Kelsey Moser's 2017 EU LCS Spring Split playoffs power rankings

The drudge of the 2017 EU LCS Spring regular season has ended. Many dedicated analysts, competitors, and content creators have watched countless VODs, wracked their brains for the quality storylines, pinned teams against one another mentally on repeat, and started to wonder what the point really is after ten weeks of grinding League of Legends.

The playoffs are finally here: the fun part with the best-of-fives, the heartache, and all the H2K semi-final memes.

Shake off the assessments from the start of the split. Team performances have ebbed and flowed. Strategies have developed and stagnated. Six teams remain in pursuit of a single spot to represent the EU at MSI.

How they measure up after a predictable season poses a different question. The rankings might not surprise, but this isn’t about the numbers; it’s taking inventory of each team’s strengths and weaknesses in preparation for the major event, starting April 8.

6. Misfits

It’s with heavy heart that I place Misfits in sixth. Their mascot makes for a great Twitter emoji, and the redemption stories on the roster leave me feeling chuffed. Everyone loves rooting for the rookies, and everyone loves a new kid.

Their explosive entrance into the EU LCS has been fraught an inability to trade sides effectively. Whenever Misfits get an advantage on one side of the map, it seems like the enemy team can consistently pressure their half better.

This often comes from committing many resources to a kill or reacting slowly to a push. If the enemy team has set up a siege on top side, it seems like Misfits, grouped in the center of the map, will respond by frantically scattering to snatch something in bottom lane. This poor setup leaves them with a meager consolation prize.

In addition to these blunders, Lee “KaKAO” Byungkwon has developed something akin to Lee “Spirit” Dayoon syndrome, where he will tunnel on farming, sometimes without a mind for the location of the enemy jungler. His greed for krugs has gotten him caught out, and Misfits sometimes fail to anticipate common paths made by the enemy jungler.

When it gets to late game, Misfits’ Baron setups follow a familiar formula: Use their tank to group with the team and try to force numbers to give control of the area behind Baron. This takes their collective eye off side waves.

Misfits fans shouldn’t despair, however. Their quarterfinal matchup is against Splyce, who occasionally show signs of similar ills. Advantages will come from the team’s ability to surprise. Their willingness to group for objectives early will often swing the game in their favor. They have to keep up this kind of play and snowball quickly to make the investment worth it, but with a 55% percent first three turret rate, they often do.

5. Fnatic

They almost didn’t make it.

The European audience spent their last match effectively cheering for Fnatic’s failure, as Team ROCCAT’s shocking 2-1 victory over G2 Esports marked the only shakeup the EU LCS has seen all season. Some wanted ROCCAT’s success. Some wanted G2’s loss to mean something. Some just wanted to watch the world burn as EU’s legacy team fell into limbo.

But let’s promptly forget about that. Fnatic’s story is one of hope and heavy investment into making the all-EU dream a reality, with some fan favorite faces at the helm. That didn’t go very well, either.

However, this team isn’t as far down the ladder as their struggle to secure a playoff spot would suggest. Fnatic best Misfits, not just in the recent match, but in their advantages and ability to understand pressure trades. They’re a better team overall. One might even argue that they aren’t that far behind the fourth-ranked team, Splyce.

Fnatic like to go for the somewhat safe play in lane swapping whenever they anticipate a Teleport disadvantage. They have been willing to give up dragons as a result, given their 47% dragon control rate. Fnatic’s willingness to swap also reveals their tendency to avoid confrontation, with a bottom two Combined Kills Per Minute amount of .62.

In the mid and late game, they seem less willing to trade pressure onto their top laner. This restricts them to using Martin “Rekkles” Larsson as a side lane force, and he’ll favor picks like Kennen and Lucian. The fact that Fnatic’s best strategy might be limited by ADC picks, and a side-laning ADC can occasionally mean a loss trade for Baron, lowered their standing in the power ranking.

