G2 Esports defeated Team Vitality 3-0 in the lower bracket of the 2022 LEC Spring Playoffs on Friday to lock their place among the top four teams of the season. Fnatic, Rogue and Misfits are the other three teams still in the hunt for the spring title.
3-0 FOR @G2ESPORTS! #LEC pic.twitter.com/Oyh9XM7EbR
— LEC (@LEC) April 1, 2022
Despite the LEC analyst desk predicting Vitality would take the series, G2 defied their expectations with a dominant three-game sweep. They now move on to face Misfits on Sunday.
Game 1 saw Vitality off to a stronger start with a well-orchestrated dive, but G2 proved resilient and patiently clawed their way back into the game.
Bot laner Victor “Flakked” Lirola scaled on Zeri and eventually, G2 started to win the big teamfights. One big battle over Baron later and G2 cut Vitality down to take the first game.
Game 2 saw the opposite sort of start with G2 finding the early advantages and coming out stronger in the early game. Top laner Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik proved this especially true by going 3/0/1 before 12 minutes, and G2 even got an inhibitor at 16 minutes.
Vitality held on as long as they could, but after a protracted fight for the fourth drake, G2 came out better for it. After claiming another Baron and winning the following teamfight, G2 took the game and went to match point.
Game 3 saw Vitality come out swinging. They put as much pressure as humanly possible to G2 on every front, taking down four towers before 17 minutes in the game. Vitality never let up the pressure and G2 did everything they could to cling on to stay relevant in the game. Hero plays like Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski’s Baron steal at 23 minutes kept hope alive.
G2 continued to hold on and, after a second Baron and Rasmus “caPs” Borregaard Winther stealing the fourth Hextech Drake (which prompted caster Aaron “Medic” Chamberlain to swear on-air), the momentum swung toward G2 and they sealed their incredible comeback in 46 minutes. 3-0 to G2.
According to caPs, the team was never worried about having their tournament life on the line in the lower bracket.
“To be fair, we’ve been in the lower bracket a lot of times and we’ve bounced back,” caPs said in the post-match interview, “We’ve done it before and we believe in ourselves, but it’s not the level of dominance we [him and Perkz] wanted to show. Facing Luka “Perkz” Perković in quarters is kind of sad and I really want to show up next week to beat all these new mid laners. Not just for me, but also for Perkz, because we’re still here.”
There’s only one spot open for the Mid-Season Invitational 2022 in Busan, South Korea and the LEC spring finals will have returning fans. So, all four remaining LEC teams will be fighting tooth and nail for the chance to claim both opportunities.
Published: Apr 1, 2022 04:04 pm