Misfits opened up the European League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split playoffs with quite the upset, sweeping the Unicorns of Love in a swift 3-0 series on Saturday in Berlin.
Despite coming into this series as the higher seed, Unicorns were completely outpaced by Misfits in every phase of the game all series long. The most glaring issue came in the drafting phase. While UoL could have been forgiven for allowing Steven "Hans Sama" Liv to run rampant in Game 1 with Tristana, it was a cardinal sin for the team to not ban the champion in the next two games. It wasn't as though Hans Sama simply played "well" with the champion in the opening game either; he completely dominated. Not only did he pick up a pentakill to end the game, but he finished with a flawless 12/0/1 KDA (kills/deaths/assists). Allowing him to grab the champion two more times to the tune of a combined 12/3/17 KDA in Games 2 and 3 is simply unforgivable.
More so than the questionable drafting decisions, Unicorns was seemingly unable to keep up with Misfits in terms of teamfights from start to finish, despite having one of the better teamfight initiators in Zac during the final two games. Instead, it was Misfits who executed each of its teamfight-focused composition to perfection. Unicorns never recovered and Misfits ran away during seemingly every engagement, finishing the series with a 54-to-14 advantage in kills
While Misfits proved doubters wrong, Unicorns simply added to the chorus of naysayers who believe that this simply isn't a top-level team. Despite making it to the grand finals of the Spring Split and finishing the Summer Split regular season with a 9-4 record, which was good for second place in Group B, Unicorns of Love have fallen short once again, to a 6-7 Misfits squad from Group A, no less. The loss likely means that the team will have to wade through the regional qualifiers to qualify for the big dance, as G2 Esports and Fnatic will almost certainly pass the team in circuit points.
While Unicorns watch the rest of the playoffs from home, Misfits will be preparing for its next series. Despite being the lowest seed in the playoffs, Misfits will face H2k Gaming in the semifinals, as it was in the same group as Fnatic in the regular season and the semifinals are reseeded to prevent such a meeting.