After a loss in the opening series, France’s LDLC OL rallied to become the first European Masters Spring 2020 finalist.
How they got there
LDLC OL joined EU Masters in the groups as the second French seed, before going out in first place in Group B after a three-way tiebreaker. AGO ROGUE was in the same group and also went through the tiebreaker, falling to the French team in the last round. Yet after Polish team eliminated mousesports and LDLC took down BT Excel, the teams met once again in the semifinals for a rematch.
Game 1: Smells like teamfighting spirit
LDLC started the game off the wrong foot from level one, when they tried to invade the enemy red buff only to be collapsed on and lose two. Still, the French team had a mostly even early game and got several kills, but eventually, they fell behind as ROGUE’s mid-game teamfighting carried the day. LDLC landed some blows as well, particularly when they managed to secure an inhibitor when their opponents were doing baron, but a close fight 29 minutes in resulted in an ace and a win for the Polish side.
Game 2: LDLC strikes back
The French team was not ready to throw the table, however, and went for a somewhat unconventional Yasuo-Braum bot lane. This time, however, the early game was by far in their favor after a stellar performance by Kristian "TynX" Østergaard Hansen, whose Trundle secured multiple kills in the opening minutes.AGO ROGUE looked disjointed and even when they grouped in, their opponents found a way to hit back.
20 minutes into the game, the Polish team tried to contest the baron 4v5 and it ended in a Baron and four kills for their opponents. With the buff, LDLC went for the enemy base won the game after an extended ace near the top inhibitor.
Game 3: Close is not enough
The decider would once more have LDLC get first blood after Tinx barely survived a countergank that lured his opposite number in. The French team would slowly grow their lead until it was nearly 5K at 18 minutes in, but AGO ROGUE was able to stop the bleeding and had very good scaling,
It looked like the Polish team was about to make a comeback after they interrupted the recalls after baron to get four kills. However, in the next fight, LDLC got a clean win and the infernal soul and they only needed one more to end the game.
It was a close call for the French team, but after their poor start they rallied and deservedly won the game off some great jungling and proactive early game moves. On Sunday, they will face the winner of the second semifinal, where group rivals Movistar Riders and K1CK Neosurf face off for the second finals spot.
If you want to follow the teams’ path to the semifinals, check out our previous coverage of the EU Masters event: