Team Vitality won the Battle for the Bye after taking down both FC Schalke 04 and G2 Esports during Sunday's European League of Legends Championship Series tiebreakers.
After sitting at just 5-5 after Week 5 of the Summer Split, Vitality (12-6) has completed one of the biggest mid-season turnarounds we've seen in recent memory to lock up the No. 2 seed heading into the playoffs. Vitality opened the day by ruining the perfect 9-0 record Schalke (12-6) had amassed this Split while playing on the blue side. Statistics alone were nowhere near enough for Schalke to do much of anything against the red-hot Vitality in this game. The splitpush and teamfighting prowess of Vitality was too oppressive and left Schalke with a tough loss.
Next up for Vitality was G2 Esports (12-6), a team that it beat just one day ago to set up these tiebreakers. For the first few minutes, it looked like G2 might have a chance to make things interesting as the game was even early on. Out of nowhere, Vitality exploded for a 6-to-2 kill advantage and never looked back. G2 had a chance to mount a comeback, but Vitality was just too strong and closed out the game to secure its spot in the semifinals.
All that was left at that point was Schalke and G2 duking it out to determine the third seed. Both teams fought tooth-and-nail for 48 minutes, but it was Schalke that stood tall in the end. This game was truly anyone's to win, but Schalke came out on top during a few key teamfights in the late game to take the game and lock in the third seed.
The playoff bracket is now set. Fnatic and Vitality have first round byes, while Schalke will face Splyce at noon ET on Friday and G2 Esports takes on Misfits at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday.
--Wyatt Donigan