Preview of EU Challenger Series Spring 2015 Final: Origen vs Copenhagen Wolves Academy

By Anel “Musinlol” Musinovic

EU Challenger Series Final will go live at 18.00 and Origen will go in as massive favorites again. However, Copenhagen Wolves Academy have looked really solid and even took a clean 2-0 vs Gamers2 in the semifinals.

Origen vs Copenhagen Wolves Academy
Soaz, Amazing, xPeke, Niels & Mithy vs Morsu, Kirei, CozQ, Vizility & Hybrid

Origen has been dominating the whole split and despite an unconvincing win 2-1 over Reason Gaming, I feel like they should go 3-0 or 3-1 here. Origen has way more experienced players and more quality player for player. However, Copenhagen Wolves Academy have been surprising all throughout and nobody expected them to be in the finals or to come out of groups as second seed.















PICKS AND BANS:

Origen:

Origen seems to have a lot of flexibility in their draft with flex champs like Lulu and Morgana and I predict them to be at an advantage coming out of champ select. CWA will be hard pressed to try and ban out Peke and Soaz. I can see Origen focusing on getting a Malphite pick to counter Morsù as they did in their previous win against this team.

When Origen have first pick they could ban out Ahri, Cassiopeia & Rek'Sai and force CWA to ban Leblanc as they did in their win against them. However, it does leave all of Morsù's champions open, which can be deadly if they don’t get the Malphite. Otherwise, I would try to ban out Morsù if they feel like they can’t get their hands on Malphite or something else that they feel comfortable bringing up in the top lane.

I feel like, even though it didn’t work for them in their previous game against Copenhagen Wolves Academy, Origen could go for a Kog’Maw comp. After all, it's a B05 and they have room to be flexible with comp choices. But getting comfortable picks across the board should be enough to for them to find a victory and the auto-promotion spot.

Copenhagen Wolves Academy:

CWA have a massive disadvantage in the pick and bans because Origen’s Soaz & xPeke seem able to play anything at a competitive level. Amazing, on the other hand, is more known for having a smaller champion pool and sometimes not performing when uncomfortable.

In Challenger, Amazing has played five champions across thirteen games & six of those games has been Rek’Sai. Banning out Sejuani as a strong power pick, Lee Sin, then Rek’Sai or Nidalee and picking the one left open could allow them to get ahead and try to snowball from there like they did in their win against Origen.

Putting Amazing on the likes of Gragas or another tank in Nunu could force Origen to make the decision to go with the Kog’Maw comp which didn't work for them the last time. This has weaknesses, though, as it allows the rest of Origen to play what they want and leaves up the Malphite who seemingly counters every champion in Morsù’s champion pool.

If they decide not to try to ban out Amazing they could go for their own winning recipe of trying to hold down the solo laners to have minimal impact by banning Maokai, Lissandra and Zed. This does leave up the Malphite which I think they could be trying to swap out with one of the three.

Getting good picks for their solo laners will be incredibly important and getting either a Rek’Sai or a tanky jungler is also really important for CWA if they want to try to win at least a game or two or potentially the series.

Player to Watch from Origen: xPeke

Who else than our former Fnatic superstar. xPeke is one of the still standing old players and still has the drive to compete. He is a player who can play any midlane champion you put him on but personally I've always loved watching xPeke playing Ahri. New unorthodox midlaners have shown to be coming into the meta and xPeke seems to have picked some of them up by playing Vladimir in 2/3 games vs Reason Gaming and to success both times.

Player to watch from Copenhagen Wolves Academy: Morsù

Morsù has been carrying games for them on good 1v1 champions such as Jax, Irelia, fizz and even Fiora. If he can get his hands on one of these champions it could work out greatly for him, but he's often target banned. Origen has shown willingness to not ban out Morsù and therefore it can put him in a position where he is on his favorite champions and in a position to carry. In their win against Origen he was on Irelia and was 9-1-4 on her. Also trying to avoid lane swaps would be a good idea to let Morsù get a lot of resources.

Predicted score: Origen 3-1 Copenhagen Wolves Academy

The game will be played April 7th at 1 PM EST & 18:00 CEST