Sunday's series between ROCCAT and Origen was expected to be the closest of the Gauntlet run, with the winner coming out as favorites to take Europe's third seed at the upcoming World Championships. That certainly happened, but the close series was even more of a surprise than the result of the European LCS final between Origen and Fnatic.

For four games, ROCCAT proved they had the superior understanding of picks and lane swaps. What looked like poor trades against Giants caught Origen and set them down several kills. Most games followed with a meandering ROCCAT, checking for wards that weren't in their jungle and looking for a way to pressure a mid game advantage that never came. If Origen had the late game on their side, superior coordination got them the win. If not, they would be unable to overcome ROCCAT's initial lead.

That oversimplifies things a little though. A few key picks stood out, and if the Unicorns of Love were taking notes, they might not have to limp back home after three games tomorrow.

Lulu and Fizz were banned by both teams throughout the entirety of the series. Nukeduck's mid Fizz and sOAZ's top lane Fizz have both been headaches for their opposition and Lulu's general versatility, combined with either team's fondness for early dives and scaling carries, also meant that she wouldn't fall into anyone's hands.

So far, sOAZ's mastery of Gangplank is unmatched. Not just in Europe, but internationally. His ability to chain barrels and build a Trinity Force power spike into stacked Infinity Edges makes Gangplank the strongest hyper carry in the game. Anyone who thought Azir and Kog'Maw should have given ROCCAT the scaling edge in Game 4 found themselves shocked by sOAZ's late game damage output. With the right team around him, Gangplank is an easy win. Even without the right player or the right team, he's difficult to overcome, as ROCCAT proved in the second game.

It's also worth noting that Braum went undefeated throughout the five game series. Origen heavily favors the 1-3-1 pushing strategy, and if you pick a champion like Varus or Viktor to handle wave clear, Braum can shut down any mid lane push while the rest of his team tackles side lanes with picks.

Sometimes picking multiples sources of wave clear or poke can render Braum somewhat useless, but Origen failed to execute that effectively in Game 3 with Corki and Varus. After Game 2's Gangplank and Braum combination made sneaking Barons (Gangplank's global ultimate ruined two attemtps) and sieging (Braum shutting down Viktor's wave clear) difficult, Origen tried to pick Varus and Corki to try and cancel out Braum. However, it didn't work out in part because ROCCAT's heavy early lead made it difficult for Origen to abuse their mid game scramble for picks.

While Viktor didn't go undefeated this series, he's still the king of choked team fights. In a heavy scaling composition, Origen could herd ROCCAT into Chaos Storm and stack area of effect. Viktor's popularity is finally increasing in the west, which also makes Braum more potent.

Elise paid off for Jankos in the one game he played her, but Amazing's use of the champion had to take time to baste. In Game 5, Origen finally got the devastating dive lead many spectators had expected. They closed out within 25 minutes after several picks.

If the Unicorns can sort through some of these champions in draft, they can boil down the main flaws they want to abuse. Even in the case where Origen had a lead in turrets in Game 4, they didn't look for deeper map control with Corki's power spike. They didn't invade for deep wards. Instead, they took the conservative stance of letting Gangplank scale.

Neither ROCCAT nor Origen seemed willing to pressure a mid game lead too hard. Mid game is like a no-man's land where signposts and free vision have dropped. Things can go terribly wrong while teams wander through the woods.

Against H2K, the Unicorns of Love showed that the mid game is the one moment they're most comfortable. In strange ways, UoL are fearless. They might not use vision optimally, but they do know how to execute a pick composition. The Unicorns invaded H2K, even from a deficit, and grabbed kills. If Origen can't get the same early game leads as ROCCAT and H2K—they only managed to do so in Game 5 today—they could fall prey to UoL's fairly transparent strategy.

Tomorrow is going to come down to defensive wards. Even if Origen pick up and early lead and don't pressure it with invades of their own, they can at least ward their own jungle. If Origen don't walk their way to a 3-0 and third seed at the World Championship after their brutal bout with ROCCAT today, you'll know why.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.