EU Expansion Tournament Day One Recap

By Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos 

EU kicked off their double elimination expansion bracket with Giants Gaming, who eliminated the hyped up Millenium, vs Reason Gaming who are made up of previous LCS players.

Giants executed their pick/ban strategy flawlessly removing Zed and Irelia in all 3 of the games rotating the third ban each time. For games one and two they stuck to the solid 4 champ combo of Pantheon, Jax, Jinx and Thresh while using Leblanc in game one and Azir in game two. The true key to this composition was the sheer dominance that their Pantheon pick displayed in controlling the early game and moving the game to his pace.

First bloods went to Giants in both games and Reason’s Lulu jungle pick in game one was completely steamrolled in its attempts to be relevant, often being blown up before even able to execute an ultimate on a teammate. It was particularly interesting to watch how much Kubon struggled against Werelyb at top and how much extra effort Giants invested into ganking and keeping him down. Most people expected that the giveaway of Gnar to Reason would spell trouble for Giants but they proved this doubt wrong many times throughout the course of games one and two.

Game three of the series showed a bit more life from Reason Gaming who secure first blood on Fr3deric, Kubon on Jax even manages to take a 1v1 kill on Werelyb. However the game once again snowballed out of Reason’s control as Kubon again struggled to maintain any kind of relevance.

The MVP of the series in my opinion is Giants Gaming’s Fr3deric who really set his team’s strangleholds into motion and demonstrated a map wide presence that simply couldn’t be handled by their opposition.

If the series against Millennium wasn’t enough to turn some heads towards Giants as favourites to qualify, I’m sure there will be some heads turning now.

H2K vs FAC

The second series of H2K vs N Faculty displayed the same result of a clean 3-0 crushing any hope of a reverse sweep like seen we’ve commonly in the NA expansion bracket. Unlike Reason Gaming, N Faculty had next to no sign of any kind of life during the series, LCS veteran Xaxus was unable to do anything about his team’s systematic take-down.

H2K went into the series with no particular pick/ban strategy other than removing Syndra and Leblanc from every game. N Faculty banned Xerath, Jayce and Lee in games one and two and Jayce, Ahri, Zed in game three.

The games themselves weren’t kill filled thrill rides and didn’t show off anything too flashy or special, the whole series gave off the impression that N Faculty were playing not to lose rather than to win. Barring game three with dragons, H2K displayed a heavy objective control and slowly drained out N Faculty in all areas before taking the series. There was one point where H2K took two completely uncontested towers in middle in game two, N Faculty were simply nowhere to be seen. Soz Purefect had next to no impact and paled in comparison to Febiven who took the carry seat across the series for H2K.

At times it seemed like H2K were taking the games too slow as they never really made any dynamic decisions or rushed plays. The chessboard takedown of N Faculty showed that H2K never really felt any pressure.

As mentioned above, the MVP of the series would have to go to Febiven who lived up to his hype and completely obliterated his opponent.

Giants vs H2K in the winners match looks to be an exciting series but N Faculty and Reason have a lot to work on in their series if they want to stand a chance against the loser of the winner bracket for the second LCS spot. 

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

Expansion Tournament Round 2 Preview

By Anel “Musinlol” Musinovic 

Only one day is left until the second round of the expansion tournament, and going in we have Millenium, Giants, Reason Gaming, Different Dimension, H2k, Meloncats, Gamers2 & n!faculty, a line-up which is sure to give us some great games.

Millenium vs Giants 

Kev1n, H0R0, Ryu, Creaton & Jree vs Werlyb, Fr3deric,xPepii, Adryh & Rydle

Going into the first game of Round 2, we have two strong sides. Millenium are the favorites, but you should expect Twitch chat to be filled with hype around Giant's xPepii, especially when he gets a kill.

Although Millenium is expected to win, I have given one game to Giants because I feel that xPepii's unorthodox level 3 roams and aggressive play are going to give them an advantage, one they can possibly use to secure a win. At the very least, his unconventional moves creates fun games that are entertaining to watch and they should be a bit different from the others.

On paper, Millenium are the much stronger team, despite Giants having a midlaner who was once considered one of the best in his role. Toplane will have the biggest mismatch, as Kev1n's skill and experience is going to outshine Werlyb. In the Black Monster cup, it was Millenium's botlane that was the driving force with good farm and solo kills, and if they can transition that into the game vs Giants, they should come out with the win..

Player to watch from Millenium: H0R0

My reasoning behind picking H0R0 as the player to watch is that he has so far has been both good and lackluster in the Black Monster Cup. He often goes for a sightstone after his jungle item, which I hope can give Millenium great opportunities and maybe make it easier for Ryu to pick off the enemies on an assassin like Leblanc. There's been a lot of hype behind H0R0 coming to EU, and in scrims he apparently has splendid performances. He hasn't been an outstanding player in BMC, but I believe he can show up big when it matters.

Players to watch from Giants: xPepii & Adryh

I have chosen two players from Giants because I simply couldn't leave out xPepii, because his unexpected early roams and crazy playmaking potential makes him a player to watch. Adryh seems to be the carry of Giants. In the first round of the expansion he went 9-0-8 on Jinx & 7-4-10 on Lucian when the Jinx was picked away from him. He is one of the only Jinx players at the moment, and I think if they can snowball him on a Jinx they can have a shot.

Predicted score: Millenium 2-1 Giants

Reason Gaming vs Different Dimension 

Kubon, Xayoo, Takefun, Celaver & Libik vs Warrior Lady, AnOnPsyCko, Magebane, Dom1nant & Wildpanda

The second game is between Reason Gaming and the big EUNE surprise, Different Dimension.

