LCS Europe week three day one preview

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Can Fnatic remain undefeated for a third week in a row?

In the first day of Week 3 of the EU LCS, Alliance, who scored their first two wins last week, will have a hard task ahead of themselves if they want to continue the winning streak, namely to overcome Gambit Gaming. Fnatic will try to remain undefeated as they face the potential new European powerhouse Roccat and the wolfpack from Copenhagen. What’s more, Supa Hot Crew will go up against SK Gaming as both teams are looking for their first positive result since Week 1. The show is definitely guaranteed so let’s go into details about each matchup.

Gambit Gaming (4-2) vs Alliance (2-4)

The Russian powerhouse had mixed results in Week 2 during which they won convincingly against SK Gaming but couldn’t overcome the new top dogs from Roccat as Overpow’s Kayle became their undoing. Diamond explained their performance and his in particular with his lack of practice, and promised not to let down the Gambit fans again this week. On the other hand, Alliance bounced back from their extremely disappointing 0-4 record during Week 1 and won both of their matches. There is still a lot of work in front of them though in terms of objective control, teamwork and coordination, especially in mid-late game. Going up against a team that is extremely competent in the late game stage such as Gambit will be the real test for Alliance as to whether their practice is paying off and if they have clicked as a team and moved on from being just a mix of super stars.

Matchup to watch: We can probably highlight each of the lane matchups as a must see but Diamond fighting for jungle and map supremacy against Shook, the player he himself used to call “the best jungler in Europe”, for the first time on LAN is as exciting as it can get!

Team Roccat (5-1) vs Fnatic (5-0)

With their win against Gambit last week, Team Roccat proved to everybody that they will not be the next MYM. Another conclusion was that Overpow won’t be allowed to play Kayle - not against Fnatic and maybe not in any other game that follows. In the beginning of the split, Roccat’s players expressed their wish to be in the top 5 of the rankings and just have a secured spot in the next one, but now the top spots have most likely started to catch their eyes. After all, if you are able to win games with Mordekaiser in the mid lane, you probably should be aiming to be “numero uno”. Here in the equation though comes Fnatic - the current leaders in Europe who are yet to drop a game. It looks like if there is one team that can crush their winning streak at the moment, it is exactly Roccat, but don’t expect xPeke and company to let them do that easily. We have hardly seen anyone more hungry for wins than Rekkles and with the constant help from his lane partner, Yellowstar, he delivers game after game. Roccat may try to “cheese” Fnatic with another crazy team comp or unexpected pick but they will be ready to fight for their leaders’ throne.

Matchup to watch: Let’s hope that the duo lanes will decide to go in the same lane because watching them try to outplay each other will be a real pleasure. Rekkles and Yellowstar are playing out of their minds since the beginning of the split, but after seeing Vander’s hooks last week which set up so much kills for Celaver, the Polish duo may give them a serious run for their money.

Supa Hot Crew (1-5) vs SK Gaming (2-4) (Head-to-head: 0-1 in Week 1)

Supa Hot Crew couldn’t win any of their games during Week 2 but then again they were facing two of the strongest participants in the league at the moment, Roccat and Fnatic. However, the team can’t rely on excuses for their losses each week and if they don’t want to end up stranded in 8th place for the whole split, they need to improve and they need to do it fast. The saving grace for SHC is definitely MrRallez who has consistently performed well even when his go-to champion, Lucian, was banned. If his teammates can play around him and protect him, he can definitely carry them to victory, especially in this rematch against SK Gaming who didn’t seem to be in their best shape in Week 2. Much like SHC, Candy Panda and company also didn’t manage to win a game last week. An oddball comp that featured Tristana top lane didn’t work for them against Gambit and Fredy122 being a triple-killing beast on Renekton wasn’t enough vs Millenium. If SK lost against the team that couldn’t win since Day 1 of Super Week, they might do it again when facing SHC unless they have worked hard on their champion choices, laning phase and team coordination.

Matchup to watch: If we assume that the duo lanes will face each other, that matchup may very well decide the outcome of the game. If SK can shut down MrRallez, SHC will lose their main weapon; if not, they will have to deal with the consequences.

Copenhagen Wolves (3-3) vs Fnatic (5-0)

Copenhagen Wolves did an okay job during Week 2 by beating Millenium but falling victim to the rejuvenated Alliance in the rematch between the two teams. Their performance so far has been good, but not outstanding, and if Millenium and Alliance manage to improve by leaps and bounds, Wolves’ spot in the top 5 will surely be threatened. Focusing on their match against Fnatic though, if there is one team that knows Rekkles inside out, that would be Wolves. His former teammates should be aware of just how to stop him plus we will get to see if YoungBuck’s claims that Forgiven is mechanically the best AD Carry in Europe will hold true against the Swedish prodigy. However, it would be unwise to underestimate Fnatic who have been looking unstoppable till now and have given us zero reasons to doubt if they would continue to dominate the EU LCS.

Matchup to watch: While the matchup between CowTard and xPeke will definitely be an intense one, we will once again highlight the duo lanes - not only because of Rekkles and Yellowstar’s dominance until now, but also because the Swedish youngster will go up against his former partner in crime Unlimited for the first time on LAN.

Image Credit: ESL Flickr, Weplay.tv