G2 repeats as European champions, H2K qualifies for Worlds

No. 1 seed G2 Esports beat No. 2 Splyce in the EU LCS finals Sunday, repeating as European champions by winning the series three games to one in Krakow. A former Challenger Series team, G2 has now won the EU LCS in both of its LCS splits.

G2 had already secured automatic qualification for Worlds based on Championship Points. With the win, G2 secures Europe’s No. 1 spot at Worlds, while the No. 2 spot goes to third-place finishers H2K.

Polish natives and H2K teammates Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski and Oskar “Vander” Bogdan, with a Worlds spot on the line, promised they would cheer louder than the whole crowd.

Even with the loss in the finals, it was a very impressive split for Splyce. Another former Challenger team, Splyce struggled to an eighth place finish in the Spring Split with a young roster. After making just one roster change, subbing in Slovenian prospect Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle at support, Splyce surged to being the second-best team in Europe, finishing in second in the regular season and ultimately in the playoffs as well.

These two teams scrimmed each other frequently throughout the split, and the familiarity with each other showed in the series. G2’s early game strength went up against Splyce’s strong mid- and late-game play, and the two teams attempted to draft around that.

It was an extremely strong series for G2 support Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez, who firmly cemented himself as the best support in Europe, if not the West. He played four different champions in the series, finishing 1/9/46 even with a loss in Game 2.

G2 won the early game pretty hard in Game 1, but Splyce showed its resiliency by winning three straight team fights down 10k gold. But excellent zoning from Luka “Perkz” Perković’s Ekko finally turned the teamfighting in G2’s favor, and a minute later a quadra kill from Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen set up the win.

Splyce’s big adjustment in Game 2 was banning Dae-han “Expect” Ki’s Gangplank. Expect is pretty clearly the weakest link of G2’s team, but his Gangplank is good enough to allow him to contribute in a big way later in the game. Splyce picked a strong scaling composition with Sivir, Vladimir and Shen and won the early game, building up an insurmountable advantage.

After Splyce outscaled G2 in Game 2, G2 responded by picking the Sivir and Vladimir that hurt so much in the previous match. Splyce last-picked Caitlyn in an attempted response, but it wasn’t enough. While Splyce won the first part of the early game, G2 took over about 14 minutes in and built up a big mid-game lead that was never relinquished.

This was perhaps Mithy’s best game of the series, consistently saving his teammates with Tahm Kench and setting up plays across the map.

G2 took an early lead in Game 4 once again when an early dive bot from Splyce backfired. That small advantage continued to snowball, and by 20 minutes G2 was able to break open Splyce’s base by taking the bottom lane inhibitor. Soon after, G2 took the win and the title.