LEC Winter Split Week 1 Wrap Up & Thoughts

 

Hey lovely readers, well to summarise the first 3 days of matches for the LEC winter split – some of these players have said ‘losing? Not a chance’ and smashed their way into day one of the winter split. So here’s how this blog is going to go, in the interest of time for you lovely readers, and my attempts to get ahead on blogging, I'm going to summarise each day, what surprised me, what I loved, matches I could happily watch again, my thoughts on teams and any other little random thought that decides to pop up in my head. So without further ado let’s get into it!

 

LEC is backkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

 

Okie so my over excited self aside, I'm so happy to have the LEC back (it works well with my time schedule on the weekends) and be watching top EU talent again. I watched all of day 1 matches, most of day 2 and a few of day 3 (due to other commitments), so we will go through chronologically, I’ll ramble, you’ll read – and probably roll your eyes at my excitement – and we all leave the blog happy! Perfect!

 

Day 1 

 

I know we always have bangers matches on the start of a split, but this day’s matches!? Oh my giddy aunt, it was so stacked. Due to having taken a break from esports over the holiday season I was wayyyyy behind on all the news, though I had seen a few headlines – mainly about KC joining the LEC, which did not disappoint, but other than that I was kind of clueless. Especially about GX – did I really pay that little attention to be totally and utterly clueless on who this was? Unrelated, but same for Rekkles joining T1. Anyway, the studio looks amazinggggg, don’t get me wrong the old studio design was cool but I am OBSESSED with the new studio, really cool and the player tunnels!?! I love it! It really does the ‘LEC is here to take it all internationally’ feel – but I need to visit this studio in person now!

 

The fans (even on broadcast) were so loud, I was watching with headphones and ended up turning the volume down, but I can’t lie, one of my favourite things about esports is how passionate everyone is especially at LAN. Hearing fans cheering for their teams is one of the best things about being a journalist at tournaments, it’s a feeling that is just infectious and even though I'm currently watching through a screen, that feeling still carries through. G2 Esports vs BDS kicking off the split seems fitting considering how they finished Summer 2023, I won’t share my opinion on which team I prefer (hello I want to still get jobs in the future haha) but both teams were really fun to watch – especially having not watched for a while. Also having met some of those players, it makes watching them even better for me, because I never take for granted the luxury it is to be able to talk with pro players and ask them what you want to know!  

 

While I enjoyed the G2/BDS match, I could definitely watch the KC/Fnatic match again, I used to love Fnatic but hadn’t been actively following for a while so it was nice to watch their match and see what they had changed, how they had grown from the last time I actively watched them specifically (don’t hate me please Fnatic fans). For something that surprised me this day? I was kind of surprised by Rogue, maybe it’s because Rogue in my mind were always quite a spicy team, you couldn’t turn your back to them because they would make you watch and prove how good they are. 

 

Rogue has obviously gone through some changes, having bought in 3 new players. But looking at those players and I know it is only day one and a lot of factors are impacting performance right now, I was surprised Rogue weren’t more dominant against SK – at least in my opinion. Especially because for me, my memories of previous iterations of Rogue were strong, controlled but dominant in game, by no means do I think they’re going to keep this up all split, you know again day one. But I’m going to be interested to see if this means they change their play style a little, or maybe try different strategies depending on the team, as opposed to focusing on their own style of play. 

 

As the desk said many times, the forerunners or at least expected forerunners are always going to be G2, Fnatic, and then it becomes more of a scuffle but potentially BDS. Top players? I don’t even want to try and predict right now as I’ve got a lot of studying to do on new players and players I'm just generally not familiar with. Obviously also it has to be said, welcome to the LEC Karmine Corp, it’s good to have you here! I wasn’t an active follower of EMEA, but come on, you’d have to live under a rock to not know that KC are an incredibly strong team, so I'm interested to see how they match up, and where they ultimately place at the end of Winter split and ahead of Spring split. 

 

Since watching I’ve done some research on GIANTX, as it is a merger and subsequent rebrand, personally, I'm excited to see what’s new for what was GIANTS and XL Esports. Especially as XL in the LEC were always so close, they were always touching distance of their goal, be that play offs, be that a Worlds run, it was always the miracle run and it was always backs against the wall pull off the impossible. So I'm hoping now that with this collaboration, merger, whatever you want to call it, I'm hoping that it won’t just be touching distance, near misses and miracle runs, I'm hoping that for the roster, especially Patrik (having spent a lot of time watching Excel’s BBC documentary), that they are able to do the ‘impossible’ and make it to Worlds or MSI, or some other international event. With the addition of IgNar, I feel like it is within reach this year. 

