Five Kings Emerge: LEC Winter Split Week 3, Day 1 Recap
The LEC is the European League of Legends professional circuit, with a total of 10 teams competing across three split: Winter, Spring, and Summer. The top 8 teams at the end of each split will advance to the Group Stage.
With the first day of competition complete, the current top five of the LEC, G2 Esports, MAD Lions, Team Vitality, BDS, and Team Heretics have secured Group Stage. Team Heretics' jungler Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski takes a turn on the desk.
Here’s a complete cover for everything you might have missed from Week 3 of the 2023 League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) Winter Split.
Current LEC Standings (Week 3)
LEC Winter Split Week 3 Standings. Image screencapture Strafe Esports.
Day One Match Results
Astralis vs SK Gaming [1-0]
Astralis take their second victory in surprising fashion over SK Gaming in 38.42 minutes. They ended the game with a 4.5k gold lead. What ensued instead was an initially great game for SK, up 6.4k gold lead at 27 minutes, that quickly folded around a pivotal baron pit fight that saw three SK members wiped out. With the lead whittled away, Finn “Finn” Wiestål’s persistently scaling Gangplank began to smash through SK, ending the game with a 9/4/2 scoreline.
Strafe Player of the Series: AST Finn
Excel Esports vs Team Heretics [0-1]
Heretics secure Group Stage for themselves and G2 Esports by their victory over Excel in 26.17 minutes with a 14.4k gold lead. Heretics played their early game well, playing strongly on their bot side where Jakob “Jackspectra” Kepple on the Draven was able to get an early lead. He finished the game with a 14/3/1 scoreline.
Strafe Player of the Series: TH Jackspectra
G2 Esports vs BDS [1-0]
G2 Esports enjoyed a stress-free 31.26 minute game against BDS in which they emerged victorious with a 10k gold lead. Despite the best efforts of BDS’ AD Carry Juš “Crownie” Marušič, who went 4/0/0 at the start, was only able to post a 6/5/2 scoreline in the end. G2 Esports had the benefit of a winning midlane and hard scaling botlane, who both ramped up as the game progressed. Rasmus “Caps” Winther and Steven “Hans Sama” Liv ended the game at 9/0/5 and 5/2/11 scorelines, respectively.
Strafe Player of the Series: G2 Caps
MAD Lions vs Fnatic [1-0]
MAD Lions ring the death knell for Fnatic at 24.52 minutes with a 11.5k gold lead. Despite early gank attempts from Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz, what ended up happening was initiative-taking reactions from Javier “Elyoya” Batalla and Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer ended up gifting the latter an early 4/1/0 lead on the Cassiopeia. Chaos ensued for Fnatic as it appeared to be one of their worst and most disjointed games played this Winter Split.
Strafe Player of the Series: MAD Nisqy
KOI vs Team Vitality [1-0]
A resurgence in form for KOI as they claimed the LEC’s largest scalps in 33.53 minutes with a 9.6k gold lead. Despite the best efforts of Vitality, the stellar setups from Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus on the Ashe and the follow ups from KOI’s jungler and midlaner, netted many kills in the early game phase. Luka “Perkz” Perković especially, had a rough game as he was consistently stunlocked and picked off early.
Strafe Player of the Series: KOI Trymbi
Notable Stats for LEC Week 3
- Astralis are now on a 2-game winning streak, having taken down Excel last weekend and now SK Gaming. As potentially the biggest upset of the night, SK Gaming came into Week 3 as 3-0 champions last week, looking to go 4-0 against the lowest performing team in the LEC.
- Heretics vs Excel marked the second champion that Heretics top laner Shunsuke “Evi” Murase has played in the 7 games played so far of the Winter Split. According to gol.gg, he’s currently 3-3 on K’Sante with a 50% winrate and a 100% on Jax across 1 game played.
Image credit: MAD Lions/ LoL Esports