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Week 4 in the EU LCS is about to begin and the pecking order has started to become clear. There are two teams that stand out as the top tier, five teams that are in contention, and three teams that need a lot of work to make it into the playoff picture.
Before we get to our predictions for all you League of Legends eSports bettors, here’s a brief recap of week 3 action.
G2 Esports rises to the top while Fnatic struggles
Week 3 was a defining moment for the G2 Esports organization. Day 1 featured a hyped up matchup between last year’s darling, Fnatic. The most surprising part of this matchup was how well G2, a rookie squad, communicated amongst each other compared to Fnatic.
Fnatic’s jungler, Spirit, was caught out multiple times and gave up first blood to G2’s mid laner, Perkz. He was again caught out with ADC Rekkles five minutes later, giving relatively inexperienced G2 top laner Kikis a double kill.
While Fnatic continues to have inconsistent performances, G2 has shown they can compete with any team in the EU. Most impressive is the different ways they can win. They’ve shown they can win with siege comps, split-pushing comps, and now a poke comp. G2’s mid laner Perkz really dominated Fnatics’s Febiven in this matchup.
Building off their momentum from their day 1 victory against Fnatic, G2 completely dominated a pretty good Unicorns of Love squad. Perkz went a ridiculous 13-1-7 in the mid lane on Corki again, out csing UoL’s mid laner, Fox, by over 100. He finished the game with over 46,000 damage, almost double the next person in the game.
The scary part about G2 is they’re still coming into their own. Trick has been good, but he’s going to be even better as the season progresses. For right now, Perkz is a dominating force that has helped G2 get off to a fast start.
H2k’s dominating performance
The game of the week featured 3-1 H2k vs 3-1 Team Vitality. While It wasn’t the most explosive game, H2k showed they can win a drawn out, slow-paced matchup. H2K entered week 3 without their starting mid laner, Ryu, due to visa issues. Selfie filled in admirably though, going 3-1-2 and out csing Vitality’s Nukeduck.
Another interesting facet of this matchup was the draft and ban phase. Odoamne was given Gangplank top lane and Vander was able to support on Alistar. Both players would go on to post a 100 percent kill participation in the game.
Meanwhile, Vitality didn’t play terribly. Their communication and rotations seemed to be a step slower than H2k. They actually out damaged H2K by over 10,000 but just couldn’t secure enough objectives in the mid game or find any kills (they finished the game with two kills).
eSports betting predictions – Week 4 / Day 1 EU LCS
Team Vitality (1.35) vs. Elements (3.20)
Elements is a somewhat surprising 3-3 heading into week 4. They started out with a relatively weak schedule, playing Splyce, Roccat, and Giants Gaming in the first two weeks. Unfortunately for them, they’re 0-3 against the current top 6 teams in the EU LCS.
Meanwhile, Team Vitality has quality wins against Origen and Fnatic. Yes, they were upset by Roccat in week 1, but that seems to have been more of an aberration then a trend.
Take Team Vitality here.
Fnatic (1.22) vs. Giants Gaming (4.27)
Despite Fnatic’s struggles, they’re going up against an 0-6 Giants team that has just looked out of sorts all year. Giants attempted to replace their jungler last week, but the results were still the same.
This will be a good matchup for Fnatic to hash out their communication and synergy amongst each other. Fnatic all the way in this matchup.
Origen (1.62) vs. G2 Esports (2.32)
This will be the closest matchup of the day. G2 has performed well above expectations so far this split, while Origen started out a bit rocky. G2 has consistently shown they can abuse the meta in the champion select and ban phase, a huge credit to their 5-1 start.
Meanwhile, Origen looked out of sorts with their pick and bans so far. Origen did bounce back last week, but the competition wasn’t exactly top of the line. I’m really surprised that Origen is favored by this much considering how well G2 has played.
I’m taking G2 in the upset here.
Unicorns of Love (1.54) vs. Roccat (2.51)
If you merely look at Roccat’s record, you’d say this is a bottom feeder team at 1-5. In my opinion, this is the best 1-5 team I’ve seen in years. In almost all of their matchups, they’ve started out strong (they had an early gold lead against H2k last week).
Where they’ve struggled at is their mid-to-late game. If they can improve in that facet of the game, I can see a real upset potential going forward.
For now, Unicorns of Love is a stronger team.
H2k (1.26) vs. Splyce (3.88)
H2k has looked great all year, with ADC Forgivengre playing with a newfound vengeance (23-3-28 this split). They’re arguably the top team in the EU LCS currently and will be playing a Splyce team that is still figuring out their way on the big stage.
Even without their mid laner and primary shot caller, Ryu, H2k went 2-0 last week. Take H2K here.
eSports betting predictions – Week 4 / Day 2 EU LCS
G2 Esports (1.37) vs. Splyce (3.11)
A reoccurring theme this week will be top tier teams in matchups against bottom tier teams. This is another one of those matchups. G2 has shown they excel in the current meta, and Splyce is just not at that level currently.
Take G2 here.
H2k (1.28) vs. Elements (3.75)
This is a tough week for Elements, having to play both H2k and Vitality. We’ve noted that Elements plays well against weaker competition but hasn’t figured it out against any of the top 6 teams currently. They have another chance here, but a very slim chance at that.
Unless the absence of Ryu begins to affect them, H2k should win this matchup pretty handily.
Team Vitality (1.56) vs. Unicorns of Love (2.45)
This will be the best matchup of the day. If you’re looking for an underdog pick, take Unicorns of Love here.
UoL’s ADC, Steeelback has played really well this year. With Hylissang supporting him, Steeelback has been more aggressive in the laning phase.
Meanwhile, Vitality’s bottom lane hasn’t exactly impressed this year. Vitality will have an edge in the top lane with Cabochard (15-5-22 this split) against UoL’s Vizicsacsi (only a 3.3 KDA this split, with a 20-14-26 showing this split).
There’s definitely an upset potential here, but I’m going with Team Vitality.
Origen (1.22) vs. Giants Gaming (4.37)
Origen looked to be back on track last week, and they’ll have another easy matchup here against Giants. Giants will realistically have a shot of picking up their first win next week, when they play the likes of Roccat and Splyce, but Origen is a far superior team here.
Take Origen all the way.
Fnatic (1.38) vs. Roccat (3.07)
We’ve detailed both Fnatic and Roccat’s issues earlier in this article. If Fnatic struggles with their communication, especially Spirit in the early game, Roccat will definitely take advantage. Can Roccat take an early advantage and finally do something with it mid-to-late game?
There’s potential for an upset here considering Fnatic’s inconsistencies, but I still like Fnatic.
If you’re planning on placing any wagers on this event, be sure to check out our eSports betting odds tracker, updated with odds from a host of top real money eSports betting sites.
