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H2k Gaming 1 - FC Schalke 04 0 H2k Gaming picked up a much-needed win over FC Schalke 04 to open up Friday's slate in the European League of Legends Championship Series. With all 10 teams in contention for a playoff spot in the final week of the 2018 Spring Split, every game carries tremendous weight. H2k (7-10) seemed fully aware of this and came ready to play in this series, while Schalke (7-10) never got off the ground in what amounted to a one-sided contest. H2k drafted a team composition that centered on teamfighting and knew exactly what it needed to do in order to pick up a win. Jungler Ilyas "Shook" Hartsema kicked off his team's strategy with a roam to the bottom lane for a first blood and then it was off to the races. After securing a few more picks, H2k made sure to lock down the first two dragons, which just happened to be Infernal Drakes that gave the team even more teamfighting presence. As the game progressed, all of the tools that H2k had amassed proved to be far too much for Schalke to handle. Double Infernal Drake buffs for the composition H2k drafted allowed it to brush off any attempt from Schalke to get a fight going. As such, H2k waltzed around the map doing whatever it wanted while racking up objectives with ease. As soon as H2k secured its second Baron of the game at 31 minutes, it marched right into the Schalke base to wrap up the win before the buff had even expired. H2k will close out the regular season with a match against Team ROCCAT at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, while Schalke will have to contend with the league-leading Fnatic to close out the day at 4 p.m. ET. --Wyatt Donigan ROCCAT 1 - Misfits Gaming 0 Team ROCCAT registered a lopsided victory Friday over Misfits Gaming in the European League of Legends Champions Series. ROCCAT (8-9) continue to be a team that simply cannot be counted out late in the season. For yet another EU LCS split, it has made a strong push that puts it in position to make the playoffs. The difference this time around is that the team looks stronger than ever and ready to make some noise come the postseason. Misfits (7-10), on the other hand, look like a shell of its former self and its playoff hopes are now on life support. The team's prowess was on full display, as it picked up a lead within minutes and never relinquished it. Misfits were punished just eight minutes in when it went for an early jungle invade that led to the death of mid laner Chres "Sencux" Laursen's Taliyah. ROCCAT keyed in on the mid laner and picked up two more kills by the time 20 minutes had passed. His third death was a crucial one as it was part of a ROCCAT 2-for-0 that allowed it to pick up a 20-minute Baron that essentially locked up the game. The final 12 minutes of the game were but a formality, as the team took a cautious approach to ensure its victory in this pivotal matchup. During that time both jungler Jonas "Memento" Elmarghichi's Sejauni and mid laner Jin "Blanc" Seong-min's Azir continued their ascension into late-game beasts, eventually leading the team to victory. All it took was one last Baron and an ace on the back of a Blanc triple kill to secure the win. ROCCAT is now 2-0 against Misfits, which gives it a huge leg up should the teams end up tied once Week 9 comes to a close. Misfits will try and salvage its season against the Unicorns of Love at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, while ROCCAT will look to secure a playoff seed when it takes on H2k Gaming in the preceding game at 1 p.m. ET. --Wyatt Donigan Team Vitality 1- Splyce - 0 In a true battle between two titans of the European League of Legends Championship Series, Team Vitality held off a feisty Splyce to pick up a hard-earned win on Friday. While Vitality (10-7) have been on a bit of a downward spiral after a strong start to the Spring Split, the team that took the stage on Friday was every bit of the electric force we saw a few weeks prior. That's not to say that this was an easy win by any means, however. Splyce (10-7) looked just as strong at different points in the game, but came up just short in one final skirmish at the end of the game. Rewinding back to the start of the game, Vitality put a heavy emphasis on objectives while Splyce focused on racking up kills aplomb. By the 16-minute mark, Splyce was up 5-to-1 in kills, but the game was locked into a stalemate in terms of gold since Vitality had picked up two towers and a dragon up to that point. As the game drew on, Splyce seemed wholly uninterested in objectives of any kind and simply tried to teamfight its way to victory. Vitality, ever the resilient bunch, didn't flinch in the face of Splyce's overwhelming presence, however. It simply picked