Aside from the LEC, we must not forget the strongest European Regional League, the LFL. With EU Masters coming up soon, the various ERLs are wrapping up their Summer Split with Playoffs.
How have the teams performed so far and who looks stronger coming into the last stage of the Split?
LDLC OL and BDS Academy had an amazing regular season
After winning the LFL Spring split and finishing 2nd at the EU Masters Spring, LDLC OL returned to the French League in the same dominant fashion they showed last time out. An insane 17-1 record, with some of the best stats across the league. The team is extremely good at opening leads in the early game, mainly thanks to their support Doss and his strong presence. Not only that, but LDLC continues to have the draft advantage and flexibility across all roles, including jungle. Yike’s champion pool is really wide and he’s not afraid to play anything when needed.
BDS Academy is for sure the second time with the highest momentum coming into Playoffs. Having won the last 8 series, they crawled their way back to the high part of the standings, finishing as the second seed. This should give them a strong advantage going forward, knowing that they will go to EU Masters regardless (3rd-4th go to play-in). The question is if BDS can upset LDLC in a Bo5 series: with 10 days of preparation, they should be able to close the gap with the number 1 seed.
Vitality.Bee and Gameward fighting for EUM
Vitality.Bee and GameWard finished 11-7 in the standings (same as BDS). While V.Bee was more or less expected, Gameward was a bit of a surprise. After finishing 8th in Spring, the bottom-centric meta favored a team with a really strong carry like Innaxe. His Ezreal is really insane, with a whopping 10.3 KDA across 7 games. Interesting to see whether the enemies will ban his pocket pick but Gameward is a team to watch out for.
As for Vitality.B, we should expect them to be ready for the fight, although I think that all the teams in the Playoffs have strong chances of making it. The Bo5 will definitely impact some teams’ performances, but V.Bee shouldn’t have problems making it.
Both teams are eyeing the Summer EU Masters, especially toward an off-season that will see plenty of roster shuffles. The LFL and other ERLs are still the prime scouting groups for fresh talent.
Misfits Premier and KCorp – One Last Spurt?
Kcorp have been the big letdown in summer. From winning EU Masters Spring, finishing 6th now is not what most people expected. With that being said, the team seems to struggle with their current jungler 113, who has been playing quite one-dimensionally for the majority of the split. Now with the bridges not having as much impact, they lose overall when the game goes longer.
That is not the only problem for the roster. Hantera plays mainly Rakan and Nautilus, and KCorp haven’t been playing by reading the meta very well. I’m a little worried for the team, although we know that KCorp are slightly different in Bo5 series, in a positive way.
On the other hand, Misfits recently announced that they will leave League of Legends both in the LEC and the LFL. With the organization gone, the players will be eager to perform, knowing that they need to secure themselves a future spot on another team. That said, Misfits benched Shlatan from the LEC team which probably will hurt him and the team’s overall synergy. Based on the current situation, I think that Misfits might be the ones struggling the most and while going to EUM would be a good ending for them, I think that they might be one of the two that will not make it out.
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