The LFL Spring Split Swiss Stage has kicked off, and it wasn’t a good evening for the favorites this Wednesday night. The Galions started by defeating BK ROG 2-1, followed by Gentle Mates taking down Solary with the same scoreline. As a reminder, only two victories are needed in this phase to be among the four teams directly qualifying for the Playoffs, while two defeats are synonymous with going down to the Last Chance Qualifier to reunite with GameWard and Team BDS Academy.

Just like in the previous seeding phase, the power dynamics in the LFL keep shifting. Solary and BKR—previously solid second and third seeds—were convincingly beaten by two teams that had to fight tooth and nail to qualify for the Swiss Stage. On top of the victory, a record was broken yesterday in the LFL for M8, as midlaner Jérémy "Eika" Valdenaire surpassed the milestone of 1,000 kills in the league, after six years of competing in it, since 2019.

What to expect now?

Tonight, the action continues with two blockbuster matches. Two of the league’s top teams, Joblife and Ici Japon Corp, face off at 6 p.m., and it’s impossible to call a clear favorite. JL made their breakthrough during the last LFL Days that opened the spring split and haven’t stopped impressing since. Just a week ago, they beat IJC by completely shutting down their star AD Carry, Lee "Hans SamD" Jae-hoon, with a heavy crowd control composition. We'll see if IJC has prepared better this time around.

Right after comes, on paper, the most one-sided match of these playoffs: the top seed from the first phase, Vitality.Bee will debut against Karmine Corp Blue, who are in their worst form to date. Despite winning the Flash In tournament earlier this year, some roster changes between splits seem to have negatively affected the team’s overall level. With only four wins across the whole split, they finished eighth, losing both offline tiebreakers last week against M8 and GL. But if there’s one team known for bouncing back and pulling off miracles when all hope seems lost, it’s KC. We’ll see tonight if the VIT.B colossus will tremble in the second BO3 of the day.