In a battle of the two undefeated teams in Group B, Unicorns of Love took down H2K Gaming in a hard fought 2-1 series on Sunday, Day 2 of Week 4 of the European League of Legends Championship Series in Berlin.
H2K (2-1, 5-2 match record) gave up Xayah and Rakan to get its jungler, Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski, Zac, in the draft of Game 1. The trade worked out well for H2K as Jankos' early game ganks were successful and secured small advantages for the solo laners. The successful draft maneuvers were only solidified as Unicorns of Love's (3-0, 6-1 match record) strategy to funnel resources into AD carry Samuel "Samux" Fernandez Fort failed to provide the necessary damage in late game teamfights. H2K ran away with an advantage and was constantly applying pressure into the late game. A second Baron kill spelled the end of Game 1, as H2K quickly marched through UoL's Nexus. H2K's mid laner Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten was a tremendous source of damage in Game 1 as his Lucian dealt 1027 damage per minute, over twice the average DPM for Lucian, and finished with a 6/1/4 KDA (kills/deaths/assists).
Unicorns of Love stuck with the Xayah and Rakan bottom lane duo in Game 2, while H2K responded with Kalista and Thresh. The Kalista-Thresh didn't pan out as H2K's bottom lane duo swapped with top early, avoiding the losing matchup and initiating the first skirmish. While H2K won the first trade, it struggled to coordinate competent engages the rest of Game 2. UoL finally came alive around the 12-minute-mark, as it forced fights whenever it saw H2K, winning them and then taking objectives. H2K struggled to deal with the pressure, falling further behind as time passed eventually retreating to its base with only an Ocean Drake secured. Samux redeemed himself on Xayah in Game 2 as he earned an impressive 11/1/8 KDA.
In the final draft of the series, H2K opted to pick a split pushing team composition that lacked a true tank. The risky team composition meant H2K needed to secure early leads from kills, and that is exactly what it accomplished, turning an early top lane rotation into two kills and first turret gold. H2K continued to press its advantage, growing its lead in turrets and gold. But that lead may have gave H2K a false sense of security, as it went for a risky Baron play near the 23-minute-mark. With expert precision, UoL interrupted the maneuver, scoring an ace as well as securing the Baron kill. Everything tumbled away after that, as H2K failed to put together a winning engage in multiple teamfights, struggling to deal with Samux's Twitch early in teamfights. The Unicorns simply became unstoppable as it slaughtered H2K in its base before finishing off Game 3 in just over 32 minutes.
The Unicorns of Love will try to keep the ball rolling against Splyce on Friday at 2 p.m. ET while H2K's next matchup won't be until next Sunday at 2 p.m. ET against Team Vitality.