LEC Summer Split: SK-TH and BDS-MDK, preview of the first two play-off fixtures

LEC Summer Playoffs start this Friday and with them the teams' chances to qualify for the LEC Season Finals that will decide two of the three teams Europe will send to Worlds of League of Legends. Sheep Esports wanted to give you some insight into what to expect from today's matches : SK Gaming-Team Heretics and Team BDS-MAD Lions KOI.

SK Gaming is looking to consolidate this playoffs as a real contender for the LEC title and a spot this year as the European representative at Worlds. The team has consolidated its position as the leader of the regular phase, being 8-1, having lost only one map against Fnatic. The botlane changes have been a pleasant surprise as they are a completely revamped team with a much more versatile and versatile playstyle.

Team Heretics on the other hand needs to win this match to leave SK behind in points to qualify for the LEC finals. Despite their victory over Fnatic last week, the heretics have not had their dream split. The Spanish team has struggled to get off the ground and although the players themselves claim to be a better team than previous splits, it seems that the other teams have improved considerably faster.

The matchup poses a clash of styles quite different, a SK with the whole team in an incredible form along with a meta that favours teams that are able to play AP junglers + medium AD and an Joel “Irrelevant” Scharrol that does not stop surprising every week against a Heretics much more focused on putting their flagship player Victor “Flakked” Lirola ahead, with gameplay approaches more focused on scaling and fighting for objectives.

Throughout the year SK Gaming vs Heretics has been a tightly contested match-up, with each winning a playoff series against the other and 1-1 in the regular season until this split where the balance has tipped in SK's side, indicating that it promises to be a match-up where sparks will fly.

BDS and Mad Lions KOI seem to be the antithesis of each other. The two sides are night and day in both the Summoner's Rift and the leaderboard. BDS is a very organized team focused on solid decision making, with several game plans as well as seeming to understand their strengths and weaknesses very well. Mad Lions KOI on the other hand is the team that most likes to unleash chaos in the league and make games frantic with a pre-game style much more focused on individual line phase superiority of the members and a very strong early game.

BDS has achieved an 8-1 this regular split as well as SK Gaming while MAD Lions KOI has needed two tiebreakers to reach the playoffs, in a split where things did not seem to work out for the Spanish team. Despite a better last week and a final showdown against Vitality that gave the Spanish team hope, MDK seems to need an extra gear to face the team led by Yanis “Striker” Kella.

The only time these two teams have met in the playoffs was in the winter playoffs where MAD Lions KOI won the series 3-2 in a heart-stopping fifth map in a series that gave them the pass to the final. Throughout the year the clashes between these two teams have been very close and decided by small details where the fun for the spectators is guaranteed.