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LEC 2023 Winter: Regular Season Week 2, Day 3 Recap

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LEC 2023 Winter: Regular Season Week 2, Day 3 Recap

The LEC's second superweek closed with the spectacular brawl between Vitality and G2.

The LEC is no stranger to intense storylines and grudge matches. plenty of things have been cooking, and it all came to a head on the last day of week 2.

Astralis finding its first win on week 2 gave their fans renewed hope while SK's continuous rise to the top has the likes of Vitality and G2 on the ropes. It's too early to decide who seeds over who for Groups stage, but another exciting round of bo1's closed out the week in style.

Excel vs Astralis

The two among the lowest placed teams faced-off for Game 1. Multiple misplays were seen from Excel's side, which was unfortunate given how heavily their team comp relied on Vetheo's Taliya.

The game only got worse coming into midgame since XL weren't able to find any kills 10 minutes in. A few skirmishes buried them deeper with a 0-6 score until they finally scored their first elimination down mid. Excel found a few more kills after taking Baron, but the remainder of the game ended in an absolute massacre giving Astralis their first win towards Group Stage.

  • Teams: XL 0 – 1 AST
  • Time: 31:19
  • Kills: 6 – 22
  • Turrets: 1 – 8
  • Gold: 47.2k – 57.8k
  • Dragons: 1 – 4
  • Barons: 1 – 1

Team BDS vs MAD Lions

All bets were off when BDS fought MAD in a slow match that pitted nuc's mastery on Azir against Nisqy's Akali. With the only 3 kills on the board owned by BDS, their opponents were forced to stay on the defense early game. The crowd was dumbfounded as they witnessed one of the top 3 teams in the LEC getting outmatched on all fronts.

The swiss team's snowball only got bigger. The lions found a few kills of their own in the mid game, but the momentum from Team BDS could only be delayed. With their Rift Herald crashing into both of BDS' mid lane towers, MAD still scrambled for a stronger response. But after stealing a second Nashor and claiming soul point, the way was clear for Team BDS to take the second victory of the day.

  • Teams: BDS 1 – 0 MAD
  • Time: 39:42
  • Kills: 16 – 7
  • Turrets: 7 – 8
  • Gold: 72.8k – 65.4k
  • Dragons: 4 – 2
  • Barons: 1 – 0

SK Gaming vs Team KOI

First blood by a very clean dive by Larssen and Malrang at midlane led to more kills by KOI, leading to very conservative plays by SK. Gaining the lead allowed Exakick and Markoon to push deeper into enemy territory, but KOI's map control let them control the push.

After a lengthy game pause, the game resumed past the 20-minute mark. A game-ending clash over the fourth drake ended badly for KOI when Setuss flanked behind with a teleport, taking out both Trymbi and Comp's Ezreal. From there, they just let wave after wave crash against the enemy nexus towers. SK's constant 7k gold lead gave them an undeniable claim to victory.

  • Teams: SK 1 – 0 KOI
  • Time: 29:33
  • Kills: 11 – 2
  • Turrets: 11 – 2
  • Gold: 55.4k – 45.8k
  • Dragons: 1 – 3
  • Barons: 0 – 1

G2 Esports vs Vitality

The battle for the top spot ended in a crushing defeat for G2 Esports. Vitality had to work together to establish control over jungle to hinder Yike's Udyr pocket pick. Simultaneously, team skirmishes down at bot lane started as early as 6 minutes in game, despite G2's jungler being a few steps away.

Bo and Perkz led the offensive yet again with superb engagements between bot and midlane, accelerating their team's lead to 4 kills. G2 couldn't put up much of a fight after they found themselves in the second snowball of the day. The week's penultimate game ended when G2 wasn't able to close the huge gold gap with their objective kills, after which they slowly conceded the game.

  • Teams: G2 0 – 1 VIT
  • Time: 36:45
  • Kills: 8 – 23
  • Turrets: 4 – 10
  • Gold: 61.2k – 73.2k
  • Dragons: 2 – 3
  • Barons: 0 – 3

Fnatic vs Heretics

The first kill fell to Jankos after Heretics took the first Rift Herald just below 8 minutes. Fnatic then got revenge in a tier one tower dive at toplane and shortly captured the second drake uncontested.

As turret plates fell, the pace of the game slowed as both teams focused on objectives. A huge teamfight exploded into the midgame that ended in a stalemate however. At this point, Rekkles needed a hug buff for a successful play so his team pushed for their second dragon.

As lane fights came and went, FNC was able to maintain a 3k gold lead. However, Heretics scored a huge Baron in the midgame to catch up with the enemy's objective goals. After successfully winning more engagements, TH's score slowly climbed back up.

Their baron steal taught the underdogs to take their time in their approach. A strongly contested soul point awarded Heretics their 3rd dragon, and despite maintaining the lead for most of the game, TH's small steps towards a faraway victory turned into a sprint for the finish line that closed the superweek in a tremendous upset.

  • Teams: FNC 0 – 1 TH
  • Time: 40:38
  • Kills: 17 – 21
  • Turrets: 8 – 11
  • Gold: 74.9k – 80.2k
  • Dragons: 3 – 3
  • Barons: 0 – 3

 

CURRENT SCORES

Astralis: 1W – 5L
Excel: 1W – 5L
Fnatic: 2W – 4L
G2 Esports: 4W – 2L
Heretics: 3W – 3L
KOI: 1W – 5L
MAD Lions: 4W – 2L
SK Gaming: 4W – 2L
Team BDS: 4W – 2L
Vitality: 5W – 1L

 

 

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LEC 2023 Winter: Regular Season Week 2, Day 3 Recap
Paul Goño
Paul started writing for ESTNN in 2022, the same year he beat his first Souls game. An avid fan of RPGs, his all-time favorites include Baldur's Gate 3, Assassin’s Creed and Kingdom Hearts 2. Besides being a professional nerd, he still struggles to get over the broken PS2 memory card that stored years of his save files.