up kills here and there to prevent Splyce from making any sort of progress around the map. This led to a nearly 10-minute dance around the Baron as Splyce tried to barrel its way in, but was stopped by Vitality at every turn. Finally, Splyce managed to secure the Baron at 32 minutes, but its obsession with the objective proved to be a fatal mistake. Directly after securing the Baron, Vitality, led by a triple kill from AD carry Amadeu "Minitroupax" Carvalho's Caitlyn, ripped clean through Splyce for an ace that allowed it to move in for the 33-minute win. While the teams are now tied in the standings, Vitality owns a 2-0 head-to-head advantage that could be just what it needs to lock up the number two seed on Saturday. Vitality will try and finish the Split off strong when it faces G2 Esports at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, while Splyce will hope to bounce back against Giants Gaming earlier in the day at 12 p.m. ET. --Wyatt Donigan Fnatic 1 - Giants 0 Fnatic continued to rampage through the European League of Legends Championship Series on Friday, taking down Giants Gaming in Berlin. All season long, Fnatic (13-4) has reigned over the rest of the EU LCS, locking up a well-deserved first seed in the upcoming playoffs. The formula for Fnatic's success has basically been the same as earlier iterations of this squad: get superstar AD carry Martin "Rekkles" Larsson ahead, teamfight around him, and school other teams in the macro game. Against Giants Gaming (7-10), Fnatic played out its tried-and-true strategy to perfection, with Rekkles' Ezreal posting a huge 8/2/9 KDA (kills/deaths/assists). It wasn't just Rekkles who performed well, though, as all of Fnatic was firing on all cylinders in an effort to avoid an upset loss to Giants. Giants did what it could to keep up with Fnatic in this one, and even seemed to have similar teamfighting prowess with Fnatic through the mid game, before Fnatic's rotations and objective control gave it an insurmountable gold lead. Giants' problems throughout the split have evolved over the weeks, but there were many things that it did poorly to the point where it'd be unfair to target any one thing as the sole problem. At the end of the day, Giants did well to deny a Rekkles pentakill at 33 minutes but, apart from that and taking four towers, there wasn't much it can hang its hat on after this loss. In a tumultuous EU LCS, though, Giants will need to bounce back quickly, since its still in contention for a playoff spot. Giants needs a win against Splyce at 12 p.m ET on Saturday to stay alive in the playoff race, while Fnatic close out its regular season against Schalke 04 at 4 p.m ET the same day. --Noah Waltzer G2 Esports 1 - Unicorns of Love 0 G2 Esports survived an early scare from Unicorns of Love on Friday during the 2018 European League of Legends Championship Series with a win in Berlin. Coming into this match, G2 Esports (10-7) was in control of its own destiny, relatively speaking. A win would put G2 in a three-way tie for second place with Team Vitality (10-7) and Splyce (10-7), and, with the way G2 has played recently, it could certainly use the first-round bye with other tough teams in the postseason bracket. On the other side, Unicorns of Love (6-11) needed a win to stay afloat in the playoff hunt, with four teams still tied for sixth place. Unfortunately for UoL, this loss eliminated it from playoff contention, though things certainly looked good for the Unicorns early on. From drafting the powerful Xayah/Rakan bottom lane duo to camping the mid lane and abusing G2 mid laner Luka "Perkz" Perkovic's Taliyah for a couple of quick kills, UoL looked great early in this match. This continued into the in early-mid game teamfights that UoL then used to take the first Baron of the game as it tried to slowly grind G2 into submission. G2 wouldn't go too far down in gold, though, thanks to top laner Martin "Wunder" Hansen's Camille. Split-pushing all game long and accruing a staggering 250 CS (creep score) advantage over his top lane counterpart, Wunder created massive pressure across the map while remaining a major kill threat. In time, G2 recouped its early gold lead deficit and took over the game, nabbing a Baron buff of its own and taking a late game gold lead that eventually led the team to victory. Perkz might have fed and G2's chances might have seemed dead, but Wunder worked a miracle and kept G2's dreams of a top-2 finish alive in this 45-minute slugfest. Unicorns of Love will close out the spring split against Misfits Gaming at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, followed by G2 Esports playing Team Vitality in a huge match with major playoff implications at 3 p.m. ET.
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