LEC 2019 Summer Playoffs Quarterfinal Odds & Preview: Splyce & FC Schalke 04 Favored to Advance
- The LEC 2019 Summer Split Playoffs have their quarterfinals set for August 23rd and 24th
- Splyce are massively favored over Rogue thanks to their third place finish and Humanoid’s improvement
- Vitality secured the final playoff spot with a tiebreaker victory over SK Gaming
The LEC Summer Playoffs begin with Splyce vs. Rogue and FC Schalke 04 vs. Team Vitality. The winners of these quarterfinals matches will advance to the next round and face either G2 Esports or Fnatic who picked up first round byes.
Betting Odds for Splyce vs. Rogue
| Team | Odds | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Splyce | -800 | O 3.5 (-150) |
| Rogue | +395 | U 3.5 (EVEN) |
*Odds taken 19/08/19
Splyce is a League Ahead
For parts of the Summer split, Splyce has looked like the strongest team in Europe. They finished the regular season with a 12-6 record, which was good for third place behind G2 and Fnatic. Splyce has seemingly mastered their own play style and is one of a select few LEC teams that can hold up to the kings of Europe.
A lot of that is due to Humanoid’s improvements over the summer split that have him in the discussion of being one of the best mid laners in Europe. Add on that Splyce has a 2-0 record over Rogue in Summer, and they deserve to be heavy favorites in this quarterfinal match.
Rogue surprised a lot of people when they managed to make it into playoffs. Their spring split was awful as they only managed 2 wins. With a revamped roster centered around Larssen and Inspired, Rogue improved their record to 7-11 in summer.
Although there is some veteran talent in Woolite and Vander, the core of this team is still young and lacks playoff experience. These young players could dominate the LEC in the future, but they’re still new to the spotlight and need more time to get in sync with their teammates. Rogue has also dropped six of their final nine games heading into their match against Splyce.
Betting Odds for FC Schalke 04 vs. Team Vitality
| Team | Odds | Total |
|---|---|---|
| FC Schalke 04 | -345 | O 3.5 (-240) |
| Team Vitality | +215 | U 3.5 (+155) |
*Odds taken 19/08/19
Vitality’s Lucky To Be Alive
Team Vitality barely made it into the playoffs. In the final two weeks, this team lost four straight games and their playoff hopes came down to a tiebreaker against SK Gaming. It wasn’t convincing or dominant, but Vitality were able to hold on and finish as the sixth seed.
The word to best describe Vitality is inconsistent. When they’re on their game, Vitality is aggressive and forceful in their game-play. However they often take that aggression too far.
On the other side, FC Schalke 04 have really improved with Trick in the jungle. They’ve quietly climbed to fourth place in the LEC with an 11-7 record and a win over G2 to their name.
The strength of this team is their bot lane of Upset and Ignar. Upset leads the LEC in kills and is constantly a threat to take over late game team fights if he’s able to scale up. Generally Schalke likes to play around their bot lane and that could spell trouble for Vitality’s over-aggressive duo of Attila and Jactroll.
I don’t foresee any upsets in the LEC quarterfinals. The gap between the favorites and the underdogs is simply too large, and in the best of five format, the better team almost always wins.
Picks: Stick with the favorites. Splyce (-800), U 3.5 (EVEN), FC Schalke 04 (-345), ) 3.5 (-240)
Growing up, Matthew was in love with sports. So, following his undergrad, it only made sense to dive head-first into the world of sports media. Rather than sticking to traditional sports, Matt found his way to eSports and gaming. He also produces, edits and serves as an analyst for SQUAD.
