With less than 24 hours until the UKLC Spring 2019 Playoffs are concluded, let’s take a look at how each of our finalists may be crowned champions.

Fnatic Rising

Coming in as one of the league’s strongest players during the regular season, Fnatic’s star mid-laner MagiFaker MagiFelix has often been the focal point of the team as they tend to win games more often than not when he’s ahead. In recent maches his Corki performances have stood out in particular, playing this in 4 of his last 8 games (with 3 wins).

Elsewhere on the map, ADC xMatty is another regular outlet for Fnatic Rising; with an especially scary Vayne pick on which he’s picked up 5 wins in 7 games this split. Fnatic have shown a certain level in comfort in playing for late game, often pairing MagiFelix and xMatty’s scaling picks with split-pushers in top for Shikari and tanks at support for Prosfair.

The final piece of the Fnatic puzzle is jungler Dan, who has played a variety of champion styles ranging from the scaling Karthus to the early game focused Xhin Zhao. Dan was highlighted as the MVP for Fnatic’s 2-1 semi-final victory over fellow LEC academy team Excel UK, where his showings on Xin Zhao, Olaf and Jarvan were picked out as the best performances across the series.

Diabolus

When it comes to the UKLC’s top regular season team, there is no single clear way in which Diabolus may set out to win. Having won games through all their lanes, the one thing in common has been Munckizz’s performances in the jungle. With the joint highest kill share (21.3%) and the highest kills per game (3.26) of all junglers in the league, Munckizz comes into the final as the greater carry threat of the 2 junglers on display, shown particularly with recent strong Rek’Sai performances.

Another of Diabolus’ key threats comes in the form of top-laner Kerberos, known for his preference of split-pushing champions. Coming into the final with a 7 win 8 loss record on his preferred Yorick, Kerberos was awarded the title of MVP in Diabolus’ 2-1 semi-final win over MnM in which he played Yorick in all 3 games.

Diabolus’ third carry threat comes in the form of ADC Yusa, who tends to lean towards more burst focused champions such as Lucian, Kai’Sa and Ezreal. Contrary to his mid-lane counterpart, Diabolus’ Kroghsen is more likely to provide more utility based picks, with recent matches of Zilean and Orianna helping his team to victories. In support, Hadow has shown his proficiency as an engager for his team, favoring Braum and Alistar throughout the Spring split and playing both at the playoff semi-final stage.

Where the game could be won or lost

For Diabolus to take the series, they will first need to shut down MagiFelix as their number one priority. To do so, they will need to decide where to split jungler attention as this will likely mean that either Kerberos or Yusa will not have the gank focus that they would surely like. They will also have a key decision of whether or not to allow Corki through the draft. If they’re not to ban it, Diabolus must counter this with early aggression to prevent the Corki from coming online, along with ensuring they have the necessary CC to keep down the champion while his valkyrie is live post level 6.

On Fnatic’s side, they must weigh up whether their usual late-game style will be effective against Diabolus; a team that has shown time and time again that they are more than happy to play for late-game and have had success in doing so. If Fnatic Rising do draft a scaling comp, they will need to ensure that their opponents do not pick up their own favoured scaling champions (e.g. Kerberos’ Yorick and Yusa’s Kai’Sa) so as to not allow Diabolus to feel comfortable in reaching the late game stages.

Who do you think will come out on top? Let us know by tweeting @NineTeeSix. You can see the action kick off from 10am GMT on LVPUK‘s official Twitch stream.

Article by Lee ‘Couple Sodi Pops’ Jones

Photo credit LVPUK