LEC Summer Split: GiantX-BDS and Karmine Corp-SK Gaming previews

This Tuesday sees the LEC - League of Legends EMEA Championship - Summer Split play-offs continue. The lower bracket features two elimination matches: Team BDS-GiantX and SK Gaming-Karmine Corp. The two losers will be eliminated from the split, while the two winners will advance to the next round to face each other. Analysis of the day's two matches.

A few weeks ago, Adam “Adam” Maanane in an interview via Sheep Esports hinted that this was going to be BDS' split as LEC champion or never. The Swiss team had been on a very good momentum as a team during the regular season but they have not started the playoffs in the strongest possible way. After a hard-fought win over MDK on the third map and a series where they were completely overruled, BDS need to find their best form again if they want to reach the Grand Final where Fnatic awaits.

GiantX need to keep winning as long as Karmine Corp do to increase their chances of reaching the Season Finals captained by Adam “Jackies” Jeřábek. The Czech midlaner has shown that despite being in his first year in the LEC, he doesn't lack the leadership to carry a series on his own. The goal of the midlane clearly favours the young rookie becoming one of the first to take out Varus, Zeri and other shooters that make him to be in a great state of form added to Antonio "Th3Antonio" Espinosa has also played a key role in the substantial improvement of the team's form.

Finally note that GiantX does not know what is the victory this year against Team BDS, besides being their first direct confrontation in playoffs, the Spanish team has never won in the regular phase against the Swiss team. We will see if history repeats itself again or if the Spanish team will be able to surprise.

Karmine Corp is still looking for its dreamed miracle run to qualify to the Season Finals, Kamel “Kameto” Kebir's team should ensure a minimum top 3 to enter and leave out the other two remaining candidates that would be GiantX and SK Gaming. The French team has noticed a great improvement this split, the reinforcements seem to have taken effect and above all, it seems a much more united team with very clear ideas that go through the incredible form of Elias “Upset” Lipp. The German ad carry took his responsibilities with is Kai’Sa and finished the previous series against MAD Lions KOI with a perfect KDA of 19-0-29.

SK on the other hand suffered a crushing defeat against Fnatic and are looking to redeem themselves and secure their qualification to the Season Finals. The German team has managed to fortify their team around Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer. Although the brand new botlane is the most obvious part of the team, the Belgian midlaner is the orchestra director of the team and a big part of the success of this split.

SK Gaming is ahead of Karmine Corp in this year's head-to-head, with the German team winning two matches to KC's one. In their last regular season clash at the Summer Split, SK Gaming relied heavily on their topside to win the game. Joel "Irrelevant" Scharoll outclassed Kim "Canna" Chang-dong and achieved a near-perfect score (95/100) according to our Sheep Stats scale.