by Copenhagen is the place where one of the most anticipated League of Legends matches in European history takes place. G2 Esports and Fnatic are playing in the EU LCS finals on Sunday, in a clash of two of the most successful teams ever to play in Europe’s top flight.
The third place match will be played on Saturday, with Splyce and Team Vitality fighting for pride, honor and championship points.
BETTING SITES: BEST FOR LEAGUE OF LEGENDS
FREE TIPS: MORE ESPORTS PREDICTIONS
Team Vitality team news and form
Vitality have been somewhat of a Kryptonite for Splyce’s stable, mid-game focused approach throughout the regular split, being the team to break their 5-game winning streak and also demolishing them with a bot lane Ziggs earlier on. Their playstyle hasn’t changed much since the start, but they always seem to pull something unexpected out of their pocket and give every opponent a run for their money.
In the semi finals against Fnatic, the French team got crushed in the early game by Broxah’s terrific counterganking that rendered Gilius and his pressure practically nonexistent. It’s safe to say that without a gold lead, Vitality don’t really know how to decisively play a team fight-focused mid-game and usually rely on their guerrilla tactics to catch an odd 2v2 fight and go for baron from there, or just wait for a serious mistake from the enemy side, as was the case in the 3rd game against Fnatic.
When they do get baron, though, Vitality become a force to be reckoned with. With their well-organised 1-3-1 formation with Jiizuke and Cabochard in the sidelanes, the Bees tend to tear down multiple towers or inhibitors and get massive gold leads from just one power play. If Gilius makes his ganks less predictable and Vitality get a substantial early lead, the games could end quickly in their favour.
Splyce team news and form
Splyce, on the other side, have been excellent at 5v5 teamfighting for the entire split, or at least up until the semifinals. Against G2, they messed up at the most important points of the game, making their usual mid-game comebacks impossible.
Kobbe was especially guilty of bad positioning and having little impact in fights, but we have to cut him some slack because G2’s jungler, top and support were picked exactly to tender him useless. Xerxe’s pathing also got figured out very early on by Jankos, and the official #1 jungler in EU this split couldn’t do much to get his lanes rolling. Howewer, Gilius is not very likely to try adapting to Xerxe, being one of the more lane-oriented junglers in the league, and Splyce’s top and mid lane likely won’t have to worry that much.
Splyce’s mid laner Nisqy has been on fire recently, dashing out serious damage in teamfights, and also going even or better in lane in most games. He and Kobbe should be the main focus of the team, and if Vitality doesn’t get far ahead early, I don’t think their one-carry playstyle can break Splyce’s terrific group play. Odoamne’s thoughtful engages are much better than anything Vitality has to offer in that regard, and if he can force a brawl, Splyce will likely end up as victors.
Betting prediction & odds
Team Vitality: +137
Splyce: -188.68
Splyce, in my opinion, have more win conditions than Vitality, and also have a much more adaptive playstyle that isn’t likely to fall to the same strategy thrice. Although Vitality have looked good in BO1’s against Splyce, I think winning three games will be too much of a challenge for them.
Best bet: Splyce to win paying -188.68 with BetOnline
