LEC 2023 Winter: Regular Season Week 2, Day 2 Recap
| Tags: League of Legends
| Author Paul Goño
The madness continued as the LEC's second superweek gave way to more fantastic match-ups
Tense negotiations were seen in the Analyst's Desk during the fun “Baron Pit” segment where we saw various members of the LEC pitch their deals to the “sharks”. It made for a pretty entertaining spoof that prefaced another big round of games.
Pressure was mounting for all of the ten LEC teams. Could Astralis take their first win this week? Could SK's Irrelevant and Serkuss break Vitality's almighty winning streak? Are we seeing a return of 2019 G2?
All would be decided in what was a surprising series of bo1's, each with their own exciting twists and turns.
Welcome to the Baron Pit 📈
17:45 CET #ReadyCheck pic.twitter.com/Y9pQRv7q37
— LEC (@LEC) January 29, 2023
Contents
Astralis vs Team BDS
Starting the day off with an absolute killfest, Astralis risked it for the biscuit with an Ashe/Caitlyn bottom lane. 113 stole jungle camps early game, and BDS grabbed first drake in return. A slow early game with no kills after the 10 minute mark finally saw some action after nuc took 113 for first blood while AST took first tier bot lane in return. Both ADC champions were taken out shortly after, with nuc's Sylas stealing Ashe's ult to stun Dajor in midlane.
Team BDS had the Spanish pro league team on the run shortly after with a powerful 3k gold lead. They were simply too strong, and after Astralis lost in their last stand, the game was slowly came to a close after BDS got their 2nd Baron.
- Teams: AST 0 – 1 BDS
- Time: 31:50
- Kills: 6 – 22
- Turrets: 2 – 11
- Gold: 49.3k – 63.3k
- Dragons: 0 – 4
- Barons: 0 – 2
.@Nuclear_int with a 360 no scope pic.twitter.com/p2y1ELioso
— Team BDS (@TeamBDS) January 29, 2023
Vitality vs SK Gaming
Thugh a disappointing loss, Vitality fiercely defended their precious 4-win streak with a Nidalee-Yuumi combo down mid. A very dominant start to the game scored SK the first 2 killsa portent of waht was to come. A quick follow up after Herald was claimed managed to get Vitality 2 more kills to even our the score.
The second dragon went to Team VIT uncontested. Shortly after, both teams had a standoff over who would take Rift Herald at the 15-min mark resulting in another objective for SK. As a result, Vitality's middle and top tier one turrets took massive hits. A few more objective wins and skirmishes that slid to SK's favor were enough for them to break yet another winning streak.
- Teams: VIT 0 – 1 SK
- Time: 31:04
- Kills: 6 – 13
- Turrets: 3 – 9
- Gold: 52.4k – 60.9k
- Dragons: 3 – 2
- Barons: 0 – 2
#SKWIN @SKGaming end @TeamVitality's win streak! #LEC pic.twitter.com/bu8astyUtP
— LEC (@LEC) January 29, 2023
Heretics vs G2 Esports
Yike's jungle control and Mikyx's aggressive plays on Nautilus won G2 the early numbers advantage just 5 minutes in. The steamroll continued on bot lane when G2 just exhibited way better macroplay than the enemy team. Consequently, they went up 4k gold in just under 10 minutes.
By the midgame, TH hesitated to play away from turrets in fear of a wider score gap. But when clashes did occur, they were outmatched by either damage or HP. Fortune favored the bold on Game 3, and awarded G2 the enemy nexus in the fastest 2023 Regular Season match so far, and the second fastest LEC game of all time!
- Teams: TH 0 – 1 G2
- Time: 18:40
- Kills: 4 – 20
- Turrets: 1 – 8
- Gold: 29.9k – 43.4k
- Dragons: 0 – 2
- Barons: 1 – 0
18 MINUTE GAME
Dominant win for @G2esports! #LEC pic.twitter.com/ksibjw3DrV
— LEC (@LEC) January 29, 2023
Excel vs Fnatic
XL's team comp on Game 4 set the tone for the majority of the game with their Lucian-Nami bottom lane. The early 1-for-1 down in bottom lane started a snowball as Targamas and Patrik kept piling up the kills.
Fnatic couldn't be proactive due to their pick quality the entire game. On top of that, Humanoid's overextended plays on top lane were severely punished. But given how careful FNC was, Excel couldn't find any chink in their armor when they played defensively. However, a massive Nashor steal by Rekkles' team started a huge tonal shift in Game 4.
From there, Excel focused on taking out tower objectives to scatter their opponent instead. afterwards, a crucial scrap kept both teams in midlane where an incredible plot twist occurred. Like a scene out of an anime, Fnatic climactically rallied around each other to mitigate the opponent's damage output and managed to turn the entire match around with an applaudable quadrakill.
- Teams: XL 0 – 1 FNC
- Time: 35:02
- Kills: 16 – 14
- Turrets: 5 – 7
- Gold: 64.6k – 65.6k
- Dragons: 2 – 3
- Barons: 0 – 1
BARON STOLEN AWAY BY @FNATIC! #LEC pic.twitter.com/sNJAGCKepp
— LEC (@LEC) January 29, 2023
KOI vs MAD Lions
The last match-up of the day saw so much damage being traded just under 3 minutes in. As valiant as their efforts were, their hopes were crushed early as the early game killscore was already stacking against KOI.
With vision established all over the map, MAD Lions was in complete control by the midgame. With Nisqy pulling off bigbrain plays with Sylas' ultimate steal, Larssen coulnd't properly maximize his Emperor's Divide. The lates game saw a fourth drake as well as one last Baron to put the final nail on the coffin. The entire match was an extremely steep hill that was impossible for KOI to trudge until it slowly came to a close with a MAD domination victory.
- Teams: KOI 0 – 1 MAD
- Time: 30:08
- Kills: 3 – 11
- Turrets: 1 – 11
- Gold: 46.5k – 58.5k
- Dragons: 0 – 4
- Barons: 0 – 2
Sniped x2 👁️ pic.twitter.com/FEwCvgZavL
— MAD Lions English (@MADLions_EN) January 29, 2023
CURRENT SCORES
- Astralis: 0W – 5L
- Excel: 1W – 4L
- Fnatic: 2W – 3L
- G2 Esports: 4W – 1L
- Heretics: 2W – 3L
- KOI: 1W – 4L
- MAD Lions: 4W – 1L
- SK Gaming: 3W – 2L
- Team BDS: 3W – 2L
- Vitality: 4W – 1L
For the latest news on the LEC Winter Split, follow ESTNN.