The 2017 European League Championship Series summer split came to an end Sunday afternoon with G2 Esports, longtime kings of Europe, writing their names in the history books by smashing Misfits in a 3-0 victory during the EU LCS finals. With the win, G2 have earned themselves a fourth consecutive LCS title in the process.
While the series might have been a historic one, that didn't make it a terribly exciting one. You could be forgiven for thinking that only a single team took to the stage today, because whatever fire allowed Misfits to take down Fnatic in the semifinals had long since died by the time they faced G2 Esports. Misfits struggled from awkward drafts and questionable early/mid game decisions that simply put them in too deep a hole against G2 to ever climb out of.
Their most critical mistake was also their most obvious one, as the Misfits drafted themselves tank-oriented compositions in all three games that heavily relied upon damage from mid laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage and AD carry Steven "Hans Sama" Liu in order to work. The problem was that neither of those two carries were put onto champions that were as effective in the simple front-to-back teamfights that dominated the series as the champions that G2 AD carry Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen and mid laner Luka "Perkz" Perkovic brought to bear. Nearly every teamfight had the same basic story. The tanks tried to threaten the enemy backline threats, but the Misfits' tanks would die far, far faster than G2's, which allowed Perkz and Zven to take over fight after fight. When combined with the Misfits' sluggish early game, the series as a whole was almost too easy for G2, who barely looked as though they were even trying at times.
The player of the series was G2's support, Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez. The number of teamfights that Mithy managed to win single-handedly over the course of the series was simply staggering, especially early on in the series when he was on his Alistar. He would lie in wait at the beginning of every teamfight, daring the Misfits' carries to step one foot out of position, and they never let him down. Time and again Mithy found the perfect Pulverize combo onto either Hans Sama or PowerOfEvil, and anytime he did he ended the teamfight before it could even begin.
Both teams have nothing left to do but look ahead, as both locked in their spots for the World Championship.