Rasmus “Caps” Winther plays a pivotal role in Fnatic’s strategy. The team relies upon his ability to keep mid pressure, but he doesn’t always come through. Rather than simply keeping the wave pushed out, he’ll go for all-ins and grasp for champions that counter mid but have a narrow window of execution.

To come out ahead in their matchup against H2K-Gaming, Fnatic need to play with the Baron and work on improving Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen’s ability to play off mid pressure to invade. Fnatic’s strengths in teamfight flanking and dragging a lead across the map might make them surprising in playoffs, but I don’t expect them to take more than one or two games.

4. Splyce

Martin “Wunder” Hansen shocked the audience in Splyce’s first match in the second half against Unicorns of Love by picking Gragas, a champion that doesn’t build Blade of the Ruined King.

Splyce have looked particularly strong since Patch 7.6 rolled out, partly because Fizz, one of Wunder’s old staples, surged to the top of the fashion charts, but that doesn’t make him a one-trick pony. There’s a reason he’s picked up the most “player of the series” points. Very few players have managed to consistently exert as much map pressure as Wunder has for his team.

Splyce’s creative answer to side trades earlier in the season resulted in them giving up pressure top, securing a lead bottom, and then rotating their duo lane to mid instead of top. This made their ADC and support less vulnerable, but often left Wunder out to dry.

Poor laning, Jonas “Trashy” Andersen losing some of his magic in standard lane scenarios, and dropped communication lines in Splyce’s favored 1-3-1 all culminated in the team performing well below expectations. I predicted a weak start, but it took them a lot longer than anticipated to turn it around.

Splyce still have many of these flaws. While Wunder and Trashy have gotten a lot better at setting up the top side of the map, and the team’s bottom and mid lanes have adapted to more conservative play, Splyce may be relying too much on surviving to mid game when Wunder can pull opponents with ease.

There’s still a lot of creativity and talent on this Splyce roster, and Wunder isn’t the only one to benefit from recent patches. Chres “Sencux” Larsen’s favorite champion, Ahri, has charmed mid laners, and other picks like Vladimir and Kassadin help him find his favorite late game openings for turnarounds.

Splyce’s ability to translate top side pressure into a massive lead should hit Misfits right between the wiggly rabbit ears, but the quarterfinal draw was a lucky one.

3. H2K-Gaming

At least we know that if H2K first pick Maokai every game this time around, something has gone terribly wrong.

Staring at my ranking, one might think I believe Group B is better. If there’s a case for that, it rests in Misfits and Fnatic’s recent struggles and patch changes. With straight tanks becoming less popular, top laners like Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu, Wunder, and Kiss “Vizicsacsi” Tamás can show more versatility and have a bigger impact. Some of the top Group A teams also struggled in the second half, countering H2K’s slight upswing.

H2K understand how to play with and around their jungler better than any team in the EU LCS. Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski and Fabien “Febiven” Diepstraten are, for my money, the strongest mid and jungle duo in the league, even if arguments can be made for G2’s players being better individually.

Jankos seems to still have less synergy with his bottom lane, which restricts H2K somewhat to playing between top and mid. They show some of their best jungle pathing when they play on blue side and can invade to contest raptors and red buff with powerful solo lane matchups.

When it comes to teamfighting, the meme still rears its head. Choi “Chei” Sunho plays a pivotal role in engage and setup, but given the current pool, his job seems more difficult. Perhaps that’s why H2K gravitated toward the somewhat unconventional Brand pick in their last match against Splyce, but Zyra and Malzahar seem to be favored.

Odoamne still fumbles flanks. He either rushes them, and the team doesn’t react, or they come too late. This is a failure in either communication or setup. A lot of this comes around Baron. If H2K fail a flank, they then either pull off entirely and concede the objective, or try to rush it without vision control and get collapsed upon.

But H2K will still outtrade any team in the EU LCS when it comes to cross map. They understand their lane assignments, and know how to pick champions that can keep up the push.

One cause for concern is the increase in priority of some less mobile mids like Viktor or Syndra. Side laning these champions becomes more of a challenge, and H2K could find themselves forced to tease the Baron before they have a comfortable lead.

