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Splyce nearly even with Unicorns of Love

Splyce went the distance against Unicorns of Love on Friday. Riot Games

In the second matchup of Week 3, Day 2 in the European League of Legends Championship Series, Splyce left Berlin on Friday with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Unicorns of Love.

Unicorns of Love (3-1, 7-3 match record) did basically what you'd expect in Game 1 -- pick on off-meta champion, use it to snowball out of control, and dominate Splyce through superior macro. With jungler Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir on Warwick, UoL got ahead early as Xerxe took over the top half of the map, picking up several kills. Splyce managed to group up and find good skirmishes to stay close in gold, but UoL regained control though strong sieging, leading to a 26-minute Baron attempt. While Splyce jungler Jonas "Trashy" Andersen's Gragas stole the kill, UoL calmly picked up a 5-for-3 ace, staying in control. All it took was for Xerxe to initiate a final 5-for-1 teamfight, en route to a 7/0/9 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) for 89 percent kill participation, to take Game 1 in 32 minutes.

While Xerxe's Warwick held another early lead over Trashy's Gragas in Game 2, UoL struggled to pull ahead of Splyce (3-1, 6-3 match record). Splyce repeatedly put pressure in the top lane, giving top laner Martin "Wunder" Hansen's Fiora a massive lead over his struggling UoL counterpart. UoL's macro kept the gold lead close as its pick/siege composition knocked down towers, but Splyce's late game splitpushing composition was given too much time to scale into the late game. Splyce managed to turn a Baron-buff empowered Unicorns push into a 5-for-2 ace at 28 minutes, taking full control through AD carry Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup's Twitch, who earned a ridiculous 10/1/13 KDA while dealing 40,900 damage to enemy champions or roughly 1,217 damage per minute. One final 5-for-0 ace in UoL's base, and Splyce took Game 2 in 33 minutes.

It was Splyce that took an early lead in Game 3 as Trashy's Ivern gave first blood over to Wunder's Kled at five minutes, repeating the storyline of the series without fail. Unicorns of Love used its meaty teamfighting composition to pull off early tower dives, earning a gold lead through objectives, but the disgusting amount of initiation/teamfighting damage coming out of Splyce's comp was overwhelming later on. Eventually, UoL was unable to deal meaningful damage in teamfights, all while Splyce support Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle danced circles around UoL as Rakan, chaining The Quickness into Grand Entrances and facilitating Splyce's dominant teamfighting while mid laner Chres "Sencux" Laursen dealt massive damage as Malzahar. Securing a Baron buff at 21 minutes, Splyce ran through UoL's weakened defenses, crushing a final 5-for-0 clean ace to finish the game in under 27 minutes.

Unicorns of Love prepare now for a clash vs G2 Esports at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, and Splyce will take on Team ROCCAT on Friday at 11 a.m. ET.