5 Lessons Learned from Week 1 of LEC Summer 2022

The League of Legends European Champions is back for the 2022 summer split with a super first week. The LEC week one featured some surprise performances and interesting champion picks overall. After the end of the first week, spring champions, G2 Esports sit at the top of the table undefeated with MAD Lions Fnatic, Excel and Astralis following them. Meanwhile, Misfits Gaming and Team BDS end the week without a win in the 3 games played.

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With the first week of the LEC finished, here are five major takeaways from all the action.

G2 remain Kings of Europe

Despite having less time to practice on the durability patch after the Mid-Season Invitational, G2 show they’re still the best in the league. While they had slower starts against Astralis and Rogue, they switched up the tempo against an in-form Excel; G2’s ability to finish the super week undefeated shows the caliber of the team, and with more practice, they should remain top of the league.

Good times for Astralis

The spring split was anything but fun for Astralis, as they finished last; the team ended the split with just three wins out of 18 games. After making several roster changes, things seem to be looking much better with two wins already in the first week of the LEC summer split. Even though there is still a lot left to play, this version of Astralis looks like the best fans have seen in a while. Furthermore, the addition of  Kiss “Vizicsacsi” Tamás,  Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir and Lee “JeongHoon” Jeong-hoon seems to be a major boost for the team overall.

“We’re getting along pretty well, we have a good mix right now — three experienced players, it’s good vibes from the beginning,” Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup said after the game. “Me, Vizicsacsi and Xerxe have played together. Me and Dajor have developed synergy already; we just need to integrate JeongHoon, [but] everything is natural.”

Misfits need more than Vetheo to survive

LEC spring split 2022 was the Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié show for Misfits and it carried them all the way to Playoffs with a third-place finish in the regular split. However, it looks like most teams have finally figured out a way to shut him down. With a lot of focus on Vetheo in games, it becomes harder for the midlaner to be the carry that his team needs. Moreover, their three losses in the LEC super week showed a lack of cohesion and decisiveness, especially in team fights. While it’s still early days, it is obvious that all other members of Misfits must step in the weeks to come.

Bad summer days for Team BDS

With a new team comes new worries sometimes, and this is exactly what BDS face in its LEC debut year. The team finished the super week with no wins and still face mid-to-late game struggles. They were well in control of the game against Vitality on Sunday, but a questionable decision to leave the Baron open cost them everything. Besides their worrying mid-game decisions, BDS face a much tougher schedule in week two and will need a win in order to avoid a 0-5 record.

Twitch and Swain are back

The LEC summer split 2022 has seen certain League of Legends champions reentering professional play; among those champions are the sneaky rat Twitch and the battle mage, Swain. Twitch was seen in the professional scene for bot laners in 2017, but fell out mainly due to the absence of mobility spells and less value from invisibility. Moreover, the bot lane has no shortage of champions that scale better and have better learning phases and defensive spells than Twitch. Twitch’s resurgence in the LEC is largely due to Zeri, as Twitch works well as a counter to the new champ.  Meanwhile, Swain just so happens to fit into the slow build-up meta and can be flexed in mid or bot lane, making him a great choice right now.

The LEC returns for Week 2 on June 24 at 12p.m ET with SK Gaming versus Astralis as the opener. Fans can watch on the LEC’s Youtube or Twitch channels.