2. Unicorns of Love

Pay no attention to the pink socks. I just mixed my whites with my reds.

With G2 exposing weaknesses in their recent matches against Fnatic and ROCCAT, Unicorns of Love can claim to be the strongest team in EU. But it’s hard to ignore their flaws and place them above Europe’s dark princes.

Despite a poor midseason showing, Vizicsacsi has had his best split so far. Perhaps the champion he is most known for, Shen has rocked the top lane, and jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir’s predilection for utility has forced him onto more carries.

Unicorns of Love have both benefitted from and been frustrated by new patches. Samuel “Samux” Fernández Fort’s poor positioning with more carry champions in play had him permanently on Caitlyn, and his output seemed relatively lacking. Lucian lets him play more safely, but he might be targeted in semifinals.

At the same time, we’ve seen more top lane crushers, showing off Vizicsacsi’s form. Unicorns, like Splyce, can convert a lead from top side advantages well. Unfortunately, they end up seeing their bottom lane punished for it more often.

Unlike Splyce and H2K, Unicorns have more facets than the 1-3-1. They gravitate toward teamfights, and they have the best Baron control and first Baron rates in the league. Unicorns of Love group well and can take down almost anyone in a 5v5 with their coordination (as long as Samux stays safe).

The problem is that Unicorns of Love over-fixate on Baron. One could theoretically draft a composition that pushes side lanes better late game and tries to give up Baron for inhibitors. Unfortunately, with the power of Baron, that might seem like too risky a strategy for most of UoL’s prospective opponents.

Teams like H2K or G2 who set up side lanes better might be able to take advantage of UoL’s weaknesses. But given Vizicascsi’s power and strong communication between lanes and the jungle, snowballing against UoL and 1-3-1ing is a difficult task.

1. G2 Esports

Long time Masters of European Evil, G2 spent more than a year undefeated. In a hilarious plot twist, they actually lost to Team ROCCAT, but they showed signs of weakness before that.

G2 fumble the early game. Kim “Trick” Gangyun can identify when his lanes have pressure for him to invade, but he’ll sometimes invade even if they don’t. G2 have a less careful approach to when they should look for that juicy raptor camp, and sometimes they don’t identify the best lane to gank or the right objective to siege.

But much of the early game comes from wanting Trick to get an advantage, and even with Alfonso “mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez’s increasingly frequent 4-8 death games, Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen almost ensures a bot lane lead. With Luka “PerkZ” Perković’s better understanding of how to play champions without escapes this season, G2 often have three points of pressure in mid and late game.

Keeping a stable mid presence and getting a counter matchup against Perkz will open more opportunities to catch Trick unaware and create a snowball. After that, it’s easy to pressure a mid game lead against G2 if a smart team sets up a catch for their duo lane. Sometimes they over-pressure top lane without maintaining top river vision or don’t rotate Zven and mithy mid before the opponents do so. In this manner, teams can get a snowball and open up mid control to shut down Trick.

Coordination between Trick and mithy still appears unstable. At times, they set up backs together well. Occasionally mithy or Trick will venture on their own to ward when they can easily plan a play. G2 also struggle to reset side waves after they have a successful fight and try to force an objective instead, which allows the opposing team to flank.

I’m only hard on G2 because, as ROCCAT demonstrated this week, being at the top for so long can make flaws harder to see. G2 Esports still have phenomenal mid and jungle control with a staggering 56.3% of the game’s total jungle CS, nearly four percentage points above H2K, the team with the second highest share of jungle CS.

It’s hard to keep up with G2’s movements, in part because their jungler will take risks to get an advantage. Their side wave control, though sometimes won through ineffective lane assignments, also pits them above most teams in the world. G2 Esports are the best team in EU, but it feels like this is the first split since they’ve joined the LCS where I’m not completely confident in their road to victory.

You can follow Kelsey Moser on Twitter @karonmoser.