Team Vitality defeat Astralis to lock the LEC playoffs

On the final day of games in the 2022 League of Legends European Championship spring split regular season, the playoff teams have been locked, with Team Vitality securing the sixth and final spot with their victory over Astralis Sunday. With that, the LEC playoffs are all set, with each team and seeding decided.

V FOR VICTORY 🐝 #LEC pic.twitter.com/IW5n7wXXxp

— Team Vitality 🐝 (@TeamVitality) March 6, 2022

Coming into the weekend, there were two playoff spots left to claim between a few middle-of-the-pack LEC teams. Excel and Vitality were each one win away from locking their trip to the post-season, with MAD Lions and SK Gaming each sitting three games behind them.

MAD and SK needed a 3-0 weekend and at least one of Vitality or Excel to go 0-3, but Excel locked their slot with a win over SK Gaming on Saturday, securing their slot and knocking SK out in the process, leaving that final spot to either Team Vitality or MAD Lions.

Team Vitality lost their first two games of the final superweek, however, and MAD won each of theirs, leaving it all up to the final game for each team. Since Vitality has a 0-2 head-to-head against MAD Lions, if Vitality lost and MAD won, MAD would complete the miracle superweek to secure the final LEC playoffs position.

Unfortunately for MAD Lions and their fans, Vitality refused to go 0-6 in their superweek runs, finding a win in their game against Astralis and becoming the last team to make it in the LEC playoffs.

“It’s kind of like the ex-G2 gauntlet,” Luka “Perkz” Perković said in a post-match interview on the LEC broadcast. “I’m probably going to be facing one of my ex-teammates in each of the rounds, starting off with [Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle.] He got me good in the last best-of-one we played, but I’m kind of known to get a playoffs buff, so I’m really looking forward to playoffs.”

Vitality will face Excel in the first round of the LEC playoffs, starting their run in the lower bracket. Rogue, Fnatic, Misfits and G2 Esports are all seeded into the upper bracket and need to lose two series to face playoff elimination. The LEC will take a short break between the regular season and post-season, with playoffs starting on Mar. 25.