Notes for today’s 12pm ET EU Masters Slate.
This is a 6 game slate featuring top teams from their respective regional leagues. These games are Bo1 to start. One thing to note are that LEC academy teams (Fnatic Rising, Schalke Evolution) are usually teams to watch out for. They have similar coaching infrastructure and funding to their LEC teams and are usually near the top of the standings/ eventual winners. These teams were all near the top of their regional leagues but some regional leagues are better and worse than others so that context does matter.
S04E (-250) vs MRS (+180)
Schalke Evolution is a very talented team. They have a couple former LEC players on their roster and won the Prime League 2020. This league consists of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is generally considered a strong league for EU Masters teams. I believe Lurox (who was starting for Schalke’s LEC team at the end of the season) is eligible to play in EU masters but Innaxe is not. Either way both Gilius and Lurox are very good junglers for the EU Masters and should have a big impact. Sertuss and Neon are their main carries along with whoever is jungling but everyone on this team is a threat.
Movistar Riders are a Spanish league team, who finished 2nd in their league after losing to Spanish superpower Vodafone Giants in the finals 3-2. It was a very close series so they are not to be underestimated. Xico is a very strong mid laner and Elyoya is big for them in the jungle when he plays some more off-meta carry picks like Qiyana and Karthus. This team did finish 3rd in the regular season but they have shown potential to be quite good.
I give the edge to Schalke Evolution not only because they are an LEC academy team, but they have well known players who have even played in the LEC, and they were at the top of one of the more difficult regional leagues in Europe. Movistar Riders are a team to watch out for as I think they are actually quite good and this could be a good GPP choice, but in this one I give Schalke the edge.
Players to watch: (S04E): Sertuss, Neon, Sleeping (jungler unknown)
Players to watch (MRS): Xico, Elyoya, JaVaaa
K1ck (-225) vs SNG (+160)
We have seen K1ck in the EU Masters play-in games and they were one of the top teams in that play-in bracket. They finished 2nd in the Polish league to AGO Rogue, an LEC Academy team. As we saw in the play-in bracket, this team is led by their jungler Shlatan and their bot lane consisting of Puki Style and Raxxo. They play a rather aggressive style of game but they showed a controlled game style against MAD Lions Madrid in the final qualifying game as well.
Team Singularity are from the Nordic region. This Nordic region is typically not regarded as a very strong region and both their representatives from 2019 failed to qualify for the EU Masters and were bottom of the table while doing so. This season it looks like the Nordics were given a spot in the main event without needing to go through the play-ins first and Team Singularity are their representatives this time around. This team finished second in the Nordic league and eventually won the playoffs 3-1 against Vipers Inc. This team has a spread out kill distribution with most of their damage and kills coming from their ADC reje.
I do not think Nordic teams are particularly good, so I will go with the Polish side K1ck. We have quite a bit of footage on them from the Play-ins and for the most part I liked what I saw. Poland is not a particularly strong league for League of Legends either, but from what we have seen from K1ck against other quality opponents I will have to say they look decent.
Players to watch (K1ck): Puki style, Shlatan, Raxxo
Players to watch (SNG): Skude, reje
MOUZ (-1200) vs WIZ (+550)
Mousesports are massive favourites in this game and while I typically wouldn’t want to agree with this heavy of a favourite in a Bo1, it is warranted here. Mouz have been a prominent name in the EU regional scene for a while now. They finished 2nd in the very respectable German league to Schalke Evolution but their roster has some significant talent. LIDER and promisq have both played in the LEC, and LIDER was a fantastic talent in his short stint there. He showed massive carry potential and he is the megastar of this Mouz lineup. Promisq was the subsitute support for G2, and while he was never a star player he was good enough for the role he played. Jesklaa played for XL in the LEC before as well and is another solid member of this team.
Energypot Wizards were the 2nd place team representing the Balkan regional league. The Balkan league is another league that is notoriously weak compared to other EU Master participants. Most of their representatives do not make it past the play-in stage either and sit near the bottom of those standings. This time around they were also given a qualifying seed to the main event but I do not expect them to do so hot. Their bottom lane of Vzz and whiteinn are their best players but I do not think they can stand up to Mouz.
