Team Vitality vs FC Schalke 04

For our third match of the day, we have an incredibly interesting clash between Team Vitality, the third best EU team from 2018, and FC Schalke 04.

Both teams are entering 2019 with their eyes set on the playoffs. Both organizations know that they have highly capable rosters, but unlike Schalke that's fielding an almost entirely different roster, Vitality only made a single change. We've all seen just how important the jungle position is for Vitality, mainly because their jungler dictates the pace of the game and essentially "unlocks" Daniele "Jiizuke" di Mauro in the mid lane. When they had Erberk "Gilius" Demir in the line-up, they were more "carnivorous", willing to go for risky plays and off-the-bat dives, but once Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek joined the team, they became a lot more calculated and subdued.

Sure, their insane tempo was still a core part of their identity, and one of the main reasons as to why their games are always must-watch, but they finally had an additional strategic layer (and in-game voice) for the mid and late stages of the game.

Coming into 2019, they're replacing Kikis with Lee "Mowgli" Jae-ha, former Afreeca Freecs substitute jungler. Now, while he isn't exactly a household name, the young LCK prospect did show a lot of promise when he did see playtime. He's not a known quantity, and that could be a problem. Furthermore, Mowgli has never played outside of Korea, and having a language barrier may or may not pose a serious issue. Having all five players on the same page in those hectic five-on-five moments is of the utmost importance, and if one guy isn't responding the right way, if he isn't in-sync with the rest of the team then things tend to fall apart rather quickly.

Watching Vitality in 2019 should be an absolute blast. They're an incredibly exciting team, they're confident and willing to go where no other LEC team would, and they'll rather fall apart at the seams than play by the meta and its "rules". With a new member in the roster, they will probably need some time in order to sync up, but once that comes, they should be a very strong contender.

As for Schalke 04, they're entering 2019 without a ton of hype, and that's for the best. When people expect too much from Schalke they tend to underperform. They are fielding a very interesting roster, however. Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu in the top lane, Jonas "Memento" Elmarghichi (former Team ROCCAT jungler) in the jungle, an up-and-coming mid laner in Felix "Abbedagge" Braun (known for his play in the Turkish region), and a stellar bottom lane duo in Elias "Upset" Lipp

and Lee "IgNar" Dong-geun.

That's a well-rounded roster if there ever was one. They're not exactly screaming "championship-worthy", but they have a lot of tools available in order to cause absolute chaos in the LEC. Odoamne hasn't been playing that well in 2018, but he's still a revered veteran that should be able to step up and compete at the highest possible level, and Memento was known for 1v9'ing back in his ROCCAT days. If Abbedagge plays as well as he could, then Schalke might rise to a higher spot in the rankings fairly quickly. But will all of that be enough against Vitality? The odds are stacked against them.

Without even a pinch of existing synergy (and a new head coach as well), they will have a lot of work to do in the coming week in order to become a playoff-worthy contender. That day will come, that's for sure, but not as quickly as they might have hoped.

In the end, we're going with Team Vitality on this one. Schalke does seem like a rather dangerous and capable team, but they don't have any synergy coming into 2019. They're starting from scratch, whereas Vitality retained four of their members — four guys that went blow-for-blow with the likes of Royal Never Give Up, Cloud9, and Gen.G just a couple of months ago.

While it probably won't be clean and dominant, Vitality should emerge victorious.