While most of us are watching the main European league, the LEC, we can’t forget about one of the strongest leagues in Europe’s 2nd vision, which is France’s LFL. With EU Masters coming up soon, the various ERLs are wrapping up their Summer Split with Playoffs, including the LFL.
LDLC OL
After winning the LFL Spring split and finishing 2nd at the EU Masters Spring, LDLC OL returned to the French League in the same dominant fashion they showed last time out. With an insane 17-1 record and some of the best stats across the league, this team is extremely good at opening leads in the early game, mainly thanks to their support Doss and his strong presence.
Not only that, but LDLC continues to have the draft advantage and flexibility across all roles, including the jungle. Yike’s champion pool is really wide and he’s not afraid to play anything when needed.
BDS Academy
BDS Academy is for sure the second time with the highest momentum coming into Playoffs. They are currently on an 8-series winning streak after they crawled their way back to the high part of the standings, finishing as the second seed. This should give them a strong advantage going forward, knowing that they will go to EU Masters regardless (3rd-4th go to play-in). The question is if BDS can upset LDLC in a Bo5 series: with 10 days of preparation, they should be able to close the gap with the number 1 seed.
Vitality.Bee and GameWard
These two teams finished 11-7 in the standings, just like BDS Academy. While V.Bee was more or less expected, Gameward was a bit of a surprise. After finishing 8th in Spring, the bottom-centric meta favored a team with a really strong carry like Innaxe. If you have been following the European scene for a while then this name will ring a bell for sure. He has played multiple splits in the LEC with teams like Schalke 04 and Unicorns of Love, and he has even reached the international stage.
His Ezreal is really insane, with a whopping 10.3 KDA across 7 games. Interesting to see whether the enemies will ban his pocket pick but Gameward is a team to watch out for.
As for Vitality.B, we should expect them to be ready for the fight, although I think that all the teams in the Playoffs have strong chances of making it. The Bo5 will definitely impact some teams’ performances, but V.Bee shouldn’t have problems making it.
Both teams are eyeing the Summer EU Masters, especially toward an off-season that will see plenty of roster shuffles. The LFL and other ERLs are still the prime scouting groups for fresh talent.
Karmine Corp
Karmine Corp has been the big letdown in summer. While the Blue Wall has shown a lot of support and the team recently won the EU Masters Spring, they have gone all the way down to finishing 6th. With that being said, the team seems to struggle with their current jungler 113, who has been playing quite one-dimensionally for the majority of the split. Now with the bridges not having as much impact, they lose overall when the game goes longer.
That is not the only problem for the roster. Hantera plays mainly Rakan and Nautilus, and KCorp haven’t been playing by reading the meta very well. I’m a little worried for the team, although we know that KCorp are slightly different in Best-of-5 series, in a positive way.
Misfits Premier
Misfits recently announced that they will leave League of Legends both in the LEC and the LFL. With the organization gone, the players will be eager to perform, knowing that they need to secure themselves a future spot on another team.
That said, Misfits benched Shlatan from the LEC team which probably will hurt him and the team’s overall synergy. Based on the current situation, I think that Misfits might be the ones struggling the most and while going to EUM would be a good ending for them, I think that they might be one of the two that will not make it out.
