exceL vs FC Schalke 04

For our second match of the day, we have a pretty interesting clash between FC Schalke 04, and the newcomers Excel Esports. Why is this such an exciting and layered match-up? Well, to be quite frank, Excel Esports are playing much, much better than anyone had expected.

Likewise, Schalke's current five-man line-up always had a ton of promise on paper, but it's still a surprise to see them so dominant this early on in the split. Two weeks have passed, and Schalke are displaying an immense amount of synergy, and that's not something that's often the case with newly-assembled teams.

They're looking to close out the week with another 2-0, and improve to an overall 5W-1L record, which would propel them to the very top of the region. Not a small feat, that's for sure.

Their game against Splyce yesterday was a pretty clean and dominant showing, although things started off pretty badly for Schalke as Odoamne gave up first blood pretty quickly. Splyce didn't wait for long though before they gave a response. It was a somewhat close state of affairs, and even though there weren't a lot of kills both teams were skirmishing non-stop. It was Abbedagge, however, that was able to get the lead on LeBlanc and start dominating around the map.

Splyce were good, they kept up, but Schalke were just a bit faster and more in sync when it mattered. Their team fighting was downright insane and it allowed them to close the game with a stellar 1 for 4 team fight on the mid lane around the twenty-fifth minute mark. They were able to snowball their leads both individually as well as a team, and it didn't take for long before they were knocking on Splyce's Nexus.

Excel, on the other hand, surprised the world with an incredibly dominant performance against none other than Misfits Gaming.

Caedrel was perhaps their biggest catalyst once again as the constantly focused on getting Expect's Urgot ahead. They were much faster on the map, they rotated more quickly, without as much hesitation, and that alloed them to create a small but noticeable lead in the earlt game. Their stellar team fighting and ample crowd control allowed them to completely outclass Misfits in key five-on-five team fights. It was immediately evident that Excel came to play, and it was a fantastic sight. When you add up the recent dominance from Misfits, Excel's clean win becomes even more impressive.

But it seems as though that Misfits might be broken once again, after getting outclassed by Team Vitality last week. This is looking a lot like their 2018 Summer Split downfall. A stellar ten-game win streak, and then absolute painful mediocrity. Excel are no slouch, that's for sure, but to see Misfits get outclassed in such fashion is a strange, and not particularly logical sight. They were out of sync, and they simply couldn't mount an offensive. For a team that recently broke their own early game gold lead record, that's a shocker.

Regardless of the fact that Excel played one heck of a game yesterday, we're going with Schalke on this one. It seems as though that everything is going in their favor -- they have the synergy down, they're all on the same page when it matters, and they're all playing out of their minds on an individual level. They might not be able to compete with, say, G2 Esports (yet), but they're really close. When the third week of LEC play concludes, they will differentiate themselves as a clear contender, a team that has the tools to compete at the very top and that could potentially even challenge for the title.

Excel Esports are just a (somewhat) interesting challenge along the way. Schalke should have the edge on all fronts, and they have stronger players that should be able to take control and clutch things out in all stages of the game. While it might not be particularly clean or dominant, Schalke should get the win without a doubt.