The first week of the LCS concluded with some extremely unusual picks. Jungle Graves was used in the EU LCS, and Zac made an appearance in the jungle as well. Poppy was picked to serve in the support role. Poppy was seen as a must pick or ban due to her very rewarding laning phase. On the NA side, there were more standard picks reminiscent of last season with Reksai, Nidalee, Elise, Lee Sin all seeing the jungle play.
Tahm Kench was on the bench for many games. Out of the 10 NA games, he was banned 8, not picked once and picked the other which resulted in a win for TSM. Kindred showed herself to be a priority champion. In all 10 matches of the day, she was banned outright or picked for the teamplay. Gangplank saw the same results with his extreme lane pressure.
H2K Gamings Jungler, Jankos, made a very unique choice that proved itself worth it as he had a very high damage output on Graves in the jungle. Trick also enjoyed the same success with Jungle Graves on G2. Team Roccat’s Support, Edward, showed how outrageous gems were in choosing Taric for a winning game. On day 2 we saw G2 start off to a weak start with Jungle Kindred, but eventually the team found their footing and fought back for the win.
On the North American side, Dignitas versus NRG was a very fun game to watch due to Dignatas showing their old colors and losing not one, but two Barons to GBM’s Viktor lasers. Renegades also had a long game that saw FOUR Barons with Crumbz stealing the last Baron for the win against Team Liquid.
Even though it’s only the first week, there were some interesting choices made that paid off in the EU LCS scene. Kindred, Tahm, and Gangplank were banned often because of their extremely high priority due to their mechanics and team fight capability which we hopefully will get to see more gameplay as the season goes on. Catch it all at LOL Esports.
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