Fnatic cements their place in the LEC Summer playoffs Grand Final after a monumental BO5 win against G2 Esports this week.
LEC Summer 2024 nears its end as the split’s remaining contenders race for the last Grand Final slot.
SK Gaming and Team BDS tied at the start of playoffs with an impressive 8-1 score, but well-known organizations like Fnatic and G2 quickly secured a strong lead in the best-of-threes. Both powerhouses butted heads this week, resulting in a victory for this split’s underdogs. And how they did it will go down in history.
The Summer Season’s biggest champs aren’t out of the fight yet. Will SK and BDS finally break their playoffs curse? Or will the Kings claim another silver shield? Here’s everything that went down in week two of Summer playoffs:
LEC Summer Playoffs Week 1 Recap
Day 1 – July 21
GIANTX Finds the Angle and Takes It
Team Heretics and GX struggled in the lower bracket for the chance to stay in the fight this week. But GIANTX’s counterpicks and Antonio “th3Antonio” Bejarano’s slick engages with Kenen helped his team wipe the board.
Despite three GX members picking strong champs to counter Flakked’s laning phase, Team Heretics put up a great fight. Things stayed close until the midgame, where GX Patrik and GX th3Antonio pulled off a dragon-side skirmish that won them the first game.
GIANTX choked on the second match of the series, giving TH Trymbi his best Braum game in the split. But GIANTX’s midlaner Jackies went absolutely nuts on Zeri in Game 3, helping his team secure Baron — which their enemies left to build Soul — and go 10/0/3 on Zeri before ending the series and taking his team to Round 2 of Playoffs.
Karmine Corp Eliminates MDK From Summer Playoffs
MAD Lions KOI came hot off the heels of the top eight in the Summer Season, and had the most to lose. And Karmine Corp had an answer to every one of their strengths.
With their toplanes unevenly matched, KC Kanna didn’t even try to fight Myrwyn’s Neeko to put more emphasis on their botlane AD. Vladi knew they had more mobility on the Rift, and with Infinity Edge on Tristana, they fought from a distance before going 12-3 with Baron and ending game one.
Karmine Corp exploited their enemy’s weak defense comp on game two by targeting their bot lane. Despite MDK having a gold lead, Vladi and the rest were bold enough to attempt multiple tower dives to bury MAD Lions KOI further in a deficit.
That said, Elyoya’s team fought valiantly, having each other’s backs during each overextended play. An uncontested Mountain Drake may have bought them some time and some extra defense. But in the end, KC felled MDK’s nexus and eliminated them from Playoffs.
Day 2 – July 22
Fnatic Takes the Lead From G2 Esports
The top two contenders rocked the LEC stage in a Silver Scrapes match-up that saw both teams operate at their best.
Despite his best picks being banned, Hans Sama had a lot to offer on Miss Fortune while Mikyx led the vanguard. Early game went as well as you’d expect, with G2 Yike’s Brand and their Leona burning any chance of a stable laning phase for Fnatic. Without the damage they needed, there wasn’t much Humanoid’s team could do G2 BrokenBlade eventually broke their base open for the first Nexus.
However, G2 overinvested in their AD carries for Game 2, which meant that Fnatic only needed good front-to-back plays to win teamfights and secure objectives. G2 Yike tried his best to frontline with a Warmog’s, but Fnatic had more ways to engage, resulting in a base siege and their first Nexus of the BO5.
Game three saw G2 go for a more conventional comp that prioritized BB’s scaling. In response, Razork and Jun constantly suppressed the toplaner while Fnatic’s Yoon “Jun” Se-jun had all the space he needed to farm lane. The gold lead was leaning towards G2 however, so they couldn’t feel comfortable yet. But one Elder Dragon later, the longest game of the split was over.
Feeling bold, Fnatic traded much of their crowd-control for scaling champs in Game four. But G2 were back in the zone, and focused on disorganizing their opponents to win more 1v1’s. This culminated in a dangerous lead, with all five G2 members playing efficiently to scatter Humanoid’s focus while focusing on Oscarinin’s Renekton. After 20 minutes, G2 managed a dominant win on all fronts, taking the series to Silver Scrapes.
The last game of the series started with a midlane 3v3 that set the mood for the game. The big tiebreaker stayed nail-bitingly close before a botlane skirmish put G2 two kills in the lead. This had the potential to snowball very quickly, but a fast Nashor take and a kill on Hans gave Oscarninin and co. the momentum they needed to fight all the way to G2’s base and end their 849-day loss streak against the Kings of Europe.
Day 3 – July 23
Team BDS vs GIANTX
Team BDS had a rough start in their first lower bracket match, but they found a second wind with Adam and Ice, who turned things around when they were 5k gold short. The boys in blue scored an ace right after GX got Baron, which gave them enough time to win game one.
That said, Lee “Juhan” Ju-han’s Sejuani won the fight for jungle. And in game two, his consistent efforts culminated in an early GIANTX lead that let Odoamne and co. dominantly snowball towards the final game.
GIANTX had a fantastic start going into the tiebreaker. With a Rakan and Lulu on their side, the UK squad had tons of counter-engage at their disposal, giving them early-game control and a nice 7-kill lead.
However, a well-executed skirmish from BDS Ice and nuc pushed the needle the other way after a successful 2v5. After that, both teams decided to play slower. But a lot of late-game hesitation from GX meant that BDS was free to aggressively take more towers to win the series.
SK vs KC
SK had complete control over the map for the first game. But Baron blunders and scrappy teamfights aside, Karmine Corp’s Mid/Jungler duo stayed fairly consistent with their playmaking. And after a fateful clash for Infernal Soul, KC found a chink in SK’s armor that let them snatch a win from the jaws of a 14-5 defeat.
Game three was a total coin toss with SK taking an early 3-0 lead. Objectives and kill score should have given them a clear path to KC’s nexus. But an overeager midlane scuffle gave Vladi’s team newfound momentum.
With this, Karmine Corp climbed out of yet another impossible situation to find more fights and deny Soul point. Elias “Upset” Lipp’s Aphelios did an amazing job clearing the board when his team needed him. And after a clean Baron take, the undeniable underdogs of the split won two more fights before closing out the series.
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Paul started writing game guides and match predictions for ESTNN’s editorial team in 2022. Since then, he’s covered big-ticket esports events and the latest news on tech and AI.
