After a whole month of intense matches between all the Europe Regional Leagues, we finally have the two best teams of the event. On May 7, we’ll have an all-French grand final between LCLS and Karmine Corp, where these two teams will fight for the prize of €40,000 and the prestige that comes with winning this tournament.
These two teams already faced each other in the LFL spring playoffs, but their series wasn’t close at all. LDLC simply rolled over Karmine Corp and closed the series in a quick 3-0. But things have changed, we have seen Karmine Corp get better and better as the tournament progressed, to the point where they might be able to take down LDLC. Let’s go over how the semi-finals went for both teams to have an idea of what to expect from the upcoming finals.
LDLC 3-0 AGO ROGUE
If we are being completely honest, this was the expected result. It was very clear that AGO Rogue was the weakest of all the teams that reached the semifinals. The first and second games were an absolute stomp from LDLC. During the first game, LDLC were on the back foot early in the game, but once their champions came online around the 20-minute mark, they completely turned the game around. After a couple of successful teamfights, LDLC managed to close out the game in a convincing manner.
Heading into game 2, we expected some resilience from AGO ROGUE considering how the first game went, but we had none of that. Eika and Yike, once again, took complete control over the map and they didn’t allow AGO ROGUE to take a single objective beside 1 dragon in the entire game. LDLC finished the game before the 25-minute mark.
Now we didn’t know what game 3 was going to bring us, but it sure was better than the first two. AGO ROGUE managed to get a strong early lead and they transitioned well into the mid-game. But for AGO ROGUE’s demise, LDLC had much better players, and even if Ragner had a disappointing performance where he finished 0/6/5, the rest of the team managed to bounce back and win the 35-minute game.
Karmine Corp 3 – 2 Vitality.Bee
During the LFL 2022 Spring regular season, Karmine Corp and Vitality.Bee record ended in a 1-1 tie. We knew this series would be a banger and it delivered. The first two games were in favor of Vitality.Bee, almost sealing Karmine Corp’s fate. But something magical happened, Rekkles’ team managed to turn things around and reverse swept the Bees.
Games 1 and 2 unfolded almost in the same manner. Karmine Corp drafted really strong early champions but they knew they had to close those games early on or Vitality.Bee’s draft would simply outscale them, and that’s exactly what happened. Karmine Corp did manage to get those early leads they needed, but those leads weren’t big enough. Vitality.Bee had enough room to bounce back and win the games 1 and 2 through teamfights.
Karmine Corp switched things around for the last three games of the series. They drafted long-range and scaling compositions with the likes of Viktor and Ezreal. Those last games demonstrated that Karmine Corp can win their games if they don’t rely on winning the laning phase. They have really strong carrys in Saken and Rekkles, but they have to let them scale comfortably into the teamfight stages.
Now coming into the grand finals, both Karmine Corp and LDLC will have to play their best games if they want to win convincingly. Karmine Corp might have really strong side lanes, but LDLC can take advantage of their jungle difference. Overall, this series will be a very exciting one to watch, so make sure to watch it this Saturday!
