SK Prometheus cemented their status as one of the top teams in Europe with a tense 3-2 win over G2 Kinguin. They had a tough run in the semi-finals coming up against the thus far unbeatable Team Secret, successfully pulling off the perfect counter against Team Secret’s famed push composition of Saw, Adagio and Phinn.

With L3on conspicuously missing after leaving SK a few days previously, Jetpacks had to step back into his old jungler role with Raph29 joining as support. Both players rose to the occasion, showing off a much more coordinated team than we had seen in previous seasons.

GAME 1

Phase SK G2 Ban Fortress Adagio 1 Krul 2 Skye 3 Ardan 4 Catherine 5 Skaarf 6 Glaive

SK Prometheus began their crusade with two typically late-scaling heroes, which was punished heavily in the jungle by Reddix and DarkPotato on Skye and Glaive respectively. However, G2 was overagressive, and SK capitalized on this, turning the tide of the game despite Jetpack’s persistently low creep score. WalDeMar relied heavily on passive play, preferring to let Jetpacks and Raph29 frontline for him whilst comfortably poking down G2’s health from the back with Broken Myth-laden spitfires. This was a very close game, given away by G2’s lapses in co-ordination and by some truly fantastic sword throws by Jetpacks.

Result: SK: 1 G2: 0

GAME 2

Phase G2 SK Ban Fortress Ringo 1 Krul 2 Catherine 3 Adagio 4 Ardan 5 Skaarf 6 Vox

The tables were turned this game as G2 were the ones to pick up the Skaarf and Krul duo; despite this, they were able to maintain their typical early game aggression resulting in DarkPotato’s Krul outfarming Jetpack’s Adagio from a very early stage of this game. While Jetpacks can normally turn a game in his favour despite a low CS as Krul, it is significantly more difficult for him to do so as Adagio, a very squishy hero when isolated from the rest of the team. Although SK was initially ahead in terms of objectives, they slowly lost control of the game as a result of poor positioning and engages.

Once we hit the mid-game mark at around 10 minutes, G2 hit a power spike when Skaarf picked up a Broken Myth and Krul completed his Shiversteel. WalDeMar did not seem as comfortable on Vox as he was on Skaarf, and any missteps were punished heavily by G2, costing them several consecutive team fights; the danger of running a hyper carry composition is that the entire team relies greatly upon one person’s performance, and in this case, WalDeMar’s Vox was not up to par. G2 secured the Kraken without any contest and were able to close out the game very quickly after this.

Result: SK: 1 G2: 1

GAME 3

Phase SK G2 Ban Fortress Adagio 1 Krul 2 Skaarf 3 Ardan 4 Catherine 5 Joule 6 Skye

The third game of the finals started off scrappily with both sides jostling to achieve jungle domination, but teamfights swung in favor of one team to another. The unorthodox Joule pick from SK synergized extremely well with Krul and Catherine, particularly when the team had clear target focus. However, G2 were quick to take advantage of the lengthy cooldown on Joule’s Big Red Button, resulting in a 10-10 score at 15 minutes. WalDeMar was able to punish G2’s clustering in the late game with some well-placed Rocket Leaps that not only decimated G2’s health, but positioned him well for great ultimates to finish up the kills.

A Kraken capture by SK at the 19 minute mark was wasted after they were aced in front of G2’s base, and G2 was also able to take the next team fight after that. However, they failed to take advantage of the outcome and push objectives. Once SK had respawned they used a new Kraken to bait out G2 and were finally able to pull off a successful game-closing ace, giving them the Kraken and subsequently the game in an exciting 20-16 finish.

Result: SK: 2 G2: 1

GAME 4

Phase G2 SK Ban Fortress Krul 1 Skaarf 2 Catherine 3 Koshka 4 Ardan 5 Glaive 6 Blackfeatherk

Unusually, we saw WalDeMar swap roles with Jetpacks as he entered the jungle as Koshka. Three-man rotations by G2 to the jungle shop prevented Koshka from dominating the jungle with her early game power. Furthermore, a mismatch in playstyles between WalDeMar and Jetpacks resulted in some questionable engages by SK. As a result, SK was shut down relatively early on, preventing Blackfeather from adequately scaling into the late-game. The double melee comp of SK suffered heavily at the hands of Skaarf’s long-ranged poke. DarkPotato was also a key player with flawless Afterburns and positioning. G2 were comfortably able to take this game, forcing a fifth game for the series and calling into question SK’s drafting under the pressure of the finals.

Result: SK: 2 G2: 2

GAME 5

The stakes had never been higher for either team as they approached the deciding finale after 4 games had already failed to crown the ultimate victor. It was apparent from the preceding rounds that Krul and Skaarf were priority picks for both teams and while shocking it was no surprise that we saw both teams picking up these heroes as well as fortress- a hero that had been banned in every single game of the finals so far. The perfect decider with mirror picks to distinguish who would truly be the champions of this qualifier.

The first ten minutes of the game felt oddly mesmerising with regular ganks pulled off by both Kruls, making us wonder if the stream was stuck on a loop. The gameplay was almost indistinguishable between both teams for the majority of the match with identical kills, creep scores and gold on both sides. With mirror matches, outcomes come down to mechanics, decision making and itemization rather than the strength of particular heroes or compositions, and this became very apparent in the late game. WalDeMar’s itemization on Skaarf swung the game in favor of SK by picking up a Frostburn first compared to Reddix’s Eve of Harvest. Bad positioning from Reddix at 15 minutes resulted in SK diving the first turret to pick up the kill, leading to them taking the Kraken through the number advantage. Multiple infusions were then picked up by SK as they rushed towards G2’s turrets with the Kraken in one fell swoop to become the winners of the VGL Winter Season second qualifier.

Result: SK: 3 G2: 2

Although we were witness to a flicker of the flame that G2 have shown during their previous success in the Autumn Qualifiers, they unfortunately didn’t shine brightly enough to overcome some stunning mechanical play out of SK Prometheus – but both of these teams are definitely cementing themselves as powerhouses in the European server. Both teams will qualify for the European Vainglory Winter Championship finals at the London Gfinity arena in March, where they will compete for a prize pool of $25,000 and a spot in the Vainglory International Premier League.