The high-end confrontation that was promised on-paper didn't take place, French #1 seed Team BDS Academy didn't struggle at all to beat Spanish #1 Los Heretics, the score : 3-0, says it all about how the BO5 went between the two teams. Reeker and Co are now the first team to secure EMEA Masters Summer 2024 final, as they will get to play for the regional
League of Legends title on stage, in the Munich Olympic Hall. BDSA will have to wait until Thursday to find out its opponent, between Vitality Bee and Team GO.
A global domination
Team BDS Academy made its domination simple : initiating almost every move and forcing Los Heretics into a passive-reactive gameplay that prevented them from installing their game at any point. Once again, Rudy "SkewMond" Semaan has been the main responsible of BDSA's success, his pathing and tempo systematically outclassed Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir's one, even when putted into a matchup where he was the slowest jungle clearer.
BDSA's play didn't strike as particularly aggressive or knee-braking, it was even a pretty simple one. However, Los Heretics were short of ideas and never managed to shake BDSA's system. Game 1 was for instance very slow with little moves that took place on a macro scale, until BDSA reached their first spikes and accelerated. Game 2 and 3 were basically a repeat of the 1st game with a biggest stomp version in the second game.
An edge that started in draft
Surprisingly, HRTSS and BDSA kept the same sides during the three games, as Los Heretics always opted for blue side after their defeats. BDSA repeated the same draft plan three times, removing Maokai and Draven plus a wildcard ban. Heretics on the other hand played the same botlane three games in a row (Miss Fortune and Leona) with an AD mid (Yone, then Corki twice), Carl Ulsted "Carlsen" Carlsen never had the chance to get a real counter matchup and Xerxe never really was in a comfortable spot.
With no access to his Maokai, Xerxe was forced on suboptimal jungle picks before game 3
The MF-Leona botlane didn't seem to bother BDSA, who were free to put Tim "Keduii" Willers on Ashe/Jhin paired with Polat "Parus" Furkan Çiçek's Rell. This allowed BDSA to have a much faster engage, plus keep the range advantage, this fragilised Heretics' botside which was never able to display their strategy. Since toplane was always put on handshake matchups, Heretics had only one place to be proactive : the midlane.
On the midlane, Daniel "Sertuss" Gamani should have no regrets, being put on a tough Yone - Leblanc matchup in the first game (and still winning it), the former LEC midlaner did everything he could for his team. However, with Yone gone in game 2 (and stolen in game 3), he had no choice but to pick Corki, a champion that can't easily create a map gap. BDSA, recognizing the threat, put a lot of emphasis around the midlane, giving Steven "Reeker" Chen a lot of space.
This decision indeed putted Heretics into a stasis mode. Since mid was locked by BDSA, they had to play the map from sidelanes to midlane, but their draft could simply not work this way, thus, they were stuck and forced to react to BDSA plays, which were too clean to punish effectively.
Header Photo Credit: Elliot Le Corre/Webedia
