G2 Esports advances to EU LCS finals vs. Splyce

It was a sloppy series for both teams, but G2 Esports is advancing to its second straight EU LCS final. Last time, it was a victory against Origen in Rotterdam. This time, it’s a date with Splyce in Krakow next weekend.

G2, the top-seeded team in the European field, beat the Unicorns of Love 3-1 Sunday. The first three games of the series were fairly close, but G2 rolled to a convincing Game 4 victory to close out the series.

G2 had already qualified for Worlds based on Championship Points, but will be hoping for back-to-back EU LCS titles in its first two LCS splits.

Both G2 and the Unicorns of Love are former Challenger teams who made the finals in their first LCS splits. After a rough start to the season with an overhauled roster, UOL saw better play on recent patches and entered the playoffs as the No. 6 seed, upsetting Giants Gaming in the quarterfinal round.

After a back-and-forth Game 1 that saw both teams hold pretty sizable leads but G2 eventually come out on top, UOL seemed to have the answer in Game 2. Drafting Shen and Taric with Kassadin in the mid lane, UOL could have the Kassadin dive aggressively forward, with either Shen ultimate, Taric stun or Taric ultimate on top of him while he did it (or some combination of all three).

Combine that with terrific vision control from Move and early kills for Kassadin, and UOL started opening up a lead.

At 32 minutes Zven’s Sivir came online and nearly won the game, picking up a quadra kill during a G2 ace. But UOL’s map pressure meant not much could be taken from the ace, and UOL earned a 5-0 fight of their own a few minutes later for the win.

UOL picked basically the same composition in Game 3, subbing out Kassadin (now banned) for LeBlanc. But G2 made two key changes: putting Perkz on Taliyah and Mithy on Soraka. While Perkz’s Taliyah was outroamed by Exileh’s LeBlanc early, Mithy’s Soraka was crucial, dishing out key silences on Shen and LeBlanc during fights.

Mithy did so twice in a crucial fight at 14 minutes, first silencing Vizicsacsi’s Shen during a tower dive (before this video starts), and then again on Exileh’s LeBlanc after he tried to re-engage from behind with a teleport.

G2 won the game 19-11 in 34 minutes after a big fight near Baron.

G2 steamrolled in Game 4, utilizing a pair of early gank tops by Trick to give Expect an insurmountable lead in an otherwise unfavorable matchup.

G2 was up 11-1 and 10k gold at 20 minutes, and a 5-0 fight at 26 minutes landed Zven a triple kill and G2 the 19-5 win at 26 minutes to take the series.