Reason Gaming’s matches sadly weren't streamed against SK Prime, but they are up on the ESL YouTube channel. In the first game, Reason Gaming got outplayed and set themselves too far behind too early with Takefun dying multiple times in the first ten minutes. In the second game, Reason had a comfortable lead but were shaky with their decision-making around dragon. Despite that, they came out victorious in Game 2. In Game 3, it was Takefun going 16-3 (even though he gave up first blood) and Xayoo, stealing the baron and winning the game just after.

On paper they have decently strong & experienced players, and are the favourites against Different Dimension, but I fear for them if they move on. Against other teams who should advance in the tournament, DD has the worst positioning.

Different Dimension got through with a 2-0 sweep against the first seed from the EUW ladder, SPARTA. I think that everybody expected EUNE to only have one team which could put up a fight - Tricked esports. However that was not the case. Dom1nant was really dominating on the rift, which is also the reason why he is the player to watch.

Player to watch from Reason: Takefun

Takefun was hit or miss and I expect him to be again, but he has the ability and skill to outlane Mageban, although after his 16-3 game on Leblanc, I imagine that champion will be banned out by DD. Takefun will need to be one of the players that shows up, because I fear that Celaver is going to struggle in the bottom lane.

Player to watch from DD: Dom1nant

Dom1nant is the absolute star of the team and will have to perform every game if they want to have any hopes of winning. He has been under the wing of SK Forgiven and seems to have improved quite a bit. My only fear for Dom1nant is that he isn't an ADC, but a midlaner. He might not have strong performances on many champions, so that could be a worrying point for DD.

Predicted score: Reason Gaming 2-1 Different Dimension

H2k vs Meloncats 

Odamne, loulex, Febiven, Hjarnan, Voidle vs zeclipse, gillius, Abaria, Crykee, Dioud

I fear for the Meloncats that they are going to struggle against a really strong H2k. H2k are the favourites for this game, and maybe even for the whole tournament. Especially with Flaxxish being banned for toxicity and and their coach going to toplane, it is going to be extremely hard. It will be interesting to see what H2k are going to do, and if they are going to focus top or let Odamne try to win hard alone up there.

Unless Abaria could somehow snowball a champion and destroy Febiven, I don't see any way for Meloncats to score an upset, and considering how strong Febiven is right now, I don't even think that's possible.

Player to watch from H2k: Febiven

Febiven is the obvious player to watch, he is so strong and is considered one of the best in the whole of Europe. He has multiple accounts in high challenger and is a great mechanical player. I think he is going to get camped by Gillius, but he should survive and make it easy for his team.

Player to watch from Meloncats: Gillius

I think that Gillius is their only player that goes even or is better than the opposite teams player on that position. It's going to be harder for him than loulex, though, as loulex will have way more to work with. Gillius will probably struggle despite being really good individually. I think he should try to camp Febiven, maybe with Abaria on a snowballed champion.

Predicted score: H2k 2-0 Meloncats

Gamers2 vs n!faculty 

Jwaow, Kou, Ocelote, Yuuki60 & KaSing vs Xaxus, Obvious, Soz Purfect, Sedrion & Mountain

The last game of round 2 might also be the closest. This is the only series where I was seriously in doubt about who was going to win. It could go either way.

On one side we have Ocelote and Gamers2 who have Top Three players in every position, but doesn't seem to be delivering the results in tournaments like Paris Game Week and Black Monster Cup - where they lost to teams such as Giants, Millenium Spirit, SK Prime - all teams they should be able to beat if they want to be a LCS team. With that said, they did advance from the first round easily and won over Reason Gaming in their seeding match.

K0u has struggled lately, he is isn't playing up to his standards from his Ninjas in Pyjamas days which is obviously affecting the whole team. He is the best challenger jungler IF he is playing his best. My concern is he will get out-jungled by Obvious if he keeps playing like he has lately.

Ocelote hasn't exactly been the driving force he'd love to be, and if he wants it to be in the expansion tournament, it should definitely be against Soz Purfect, who I consider one of the weaker players on the enemy team.

On the other side we have a n!faculty, which struggled against Tricked but managed to pull through, n!faculty has 2 standout players in Obvious & Xaxus. Xaxus we all know from his time on Roccat. He wasn't a flashy player but he was always consistent. Therefore, I think that it's going to be an even affair toplane and will probably be swung by the junglers. Obvious is a great jungler and the best player on his team, which is why he is the player to watch.

Player to watch from Gamer2: Yuuki60

The reason behind picking Yuuki is that I feel he is the best player on Gamers2 despite being overshadowed by Gamers2's bigger names like K0u, Ocelote, Jwaow and now KaSing. Speaking of the arrival of KaSing, I think he can, with Yuuki, become a quality LCS level botlane. Yuuki has had Dioud and Rydle prior to KaSing, but they didn't have the same skill level as Yuuki. I believe Yuuki is going to show how good he is and will outshine Sedrion by a lot.

Player to watch from n!faculty: Obvious

The player to watch from n!faculty is Obvious. I was considering Xaxus, but felt like Obvious was their most flashy and probably best player. Obvious often makes plays both in the early and late game and with new solo laners on the team, I believe he is going to have an easier time in the jungle and can potentially focus on shutting down K0u, who can be a really good or lackluster. If he can pressure him so much, it will give them a good chance!

Predicted score: Gamers2 2 - 1 n!faculty

*A quick side note: Games from Round 1 involving Gamers 2 & Reason Gaming have been re-casted and uploaded to ESL’s YouTube channel.

-----

By Anel “Musinlol” Musinovic