Is this finally the week that Fnatic falls? The 2015 EU LCS Summer Split Semifinals are stuffed with potential upsets and grudge matches -- these are going to be some intense, emotional games!
If you want to learn more about how the Playoffs work, check out our guide to the Playoffs structure, the Best of 5 format, and Championship Points.
If you're interested in the NA LCS Semifinals, check out our full rundown here.
Now let's take a closer look at the four teams fighting for a spot in the Finals.
#2 ORIGEN VS. #3 H2K
Day: Saturday, August 15
Time: 5PM CET / 8 AM PDT
Record This Split: 2-0 (Origen)
It's difficult to know who you have to shut down on Origen in order to beat them. The two times that H2K played them this Split, no one got carried. Every single lane on Origen's side did well. You can't ban that out at champ select.
Their first face-off in Week 1 was pretty one-sided. Both teams had decent jungle ganks, but H2K's usually reliable lane swap tactic wasn't quite optimized yet. Their ADC Petter "Hjärnan" Freyschuss got solo killed by Origen's top laner Paul "Soaz" Boyer, and the whole team seemed to be on a completely different page when deciding to dive or ditch when under enemy towers.
Meanwhile, Origen's Jesper "Niels" Svenningsen farmed carefree on Vayne. Leaving him alone for so long proved to be a fatal mistake for H2K, as they lacked any real answer for her flurry of arrows.
In the play above, you see just how well coordinated Origen was, keeping their targets disabled until dead, while deftly avoiding incoming threats themselves.
That fight put Origen's gold lead at 8K and they really seized their opportunity. They pushed hard and forced fights for the next five minutes, extending their kill lead from 5-3 to 16-4. That quickly crushed any dreams of a comeback and H2K just collapsed.
Things didn't start any better for H2K in their Week 9 matchup.
H2K burned their early gold lead with a downright awful gank effort, followed by a desperate attempt to salvage the situation in bot lane. H2K's rapid-fire misplays put their entire team behind in a matter of seconds.
But the big difference in this match was that Origen did nothing to press their advantage after that fight. Instead, they let H2K play it safe and farm in lane to stay close in gold. H2K wisely gave up the first three Dragons, biding their time while behind.
For a while, it looked like H2K was going to recover. They caught Niels overextending multiple times and punished him (and anyone foolish enough to try to save him).
But all of Ryu's yellow cards thrown into the face of flying manatees couldn't save H2K from the wrath of Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño Martínez. Ryu's constant Twisted Fate roams allowed xPeke to farm on Viktor all game long, until he finally got to the point that he could unequivocally melt faces.
The disparity in mid lane proved to be the biggest differentiator in the match: Ryu's ganks never mattered, and often hurt more than they helped, while xPeke's Viktor dealt three times the amount of damage to enemy champions than Ryu's Twisted Fate did.
This time around, in the Semifinals, Origen need to make sure they press every advantage they get. They can't afford to give H2K the space to recover across a Best of 5 series.
H2K, on the other hand, need to make sure that Ryu is on a champion that can keep xPeke in check. They simply can't allow xPeke to repeat his Week 9 performance, when he dealt more damage than four of H2K's players combined.
#1 FNATIC VS. #4 UNICORNS OF LOVE
Day: Sunday, August 16
Time: 5PM CET / 8 AM PDT
Record This Split: 2-0 (Fnatic)
Well, this is the uncontested underdog game of the week. Fnatic have been on an absolute warpath this Split, beating every team twice without losing a single match. Keeping Fnatic down for three games in a Best of 5 series is going to be harder than keeping Gangplank dead.
Let's take a look at the first fight in their Week 1 matchup -- because it's the closest thing to a fair fight that happened in this match. After Fnatic got fed off of this early play, they safely and steadily snowballed their lead.
Fnatic showed their trademark coordination in this fight, calmly trading tower aggro and refocusing targets as needed to kill three Unicorns and the turret without giving up a single death.
After that fight, Fnatic played it safe, maintaining their vision line and their gold lead without trying to make big plays. Every fight in the first 30 minutes was initiated by the Unicorns, and they all went horribly wrong.
It seemed like the Unicorns went into the match expecting to focus on objectives -- they picked Nunu and Kalista, after all! But, instead, they just kept fighting. Their repeated team fight losses eventually rendered them too weak to do anything but sneak the occasional Dragon. Fnatic, meanwhile, seemed content to wait for the Unicorns to beat themselves.
By the time Week 9 rolled around, the Unicorns of Love had fully embraced their chaotic, aggressive nature. So, naturally, they picked Poppy and get her fed 2-0 in the first eight minutes. But Berk "Gilius" Demir's ganks could only carry his lanes so far -- and the first team fight sent them sprawling.
Once again, the Unicorns' refusal to retreat gave Fnatic an excellent opportunity to exploit. Seong-Hoon "Huni" Heo led the clean up crew that pocketed three kills and a bunch of gold for Fnatic. That kickstarted one of the scariest Ryze's we saw this Summer Split, as Huni proceeded to unleash more than double the damage of anyone on UOL.
This weekend, the Unicorns need to be smarter about when they choose to fight and when they choose to run. They need to find -- and make liberal use of -- their "off" switch if they want to contend with Fnatic this time around.
These earlier matches showed that UOL have some very real strengths that they can use to punish Fnatic if they get complacent, especially in the early game. And their mid laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage played great on AP Kog'Maw in both games against Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten. He vastly out-damaged Febiven, and stayed close in CS and gold, despite his team falling down around him. Plus, with Fnatic not having much intel on UOL's new jungle Jae-hwan"H0R0" Cho's patterns, he could prove to be a secret weapon that catches Fnatic off guard.
As for Fnatic? Well, whatever they're doing is clearly working. Keep it up, boys. Play it safe, and don't get flustered if UOL do decide to pull out unexpected strategies or surprise picks. But maybe ban Kog'Maw.
WATCH THEM LIVE!
Be sure to tune in to Lolesports this weekend to see all of the crazy dives and off-the-wall champion picks that happen in this week's Semifinals matches!
The EU LCS Semifinals excitement starts at 5PM CET / 8 AM PDT Saturday and Sunday.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Alistar, he's never enjoyed a Darius, and he will always go for the kill, even when he knows he shouldn't. He currently works as a game designer on EverQuest Next at Daybreak Games. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
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