Players to watch (Mouz): LIDER, Jesklaa, Promisq
Players to watch (WIZ): Vzz, whiteinn
FNC.R (-800) vs ESB (+425)
Fnatic Rising is one of those well known LEC academy teams. Last year in both Spring and Summer for EU Masters, they finished top 4 both times. They are from the UK and despite finishing 2nd during the regular season, they were able to pull off a 3-2 win against BT Excel in the finals. This team is another team that is star studded with talent. Their main stars are MagiFelix and xMatty. MagiFelix is another carry mid laner who has a lot of hype around him. xMatty is a top tier EU Masters ADC with extremely good mechanics and carry potential as well. Along with their supportive jungler Dan, these three make a very strong trio for Fnatic Rising.
eSuba is another team that we have a good amount of footage on, as they qualified through the play-ins as well. They finished first in the Czech league, which is another one of those kind of mediocre leagues. They played pretty well in the play-in stages but they were against rather weak competition. They finished second ahead of a Balkan league team and a Nordic league team, both of which I mentioned were some of the weakest leagues in the tournament. They defeated an Italian team (Raccoon) to qualify for the EU Masters, but I do not expect too much from them in this tournament. Jejky is their star player and he makes the team work with his aggressive plays. Random and Dany are decent carries for them but nothing too spectacular.
I will be on Fnatic Rising’s side in this game. They are a known commodity and have a lot of star power unlike ESB.
Players to watch (FNC.R): xMatty, MagiFelix, Dan
Players to watch (ESB): Jejky, Random, Dany
VGIA (-250) vs LDLC (+180)
Vodafone Giants should be one of the top teams in this season of EU Masters. They finished first in the Spanish league and won the playoffs there too. The Spanish league is one of the top regional leagues within the EU Masters so this team is a threat. Last time in summer they finished 2nd and a lot of their players went on to join the LEC (Razork and Milica). This season they have Attila on their team as their star player and he was also previously on an LEC team. This team is not a one man show hoever as both Lamabear and PrettyGRE are very good players in their own right. PrettyGRE is almost as much of a carry as Attila is and Lamabear is a very proactive jungler. These 3 make up the powerhouse that is Vodafone Giants and I expect another solid tournament from them.
LDLC OL is another pretty decent EU Masters team. They have been the French representative for many splits now within EU Masters, but this time they finished 2nd in their league. They still qualified automatically into the main event but it was a bit disappointing how they played in their regional playoffs. They finished first in the regular season but when it got to finals they got swept 3-0. Old Fnatic legend YellowStar still plays professionally at age 28 for this team which I found was interesting. While this team has a history of being a top 8 team at EU Masters and will still be fighting for that this season, I think they have some issues to sort out and compared to an elite team like Vodafone Giants I think they are at a disadvantage.
Players to watch (VGIA): Attila, Lamabear, PrettyGRE
Players to watch (LDLC): Yellowstar, Tynxx, Vetheo
DK (+155) vs RGO (-215)
Defusekids are a Dutch league team that finished first in their spring playoffs. They also played through the play-ins so there is some information out there on them. The team representing this region all throughout last year was DefuseKids and they failed to qualify both times. This year they finally did it by defeating fellow Benelux region team Sector One and it was a close 2-1 series. Chapapi and Goose were shown to be the main carries on this team, but Alois also plays a lot of carry threats from the top lane. This team did impress me a good amount and I liked what I saw in the few games they played.
AGO Rogue are the top Polish league team, the one that finished ahead of K1ck in their regional league. To draw some comparisons K1ck was better than the Sector One team that DK barely defeated and AGO Rogue were handily better than K1ck. AGO Rogue is also the LEC academy team for Rogue and they are led by their star ADC Woolite. Woolite has played in the LEC before and was known as a very boom or bust player. He was barely good enough for the LEC but remained on the lower end of LEC ADC’s. He is absolutely good enough for the EU Masters however as he is a major carry threat for this AGO Rogue team. Zanzarah is another player that contributes a lot to their success and it will be interesting to see if Woolite can translate this play against DK.
Players to watch (DK): Chapapi, Goose, Alois
Players to watch (RGO): Woolite, Zanzarah, Mystiques
Playing a lot of the favourites is possible due to some of the pricing and that is a viable strategy. Anything can happen in BO1 games however, so here are some of my favourite underdog targets:
1. MRS
2. LDLC
3. DK
4. SNG