by The League of Legends European Championship kicked off on June 17 with an opening match between Rogue and Fnatic. In the best-of-one series, Fnatic secured the win, starting off their campaign on a high.
The LoL European Championship Summer is the second split of the fourth year of European’s rebranded professional League of Legends league. The tournament features 10 teams from across the region battling for the 2022 LEC champions title.
The LEC Spring Split champions, G2 Esports commenced their Summer Split campaign on opening day against Astralis. The German-based franchise secured the win, defeating their Danish counterpart in 34 minutes.
G2 Esports, who just partook in the Mid-Season Invitational and finished in the top four position for the third time in the franchise history. They will be looking to go all the way at the LEC Summer Split. The franchise had gone on a 24-game winning streak before losing to PSG Talon on day two at MSI.
G2 Esports went into the game as favorites with a $1.20 odd of winning the fixture with the top betting sites. Top laner BrokenBlade made sure G2 secured the win with a perfect record of 6/0/4. G2 made 18 kills as opposed to Astralis 6 kills, with Targamas receiving the larger chunk of the kills.
The in-game leader also recorded the most kills alongside BrokenBlade but recorded two deaths. Jungler Jankos also held his own with a 1/1/13 record. G2 clinched the win after the team got the final three dragons of the game, but it was when Jankos secured the game-clinching Baron that really propelled them to victory.
Astralis has always been a bottom feeder in the league and the same is expected of them in the 2022 summer split. But the team has the opportunity to turn things around and secure a top four spot for a change.
In a bid to change their ill-fated reputation, Astralis had made some roster changes prior to the summer split. They had made some additions to the team’s top lane, jungle, and support positions. During the mid-season break, the franchise had signed two former LEC All-Pros, Tamas “Vizicsacsi” Kiss and Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir.
Both players were brought in to better the team’s top lane, but after their first outing against G2, that does not seem to be the case. The duo, Vizicsacsi-Xerxe were good for a combined record of 0/9/6 in their return to the European stage.
Astralis will look to redeem themselves later today in their second outing in the LEC Summer Split. They will be taking on Team BDS in their attempt to secure their first playoff berth in the franchise history.
G2 will have the opportunity to go on a winning streak in today’s fixture against LEC Spring Split runners-up Rogue. Having finished top four in the previous summer split tournament, the coach Dylan Falco-led team will look to have a better run this year.
