The 2020 Summer Split has become a wild scramble to the top for many rosters in the LEC. And after the first day of week three, two unlikely League of Legends teams sit atop the standings.
Rogue made a big statement today by defeating Fnatic to rise to first place in the LEC. They’re now tied with the red hot MAD Lions for the top spot in Europe. The boys in blue showed off great patience, quick thinking, and strong communication in their victory.
Last week, Fnatic were criticized for putting their star AD carry Rekkles onto Soraka. As a result, the team decided to go all-in on their superstar bottom laner by drafting a team composition around Aphelios, who’s still strong on the current patch the league is playing on.
But Fnatic suffered some untimely mistakes that turned their decisions into leads for their opponents. A four-man dive in the bottom lane, for example, turned into a disaster after the team botched the tower aggro, causing the deaths of both Rekkles and Hylissang.
As the game progressed, the teamfights became harder and harder for Fnatic to control.
Fnatic’s mid laner Nemesis was also completely outclassed today. At 26 minutes, Rogue’s Larssen had 313 CS and five kills, with a completed Rod of Ages, Seraph’s Embrace, Void Staff, and a Rabadon’s Deathcap. At that same moment, Nemesis only had 232 CS with an Ardent Censer.
Fnatic didn’t take a single tower in the game and only secured one dragon out of the five that spawned. Rogue controlled the pacing of the match and effectively controlled Fnatic with some great cross-map plays with Ryze and Gangplank’s ultimates.
Most League fans probably didn’t expect to see Fnatic and G2 Esports tied for fourth place in the LEC by week three. But the young guns of Europe have had plenty to say about the old guard of the region.
The European rookies on MAD Lions made a name for themselves in their first split during the spring. They pulled off huge upsets during the regular season, finishing in fourth place. After qualifying for the playoffs, G2 Esports picked to play against them in the first round.
The rookies took G2 to five games and sent the Worlds finalists to the lower bracket. MAD Lions eventually lost to G2 later on in a rematch.
MAD Lions’ roster remained unchanged coming into the 2020 LEC Summer Split and the synergy that’s been built can easily be seen in their games. While OG secured the broken ADC in Aphelios, MAD Lions had a perfect composition to deal with him. As the game went on, though, Aphelios was becoming more of a problem and was seen as a huge threat to MAD Lions.
