with no way for aAa to make a comeback, and Fnatic took out the Nexus in under 30 minutes. aAa's only highlight in this game was a solo kill on Kha'Zix by Nono on Ezreal by using a great Barrier bait.


Continuing their strong performance, the Copenhagen Wolves opened the game with a first blood by Svenskeren followed up by the first Dragon of the game. Bjergsen's Orianna denied Ahri and Nasus a kill thanks to a well timed Stand United and an overextended hyrqBot got taunted in turret range to score yet another kill for the Wolves. Despite being severely behind in kills going into midgame, SK kept the team gold differential small by securing more outer turrets and Dragons. Wolves pressed their advantage in team fights and Bjergsen once against demonstrated his expertise with AP champions when he chased down the retreating SK for a double kill. Everything looked in the Wolves favor: they traded SK mid inhibitor for a Baron and even while Exalted, SK had difficulty winning a decisive team fight. However, the Wolves overplayed their hand just once, initiating on a well grouped, sieging enemy and SK capitalized with three kills for none. During late game, such mistakes cannot be made and what could have been another Wolves upset over a top 4 team, slipped away with one poorly executed engage.


aAa second game of the week was against DragonBorns and they had a disastrous start similar to their game against Fnatic. Shushei used his Teleport to the mid outer turret so he could place a ward right by aAa's J brush. This caught out Sona, who Flashed to get away, and Ezreal, who gave first blood to DB. The game almost got out of hand for aAa with DB taking a big after a successful Dragon steal with Final Spark. However, things were slowly turning around in aAa's favour with DB failure to shut down Kayle and Shen, both of whom made crucial plays in many team fights keep aAa in the game. As the game drew on, DB lost more and more map presence from Kayle and Shen's split pushes until they could not contest for Dragon, Baron, and other map objectives. This meant DB did not get any opportunities to use the Teleport on Lux to make an impact on the game. In the end, aAa just split pushed DB until there was nothing left of their base.



A slugfest between two veteran teams, SK opened the match with a lane swap putting CandaPanda and Nyph mid to stunt Alex Ich's early game as Kassadin. Ironically, it turned out to be Ocelote on Ahri who came out of laning phase the worst as he only had 6 CS by 5 minutes into the game. While SK managed to keep up with Gambit in seperate lanes, the story was entirely different as soon as the Russians grouped up. Gambit's team fighting prowess was on display once more as they showed how important it is to know when to disengage and reengage into fight, netting them 4 for only Diamondprox's death. 'Retreat' is not in Alex's vocabulary as he deftly Rift Walked away, dodged a number of abilities by from both SK's carries, then Rift Walked right back in to Force Pulse hundreds of health away. Even when SK grouped up tightly, Gambit was able to pick them apart knowing exactly who to target and eliminate them in priority order.


The Copenhagen Wolves had one plan from the beginning of their game against aAa - the complete domination of whoever aAa sent to the top lane. It all started with a simple switch of their AD/Support duo to the top lane and then it continued with Xin Zhao camping so much that CW had three kills from tower top lane tower dives within the first five minutes. Once that was over, the Wolves continued their relentless assault with constant pressure on aAa's turrets from Kha'Zix and Singed's ability to split push. That eventually led to Singed so fed that aAa had no answer for this tankiness and ability to escape from ganks; aAa committed their two main damage sources, Ezreal and Diana, to chase down Singed but he still managed to get away with ease. Near the end of the game, the Wolves had plenty of damage to shred through aAa's tanks, Volibear and Alistar, before Shen could teleport in with Stand United. The highlight of the game was a combination between Bjergsen and Deficio when Lulu finished off aAa for the ace in aAa's base. It was a simple matter of cleanup for the Wolves a few minutes later as Bjergsen took a triple kill to end the game.


DragonBorns' troubles continue in Week 7 even after changing up their lineup with new Top and Junlge players. YamatoCannon and Dexter1's were supposed to help plug holes in DB's communication but they haven't gelled all that well with the rest of the team. However, they never got the chance to show off their synergy with the rest of the team since GIANTS focused their efforts on the two newcomers. There was constant counterjungling by GIANTS whenever they saw Dexter1 helping out his teammates in lane and they would also tower dive YamatoCannon at every opportunity. DragonBorns would try to answer with many ganks from Dexter1 but more often than not GIANTS would manage to get away. The game would move on slowly until GIANTS got a pick on Ezreal in mid lane while DB had Shen on split push duty. You could hear GIANTS calling "Go go go!" when they had Ezreal in their grasp and they picked up three kills and Baron for their trouble. Knowing they were far behind GIANTS, DB took an ill fated initiation with Jarvan and Shen leading the charge straight into GIANTS' backline. They dove too deep into enemy lines and left Ezreal and Ahri alone with GIANTS' assassins. Kha'Zix and Diana destroyed DB's Carries and GIANTS took the ace and pushed all the way from the Mid Outer turret to the Nexus to finish the game.


The bear and dog show introduces a new cast member with the addition of a horse! The ever innovative Jungler Diamondprox pulls out yet another champion from his bag of tricks to show that Hecarim isn't simply a one trick pony suited for solo queue. Bjergsen did impressively well going on an AD champion for a change and utilized Zed very well but Gambit simply slow played the match for 40 minutes until they sieged the Wolves' base with all three lanes pushed as Russians sat Exalted. It was a quiet ending to Week 7 as Gambit aced the Wolves, five for zero, before shoving in the mid inhibitor and eventually the nexus.

