EMEA Masters : BDSA - VITB, Started From The Bottom Now We're Here

For the first time of their more or less young career, all the players from BDS Academy and Vitality.Bee will get to play an offline regional final. In fact, the symbolism is even bigger for every of them as both teams are LEC academic rosters and they will be playing in Munich, the day before the conclusion of the League of Legends regional elite season. As these ten players will have one final chance to showcase their talents in front of an international audience, it might also be their final steps on the ERL stage and their final chance to be spotted for next year. That's why this EMEA Masters Summer 2024 grand final really lives up to its name.

While this Summer edition has been more competitive than ever, with a new format involving 60 teams in the competition, the LFL nevertheless assumed its status by sending five of its initial six representatives to the quarter finals. Six, it's also the number of times the league has won the title since its creation, in 2018. Moreover the French league will no matter what take its seventh European Masters trophy home, this Friday, although it will be the first one for either BDSA or VITB.

The Swiss org, will aim for its second title of the year after being crowned LFL champions this summer. It will also be their third final of the year, since the team also fell short to KCB in LFL's Spring split. The Bees did not enjoy the same glory this year, losing the last spot for the regional competition to Gentle Mates in spring (0-3) and then failing to reach the French final in Summer after losing to their opponent of Friday: BDSA (1-3). In fact, for both teams, a win in Munich would mean lifting their first trophy on the League of Legends' regional stage, as it is also the first final for Vitality.

The two teams had dominant runs during these EMEA Masters, as they both qualified to playoffs by losing only one match in the Swiss Stage, VITB only gave themselves a scare against BK ROG in quarter finals (3-2). But despite this one, this was until this Friday a stroll in the park for them, even for BDSA despite facing their runner-up in the LFL, and four times EM champions: KCB (3-1). This final could be harder as VITB seem to have found their rhythm during the competition, and also seem way less predictable in draft. But BDSA still appear as the clear favourite, as many talk of this team being one of the best team ERL has ever seen.

One of the advantage on BDSA's pocket could lie in the top matchup, where Janik "JNX" Bartels has proved himself on the Nasus pick that could truly be a pain for Kaan "Naak Nako" Okan who appeared showing a big priority on Varus. The Turkish also loves K'Santé, a pick that JNX also found an answer to with his Mordekaiser that probably still gives goosebumps to Los Heretics. As of the jungle matchups, Rudy "SkewMond" Semaan has shown very high priority on either Volibear or AP carries, and loves to play very aggressively while his VITB counterpart prefer tanks that will be reliable in teamfights and objectives control.

Mid and bot might be the most volatile. On one end Steven "Reeker" Chen has shown very versatile champion pool unlike Mateusz "Czajek" Czajka who has played mostly ADCs in the midlane during the playoffs. The Polish could be in danger, especially since Reeker is known as one of the first to pull out the Nasus midlane in competitive games. In the botlane, it's a bit of the opposite.

VITB's botlaners appear to be the most versatile, being able to showcase Seraphine for either the AD Carry or the Support, but also more traditional duos or even the famous Nilah-Senna combo, they seem prepared to adapt to whatever comes up. While BDSA duo have always preferred classic botlanes, especially Polat "Parus" Furkan being a Rell enjoyer, and are not afraid to being consistently pushed as they rarely give in to pressure and always find ways to either get an advantage or temper the laning phase.

In the overall game, BDSA loves to put rhythm on the Rift from start to finish, with little room to error and very aggressive gameplans and decision making. While VITB has found their pace by playing strong teamfight comps and trying to survive by limiting the damages in the first 20 minutes before striking hard in the mid game. But limiting damages against the very aggressive jungle/mid/sup trio from BDSA should sound like their hardest challenge of the year...