 

Final thoughts for day 1 is obviously MAD Lions new roster, I feel like its really controversial, people don’t really know what to think yet, heck even I don’t. But Yoya is still there, and that gives me hope for this roster, because having met Yoya, he is someone you want to root for, you want him to do well, you want him to reach his ceiling and go beyond it. If anyone can do it, I hope its Yoya.

 

Day 2 

 

I won’t lie I missed the first match, but GX vs BDS as a BDS win doesn’t really seem that out of place so I'll have to catch up on this one. Also is it anyone else, or is it just me, but GX feels very close to G2 (not saying it is or was purposeful) just feels a bit funny or at least to my humour. MAD Koi losing to SK is a bummer, but you can’t deny that SK played a banger game and a fabulous game with their strategies, Nisqy as a leader is clearly working really and I'm super happy for him that he’s been able to take up this role too! 

This also wasn’t an unexpected result as SK are further ahead than MAD Koi are right now, four rookies and 1 seasoned pro, it’s unfair to expect stellar results on their second competitive LAN match, but I think at least (for what its worth) that they are showing up well, when your team is predominantly rookies on LAN in the LEC, it’s fair to expect nerves and maybe a few hiccups along the way. Everyone has to start somewhere. 

 

G2 and KCorp fans really made their presence known for the match of the week, I remember a while ago people on Twitter (still not calling it X) were complaining how G2 is always a match of the week, with the addition of KCorp I think either of their matches – especially against each other are now going to be matches of the week. They both have huge fan bases and are iconic names and organisations so I'm interested to see how this unfolds. 

 

While we are talking about these two, I’ve been wondering what language KCorp are doing comms in, (there is probably content out there showing it but I'm yet to watch it), coming from the LFL I would assume comms were always done in French, and personally I'm interested to know if that is still the case now that they are in the LEC. Whatever you may think of G2, there were moments where in my mind KC were really showing that while they are new and may not be at the top in their first split, there is a lot to be excited about for this team and they are one to watch. 

 

Okie onto Vitality vs Fnatic, I had this one on podcast style as I had to sort a few other things, but for Fnatic this sounded GOODDDDDDD, felt a little bad for Vitality at 15min as Fnatic were just having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But yay Fnatic for the blinder strategy, made for a great game and shows that this team is not one to be underestimated and that those early predictions of top tiers, aren’t that far off. 

 

Final match, Rogue vs Heretics, both team starting on a loss, but this was one I was interested to watch as I’m hoping both teams are starting slowly and are going to absolutely knock it out of the park once Spring starts. Yes I have a lot of players I really like on both of these teams but I think these are teams with incredibly talented rosters and I'm excited to see what they can do with it. That said, I wasn’t overly excited by this match, well not until Heretics really started dominating at 25min maybe a bit before. 

 

It was good to see Heretics on form, especially the top half of the team, Wunder, Jankos and Perkz are obviously known for their previous strength so it was good to see that come out in this match, especially with the additions of Flakked and Kaiser. 

 

Day 3 

 

On the day of Jankos’ 600^th game in professional League, I find myself grumpy as I missed match one (I was asleep) and match two was getting dicey for G2. On the plus side Hi Rogue, loving seeing you guys hitting back on day 3 and showing what we’ve been missing, how ya doin?? Another bummer about this day is I know damn well that I am not going to be able to watch later matches as I'm going to do my weekly volunteering. So I'm going to miss the Spain vs France match up which is an absolute bummer because I was fully incredibly excited for that one. But hey win some lose some. 

 

G2 and Rogue though. That match. Oh my freaking lord, I was hoping the match would finish before I left but then we had the baron dance and elder and I was just sat watching wondering what the hell is going on. You know the meme from pro view? Yeah that. I checked the result, not surprised it was a Rogue win but oh my good game honestly. 

 

Sadly missed the match in between G2 and MAD (didn’t make it back in time to actually see the MAD game but will definitely be catching up on it!). I made it back just in time to see a Yoya interview for a MAD Koi win and oh my goodness I'm so happy for him!!! Yoya truly is the sweetest and I'm so happy has picking up wins and showing that him and his team were massively underestimated coming into Winter split, and that is honestly what esports is all about! Its just so great to see Yoya happy and doing well. 

 

I'm loving how we’ve got fans on the desk, the Portuguese G2 fans – I'm sorry I didn’t get their names – but anyway I love it. I love how they’re chatting on desk its brilliant and I hope this kinda thing continues.300 LEC games for humanoid too, it’s a banger day for LEC pros honestly. Also hello, SK!?! They are on fireeee from this week and its so good to see!

 

Check back next week for my thoughts on week 2 of the winter LEC split!

 

Thanks for reading, see you on the next one! <333