The European League Championship Series kicked off with a matchup between Giants Gaming (8-7-3) and Unicorns of Love (6-7-5). The third seed, Giants was a slight favorite over Unicorns, the sixth seed, but that was only on paper.
Game one was the best example of how UoL snowballed early in the game. Kang "Move" Min-su was pivotal throughout the entire series; if he was allowed freedom to rotate and fight often, UoL snowballed easier and routed Giants Gaming, but if he was shutdown or forced to fight in one lane for the entirety of the early game, it was immediate trouble. UoL also drafted well to counter its opponents. In game one, the lineup drafted a Kennen and Ryze to anchor the top and middle and allowed Move to pick and choose the lanes he wanted to fight in. Game one's 21-5 kill score in favor of the UoL set the pace for the rest of the series.
Giants showed some signs of adaptation, but UoL was just too overwhelming. The game that Giants Gaming took was due to one adaptation: secure farm for cores and shutdown roaming ganks. The team camped out the top lane with constant ganks from Gun "NighT" Woo Na to secure Lennart "SmittyJ" Warkus' farm and power spike. The strategy to block off Move's movements worked out and revealed a linear weakness with UoL.
In the end, however, UoL absolutely outplayed and out drafted Giants Gaming in a dominating effort, 3-1. Giants Gaming simply did not do enough to prevent the Unicorns' team fight and snowballing potential, and it showed in every game's scores. UoL will move on to play in the semifinals to play against G2 Esports, where it will need more than just snowball tactics to take a well-rounded EU LCS team.