Bans:       

23        GIANTS        89.5K
vs.
15        Gambit        81.1K

Bans:       

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GIANTS Gaming kicked off the weekend with another upset of Gambit Gaming, putting together a gritty performance that impressed even more than their Week 1 shocker. Where they had previously led from the jump with early kills and towers, GIANTS instead fell behind early with Gambit picking up early kills and a dragon, leading to a 2000 gold advantage by the 10 minute mark. Despite Jimbownz' Kennen being banned out instead of acting as the Week 1 ace in the hole, GIANTS still managed to provide an interesting composition featuring a deadly but squishy combination of ranged damage and crowd control against Gambit's heavily melee composition.

With an early advantage, Gambit held control early on, but sloppy play started to set in midgame. Gambit's lead was blunted by players getting picked off over and over as GIANTS didn't properly close the gap, but kept themselves from being closed out. The momentum continued to shift as Gambit was tentative to engage as both teams danced around the Dragon. While Gambit got the dragon, Genja failed to engage with Enchanted Crystal Arrow, instead holding onto it for a stylish snipe of Twisted Fate. While it netted Gambit their only kill of the 3-1 exchange, Gambit's 15% gold edge 10 minutes in had dwindled to 7% - the actual gold lead was the same amount, but each team's money had more than doubled. Game play was then disrupted by a technical issue, and the Russians had ten minutes to stew while the the matter was resolved. GIANTS went for a risky play as the game resumed, taking down Baron while Gambit scrambled to contest it. The Russians picked up two kills but GIANTS secured the buff for the remaining three members, continuing to swing the match in their favor as they picked up Dragon and a tower before the buff wore off.

The game swung decisively on the second Baron fight of the game. Again, GIANTS started Baron and forced Gambit to come to them, but this time GIANTS' composition absolutely shined in a brilliant engagement as they broke off of Baron to engage, spreading the Russians out over the length of the river while Genja had no useful angle from which to join in. With Gambit so spread out, GIANTS could use their superior range to focus targets more efficiently, while Gambit struggled to bring much damage to bear on any one target as the Spaniards masterfully wove in and out of the fight. Alex Ich nearly salvaged the fight as he assassinated Babeta and turned onto Exter, but Exter killed him a split second before the killing blow could land. Genja was baited by Samux's great use of Zhonya's Hourglass, and with only their support left alive GIANTS turned back to kill Baron, despite Edward's best effort to desperation steal it with a Tornado.

The tide was turned, and GIANTS methodically closed out. While they failed to secure major objectives with the second Baron, GIANTS established a decent lead and finally got their major breakthrough at the 48 minute mark. The Spaniards collapsed on Nasus in Gambit's jungle netting three kills for zero deaths. With a minute of 5v2, GIANTS capitalized taking two inhibitors, another kill on Nasus and also removed Ashe's Guardian Angel ressurection. Despite a speedbump where the GIANTS were Aced while all 3 of Gambit's inhibitors were down, it was far too late for Gambit to salvage anything as the super minions kept them pinned into the base. GIANTS were able to finally close out the 56 minute marathon match, their kiting and teamwork overwhelming the favorites over the course of the match.

With the last playoff spots in close contention, GIANTS Gaming takes on Copenhagen Wolves as the European LCS season begins to wind down. GIANTS have a slim lead on the 5th seed, resting half a game ahead of Wolves and aAa owing to GIANTS' spectacular comeback against Gambit. Wolves' hot streak with Bjergsen was cooled off as they only managed a 1-2 mark in Week 7, taking losses against playoff contenders SK and Gambit while notching their sole win against slumping aAa. Despite the long odds to make it immediately to safety with a first round playoff win, both teams have legitimate upset potential in a Best-of-3 match against any LCS playoff teams.

GIANTS have had their successes on two main principles: AoE ultimate oriented teamfight compositions and Exterminare roaming for ganks from the mid lane either on mobile champions like Kassadin or Twisted Fate, or his signature Ryze with Teleport as a summoner spell. On the other hand, Wolves' strategy depends on Bjergsen as a sole playmaker to draw attention off of the rest of the squad. Wolves does extremely well to field a 4 + 1 composition, where Bjergsen is either the setup man or the cleanup man for the rest of the squad. If Exterminare can keep Wolves behind and beat Bjergsen 1v1, GIANTS have a very rosy outlook. On the other hand, Wolves have more of their eggs in one basket – Bjergsen keeps pressure off the rest of the team in a manner Exterminare can only help to emulate.

With so little time left on the LCS clock, every game left is a major endeavor for the bottom four. GIANTS and Wolves will face off at 16:00 CEST/6:00 PST, and the world will be watching. While Exter and the GIANTS look to maintain a decent record heading forward, Copenhagen Wolves will still look to rock the LCS boat and sneak ahead into a 4th spot in the playoff after their recent showings with Bjergsen. Regardless, an entertaining match should go down with deep playoff implications for all teams within the EU LCS.