G2 Esports claim the gold in LEC 2022 Spring Split

As the last battle of the League of Legends European Championship comes to an end, one team stands above nine other competitors. Seeking to reignite the fire that brought the organization to the World Championship grand final back in 2019, G2 Esports claim victory in LEC Spring Split 2022.

Despite getting knocked down the Lower Bracket in the very first round of playoffs, the team turned disappointment into rage as they barreled through towards the trophy without dropping a single map in the process. Twelve flawless games are what it takes for the European team to take hold of the trophy, dismantling the tournament’s favorites, Rogue, as well as the very team that dared to try to strike them down, Fnatic.

We are samurai not because we always win but because we always get back up

WE ARE CHAMPIONS ???

— Rasmus Winther (@G2Caps) April 10, 2022

With this victory, G2 claim their overall ninth professional title. G2 Esports is back on top as the most prominent European talent, making their names heard – once again – with the most dominant European playoffs run to date.

MVP of the series

Your @Kia_Worldwide #LEC Finals MVP: @G2Caps! pic.twitter.com/HcsmC1HMTI

— LEC (@LEC) April 10, 2022

G2 Esports’ Rasmus Caps Borregaard Winther. Little introduction and explanation are needed here. As he kept his hand on the meta’s pulse, Caps’ performance throughout the entirety of the playoffs was stellar. With his signature pick, Ahri, being as strong as she is now, Caps took on the role of the playmaker in each and every game of G2. While other Ahri players often opt for a more support-oriented role for the champion, the same can’t be said about Caps. For the Dane, it’s all about the big numbers – and where others pick Cosmic Drive and Banshee’s Veil, he opts in for Mejai’s Soulstealer and Rabadon’s Deathcap.

TL;DW of the games:

In case you were unfortunate enough to miss the event happening live, there’s always live replays on https://lolesports.com/. However, if your schedule is too tight even for those, let’s recap the way the series unfolded with a quick Too Long; Didn’t Watch.

Game one

There’s one thing that connects all these games. Well, actually two, but G2’s dominance is a given. I am, of course, talking about G2 Caps’ Ahri. A great comfort pick for the Danish midlaner, Ahri is a vital piece of the puzzle in most compositions in Season 12. And Caps demonstrated the reason for it on the map one by finishing the game with a score of 8-0-4, owning a Mejai’s Soulstealer with 25 Stacks of all things. What bigger dominance can someone achieve?

Aided by G2 Jankos’ Jarvan IV, the commanding presence of Caps’ Ahri could not be ignored. The duo set the tone for the entire series by opening up the series with a First Blood going the way of G2.

G2 are known to be the team to be happy to give up the first Drakes in order to secure the first Herald and the Turret Plating gold that comes with it. The fact that they managed to secure both of these objectives is a testament to their dominance over Rogue.

Caps’ Charms continued playing the key role in getting picks on Rogue players in each and every teamfight, leading to a smooth sail for G2, ending the map one in 34 minutes. In fact, Caps had 100% Kill Participation right up to minute 30.

Game two

Witnessing the destructive power of the Nine-Tailed Fox in G2 Caps’ hands, Rogue have made a logical decision to take the champion away during the ban phase. In fact, at that point Caps was wasting two of Rogue’s bans: first LeBlanc, and now Ahri.

That meant G2 Jankos now had to operate without the fox’s charms – but he did not care about that impairment as he audaciously charged into Rogue’s jungle together with G2 BrokenBlade’s Ornn and Caps’ Corki to claim the first blood on Rogue Malrang’s Volibear.

The teams then proceeded to trade objectives, with Rogue claiming Rift Herald and G2 Esports managing to secure two Elemental drakes. A massive team fight around the Dragon Pit broke out at the 20-minute-mark – and despite Rogue’s support, Trymbi, being the only casualty, the fight cemented G2’s lead even further as they were now at the Soul Point.

Rogue then made a desperate attempt to sneak a Baron – and even though they lost 3 members of their team in the process, they managed to claim their objective. Still, it was not enough to avert the inevitable defeat as the team got aced by G2 in the team fight around the Drake pit. Empowered by the Mountain Soul, G2 systematically beat Rogue’s resistance down, ending the game in 32 minutes.

Game three

The third map went closer than the others. In a reverse of the previous games, Rogue took away one of G2’s key picks – Jarvan IV. As the champion is an excellent early-game ganker, Rogue Malrang used his power to secure the First Blood for his team on the bot side.

For a time, Rogue were in the driver’s seat of the game. A skirmish around the 3-minute-mark went in their favor as Rogue anticipated and intercepted G2’s plan to establish midlane control by using Caps’ Ahri once again.

The game started slipping out of Rogue’s hands as they overstepped their attempts to punish G2’s botlane. Even though they managed to take down G2 Flakked’s Xayah in a daring dive on the T3 turret, they lost 2 – almost making it 3 – members in the process. Still, Rogue managed to retain a reasonably significant gold lead after that.

The real problems for the Rogues began after an extended back-and-forth team fight around the 17th minute. The team hyped themselves up with initial successes – that got brought down and shattered as G2 BrokenBlade’s Ornn teleported into the fray at the last moment. After the long skirmish, G2 Caps became absolutely unstoppable with all the shut-down gold flowing into his pockets.

As G2 Esports regained gold advantage thanks to their support Pyke pick, their victory became only a matter of time. As they realized there was no need for reckless plays, G2 played it by the book, methodically laying siege on Rogue’s doomed base, ending the game at the 38-minute-mark.