Two teams have dominated European League of Legends since the start of league play back in 2013. Fnatic and G2 Esports have combined to win 11 of the 12 split championships with the former winning seven and the latter winning four. Thus, it comes as no real surprise that these two teams are the favorites to win the 2019 Spring Split. However, there are some questions about both teams heading into this year, and that has teams like Misfits Gaming and Team Vitality believing they can break those two titans’ stranglehold on the region.
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League of Legends LEC Europe Spring 2019 Betting Odds
G2 Esports: +200
Fnatic: +200
Misfits Gaming: +330
Team Vitality: +550
Splyce: +2000
Origen: +2000
FC Schalke 04: +3300
Rogue: +10000
exceL Esports: +10200
SK Gaming: +19700
I believe G2 Esports should be the favorite and perhaps even an odds-on favorite to win the Spring Split. G2 made the best signing of the offseason when they signed away Caps from Fnatic, and that has them poised to take things to another level. This organization shook off the choke artist label that followed them on the international scene in 2016 and 2017 by pulling off one of the biggest upsets ever in beating Royal Never Give Up to make it to the World Championship semifinals, and they are looking to become the best team in the region once more.
Wunder and Jankos are back in familiar roles at top lane and jungle, while long-time mid laner Perkz has moved to the AD Carry position. Perkz has not played AD Carry before so there are concerns with how everything will work itself out, but he will be buoyed by one of the top supports in the region in Mikyx.
Adding Caps in the mid lane is worth the risk of Perkz potentially not working out in the AD Carry role. Caps proved that he was the best European player last year with a fantastic performance at Worlds, and he really came into his own throughout 2018. While beforehand there was a debate over whether the best player on Fnatic was Caps or Rekkles, at the end of the year, Caps showed that he was the top dog on the team and in the region.
As for Fnatic, losing Caps hurts a lot. Before he announced that he was departing for G2, Fnatic were heavy favorites to repeat as split champions. They brought four of five starters back from last year’s team, and those players are some of the best in the region at their positions. Bwipo emerged as a very good top laner, while Broxah is probably the best jungler in Europe. Rekkles and Hylissang are the most proven bottom lane, but there is a huge hole in the mid lane.
Nemesis might turn out to be the next great European mid laner, but until he proves it, it’s hard to have faith in Fnatic. Mid lane is the most important position in almost every meta, and he is an unproven player. He showed some skill in the lower levels of competitive play in Europe, yet it’s a big leap from where he was to where he is now.
Misfits are a rather interesting team too. They won their first nine games of the 2018 Summer Split and seemed like the team to beat in the region, but they absolutely collapsed down the stretch. They went 2-7 over the second half of the round robin, and they could only muster a fourth-place finish.
This team made some moves that could pay big dividends in the offseason though. Febiven was the best mid laner in North America in Spring 2018, and he might already be the second-best mid laner in Europe. I love the pick-up of GorillA at support too considering his ability to shotcall and push his bottom laners to the next level, but top lane could be an issue. Misfits signed a veteran in sOAZ, and there are reasons to be concerned there. He is no longer able to push lanes (something that top laners had to do to be successful last year), and it feels like he was signed based on reputation more than anything else.
The oddsmakers have given one more team a realistic chance of winning Europe in the Spring. Team Vitality was awfully impressive at times last year, and YamatoCannon might be the best coach in the region. He has a fantastic mid laner in Jiizuke, and he returns along with three other starters from last year. Vitality may have fixed their biggest problem too by signing Mowgli to be their jungler. I believe Vitality should be favored ahead of Misfits, as the addition of Mowgli and consistency elsewhere could take this team to an elite level.
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