This year’s LCS playoffs have officially kicked off, with the quarterfinals in the books. This first stage of the tournament has turned out much different than anticipated in Europe. Misfits dominated Unicorns of Love Saturday morning, finishing the series 3-0. G2 closed out their series with Splyce 3-2, grinding it out every inch of the way.

Many of these games were in favor of the underdogs at some point. UOL did not take a single game off of Misfits. G2 was one bad call away from giving their semifinals spot to Splyce. Most expectations involved Unicorns of Love easily qualifying for semifinals, while G2 would put up a solid fight against Splyce.

Misfits and Splyce brought their A-games in a major way, which has made playoffs that much less predictable. Fnatic and H2K should be a bit more nervous about their semifinals opponents. Misfits and G2 have tested their mettle and made it through to the next stage. They deserve every bit of praise for their performances.

However, there is a player from each team that deserves recognition for stepping up in quarterfinals. These are players who kept their cool, and helped their teams out the most, despite everything going south in the end. Here are two players that proved to be most valuable to Unicorns of Love and Splyce during the first round of playoffs.

UOL Samux

While none of Unicorns of Love’s players looked spectacular, Samux was the only player that performed remotely close to expectations. Despite other members of the team practically feeding kills to Misfits, Samux did his best to damage from a distance.

In game one, Samux was extremely limited from the start. UOL drafted Trundle, which ended up going to Hylissang as support. Misfits answered with a Blitzcrank for IgNar. This pickup ended up being crucial, as several picks came from IgNar’s hooks and Hylissang’s inability to affect fights. Samux was drafted Xayah, and was constantly zoned by the threat of Blitzcrank and Maxlore’s Zac.

In game two, UOL re-drafted Xayah for Samux against Hans sama’s Tristana. He even got an early kill in the bottom lane without jungler attention. However, Exileh sacrificed four deaths to PowerOfEvil’s Lucian within the first 17 minutes, which allowed Misfits to snowball very fast. IgNar and Maxlore heavily pressured Samux again this game, with the crowd control combination of Rakan and Poppy. Hylissang and Vizicsacsi drafted Braum and Shen, picks with more utility, but it was not enough to keep Samux safe.

Finally, in game three, UOL switched Samux onto Sivir with a Tahm Kench for Hylissang. The movement speed and utility of these champions’ kits should have helped Samux stay safe. However, similar issues plagued UOL. Xerxe was unable to pull off the engages necessary for a successful Zac. Exileh tunneled in on the back line, despite IgNar, Hans sama and PowerOfEvil’s peel potential. Vizicsacsi barely influenced the game, fighting off Alphari’s split-pushing with Jarvan IV.

In almost every situation, Samux is completely dependent on the engage, peel, and reliability of his teammates. Since his teammates, particularly Xerxe, Exileh and Hylissang, were unable to fulfill their roles, it made it virtually impossible for Samux to output damage on short range AD carries. That being said, he did his best to remain safe when fights turned south. Samux only sacrificed 13.3 percent, 15 percent, and 15.8 percent of UOL’s deaths in games one, two and three, respectively.

SPY Trashy

Splyce’s jungler looked much more effective during quarterfinals against G2 than virtually all of the regular season. His pressure around the map, especially in the early game, is a primary reason that Splyce was able to take G2 all the way to the bitter end of their best-of-five series. Trashy deserves recognition for stepping up in playoffs.

For example, 12 minutes into game one, Trashy had 100 percent kill participation, including two kills each for Wunder and Sencux. He is partially to blame for Trick’s Smite-steal at Baron around 27 minutes, but his play around objectives for the rest of the game was great. Trashy excelled at teamfights, though, where he helped fully lock down Zven and Perkz with Wunder’s Camille and Sencux’s Galio. He even finished the game with 95 percent kill participation and only 17.6 percent of Splyce’s deaths.

Trashy’s early game ganks backfired twice in a row in game two. Trick was able to effectively counter-gank for Expect to secure kills. Perkz was also able to snowball on Leblanc. Mikyx and Wunder accounted for 12 of Splyce’s 18 deaths, equal to 66.7 percent, while Trashy only contributed two of 18, or 11.1 percent. Game three was not as impactful in the early game, for better or for worse. Trashy’s Elise did not contribute much until post-20 minutes, and it took a few completed items before he could really teamfight at all. And even then, Elise has a hard time if she does not get ahead from the start, especially without a high-economy tank.

Once back on Sejuani in game four and Gragas in game five, Trashy brought the heat. He finished the last two games with 18 and 8 KDAs, respectively. These champions’ combination of crowd control and tankiness were perfect for assisting Splyce’s carries to survive G2’s engagements, while enabling them to melt down G2’s tankier members. Their game five loss amounted to two lost teamfights around Baron, which is not entirely Trashy’s fault. Most of it chalked up to G2’s players outplaying Splyce as a team, rather than any individual mess-ups. Trashy only sacrificed one death in the whole fifth game, which is only 6.3 percent.

Featured Image: LoL Esports Flickr

Other Images: LoL Esports Flickr

Player Statistics: GamesofLegends.com

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