EMEA Masters: GO - VITB, A Fratricidal Duel

One French derby leads to another. Team GO and Vitality.Bee will face off in the EMEA Masters' semi-finals, to decide which of them will join BDSA in Munich. Indeed, both French teams will sort it out this Thursday, as the League of Legends competition between the best national teams in the region comes to an end.

As Team GO is LFL fourth seed for these EMEA Masters, VITB on the other hand, made it to the French league's podium this summer. In fact, the two teams already battled in BO5 recently, during the LFL lower bracket semi-final. With an incredible Paul "Stend" Lardin and a less incredible Oliver "Dajor" Ryppa, the Bees came out on top with a certain extent ease (3-1).

The toplane, as expected with two of the most aggressive ERL players in this role, was also very bloody. Most of the time, it went the counterpick way for the toplaners, with at least a 1k gold differential coming very early in every game. Gnar was a decisive picks in this serie, as it should stay that way since both played the champion several times in these EMEA Masters.

Although Stend has kept his summer momentum going in the competition so far, proving himself clutch many times especially in playoffs, Dajor broke his bad dynamics recently by displaying much more of "a top class ERL player" laning and teamfighting. The German aligned himself to his teammates, and to the level of the competition showing why he got to play in LEC at some points, no doubt he will try his best to keep it that way and show he can deserve another shot in the EMEA elite, even though his passage was a one to forget.

He will be facing an angry Mateusz "Czajek" Czajka that also try to prove himself worthy of the elite, by finally bringing VITB in a League of Legends' competition final (without counting the Coupe de France). Paired with Kacper "Daglas" Dagiel in the jungle, the Polish duo left sparks among their way to semi-final. But his opposite, Mehdi "Boukada" Lahlou, also displayed great performances, enabled by his midlaner improvement. The French jungler even afforded himself to pull the Shyvana out.

The Red Storm's botlane is keeping his consistency throughout the year, by always playing their signature agressive playstyle eventhough botlane is more on an handshake meta recently. Josip "Jopa" Čančar and his support, however, are to a greater extent on a versatile style and seem to offer way more options in draft. With Stend's Senna or Seraphine, the Bees botlane are one of the only to still play two range champions in the current meta, being therefore very good at receptioning. That could cause additional issues at the "go forward" style of Jean "Jezu" Massol and Olivier "Prime" Payet.

This time again, Eren "Lot" Yıldız and Kaan "Naak Nako" Okan have proved themselves during the regional competition, displaying their talent and shown a large variety of picks like Lot's Nasus in answer to Kennen or Naak Nako's Varus against tanks that they both got to play in their respective quarter-finals. The Turkish face-off will no doubt deserve a lot of attention in this BO5, although the meta is not much topside oriented.