LEC Week 3 and “Spam that static…”

We welcome the LEC Week 3 with mixed feelings. European fan favorites are underperforming and the general sense after two weeks of play is that the League is weaker than before. All teams (except G2) provide lackluster play and look somewhat disorganized in general. In previous seasons, we could write this off as teams being relegated/promoted and new teams adapting; or a bad meta for certain players and plain old weak teams overall. However, this season we have a franchised league packed with veteran talent and organisations with years under their belt in European competitive league. So, what gives?

The biggest flop of the season start is of course Champions and World Championship Runner-ups Fnatic. Although, Fnatic has traditionally had slow starts in a lot of splits, be it trying out tactics or swapping the roster around lanes or just throwing their own matches this time it’s different. Every single FNC lane is losing, the jungle is not working for any lane, and the rookie midlaner Nemesis hasn’t blended well with the crew (In-game at least). Fnatic is getting outdrafted, outplayed and outpaced in four consecutive games and fans are beginning to notice.

On the bright side, Rekkles has been playing a lot of soloqueue Kennen coming into Week 3. Which might hint the AD Rekky Kennen coming back. If this is the case, he needs the famous “sOAZ Shen” to pave the way to victory. Is Bwipo up to the challenge? We might get a chance and find out this weekend. In their first match this week FNC meets Rogue, another underperformer but widely expected unlike the champs. This matchup in FNCs own words is “the best chance to start picking up wins” after their two-week slump.

The addition of Caps to the midlane has made G2 look like gods on the Rift so far. They meet SK and Splyce this week. If they continue the domineering fashion in these two matches as they did before, they would already secure themselves the playoff spot and seeding in my book. There is not much to be said in pros or cons to how G2 plays right now. They look super positive and domineering that the games look like they are just having fun and playing with their opponents.

Schalke 04 and Splyce are both sitting at 3 and 1 coming into Week 3. Apart from facing each other, Splyce has to face G2 on Saturday for a shot at dominating the standings. S04 has an easier route on day two as they face the newcomers (and underperformers) Excel to close out the week. The matchup between S04 and Splyce is what will define who gets to dominate the upper and lower part of the standings moving on into the split.

Misfits had a solid start to the split. Everything looks good. Nothing to be too judgy about or too critical of. What we should really look at is the Saturday match between Misfits and Fnatic. We finally get to see Bwipo and sOAZ fight for who gets to spend more time on toplane. This time literally.

The Euphoria podcast this week featured how Misfits feel the best if you need further info:

Now that we have covered the bottom, middle and top of the standings and interesting matchups we can ask the fan favorite question. “When does Origen play?”

Origen meets Vitality and SK Gaming this week. These two matchups should be Spring-Split defining for the Origen roster. Vitality has been looking strong so far and will test and show us how good Origen really is. SK Gaming and Origen are in a somewhat similar position and the head-to-head between the two organizations should start defining their final standings in the split. So, even though it is only Week 3 of the split, the match will have a big impact on their split performance. And a strong performance upon returning to the LEC (LCS) is crucial, especially since both organizations have a legacy with the LCS and both have been at some point relegated out of it.

Here’s to LEC finally getting its “game” together in Week 3.