Between the short vacations being taken by G2 Esports' South Korean players and its mid laner calling in sick, expectations were low for the substitute-filled roster. Nevertheless, G2 managed to take down ROCCAT 2-1 in its opening series of the European League of Legends Championship Series split in Berlin on Friday.
ROCCAT's bot lane was the story of champ select for Game 1, as the first-pick Xayah for Petter "Hjarnan" Freyschuss and last-pick Rakan for Kim "Wadid" Bae-in set them up for success in the duo lane. Indeed, 18 minutes in, Hjarnan found a kill onto the Lulu of G2's Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez. ROC turned this lead into the first two towers and grabbed a Baron at 31 minutes, using it to break the G2 base. From there, ROCCAT had no trouble winning every subsequent fight, taking all three inhibitors and ending the game in 40 minutes.
Game 2 was all about the Lucian mid pick for ROCCAT's Felix "Betsy" Edling, which fell flat on its face. Early misplays from Betsy allowed Jin "Blanc" Seong-min's Orianna to snowball, going 6/0/4 (kills/deaths/assists) before finally giving up a death. With G2 AD carry Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen's Kog'Maw also massively ahead, G2 was able to find two kills at 23 minutes and easily secure Baron afterward. ROCCAT did a decent job of delaying the inevitable, but with a second Baron buff, and more than 10,000 gold ahead, G2 took the ROC Nexus at 35 minutes.
Blanc made an impact again early on in Game 3 on Fizz, grabbing a pair of kills in the top lane just seven minutes in. This quickly became a problem for all of ROCCAT, as he went on to find kills in every single lane in the mid game. Again, Zven was quick to join Blanc as a second carry, pulling off strong flanks on Twitch to decimate ROCCAT in teamfights. G2 snowballed its way to an easy victory, albeit a 41-minute one.
G2 will be happy to have escaped win from their subs; the full starting roster should return next week to take on Fnatic at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 8. ROCCAT will look to recover against Misfits on Saturday, June 10 at 11 a.m.