This surely was a week of firsts as Week 5 brought all the action you could possibly hope for. In fact, I think this could have been the best week in the LCS this split.
Echo Fox Bag A Win
Bolstered by the return of their starters, who were benched due to eligibility issues, Echo Fox pulled off their first 2-0 week. They won convincingly over Renegades, ultimately ending the discussion around which comeback would be more impressive, Froggen or Alex Ich. Then more impressively they took down NRG ESports, who never looked like they were going to get back into the game once Fox got going. After watching the improvement from Echo Fox as an organisation, it was clear that they were going to win a game or two eventually. Critically, they won a game against Renegades, and then won again in a week where REN went 0-2. This could be the springboard FOX need to help them make the push to a mid table finish.
EU LCS Brinksmanship Continues
The ultimate staring contest that is the top of the EU LCS continues, when G2 dropped their first game and H2K won theirs, it looked like the deadlock atop the table was set to be broken. G2 it seemed had other ideas. They came out of the gate in their Friday game against H2K and just balled, it was plain to see that the team was fired up even during picks and bans they looked locked in. I’ll be honest, when G2 dropped their first game of the week, I thought that their chances of beating H2K went out the window as the team appeared to be on serious tilt. Sufficed to say G2 rebounded exceptionally well and despite a slow start, they never looked out of it, eventually pulling ahead and finishing off H2K, 20 kills to 12. This leaves both teams deadlocked again at the top, and with both their head to head games played, it ultimately comes down to the rest of the teams to help break the deadlock.
Giants Get on the Board
It finally happened, Giants Gaming got a win. Granted it was against fellow bottom of the standings team Roccat, but still the fear of the winless split is now put to bed. It wasn’t a particularly convincing win, ROC were ahead for the majority of the game and only lost it in the final few minutes. When all is said and done, the final score only had Giants ahead by 2 kills, it was not by any stretch of the imagination a win that will light a fire under Giants, and quite frankly from the way they looked, Giants may not win another one all split.
C9 and IMT Provide Excitement
If you haven’t seen this game, stop reading and go watch it. I’ll put the VoD under the heading, just come back and read this last segment afterwards. The game was entirely back and forth on kills, C9’s strategy appeared to be Hai’s patented “Jensen, body these fools!”, and it helped them keep pace with IMT for a large portion of the game. Sneaky pulled out new champion, Djinn and did surprisingly well. Unfortunately for C9, while they looked initially like they had a chance of stealing this game, IMT’s macro play proved too much for them. If you’re a Cloud 9 fan, you can be very pleased with this showing as C9 kept pace with the best team in NA right now.