After a very lackluster spring split where Splyce ended in relegation positions, the former DIG.EU lineup stands before us all in a position we never expected them to achieve this soon. Finalists of the EULCS summer playoffs and the 3rd seed heading into worlds, Splyce seek to be the biggest surprise we have at this year’s World Championships.

Top - Martin “Wunder” Hansen

A lot of Splyce’s turn around story starts with their top laner. During the spring regular season, Wunderwear was the top laner with least kill participation, he had the 2nd highest percentage of team’s deaths of all top laners, and of all the players that have played all 18 games, he had the worst KDA. If this wasn’t enough going wrong in the top lane, he also absorbed 25% of the team’s total gold, vastly surpassing the next top laner in line, which was Cabochard at 21.4%. Despite the stats almost screaming for a replacement, Splyce did not replace Wunderwear once the spring split was over.

Instead, what the fans got was one hell of a transformation. See, Splyce’s style morphed from “give Wunder resources so that he's not behind,” to actually playing around the top lane and play out lane swaps accordingly. Ever since the start of summer, Wunder has played out of his mind both as a laner and as a teamfighter, being able to draw the attention he needs to or split pushing and forcing the enemy team to make bad decisions. Best of all, Wunder no longer requires all available resources just to be mediocre. With the resources available through his own lane, he can become a true threat and a legitimate carry top laner.

Jungle - Jonas “Trashy” Andersen

Similarly to the rest of the team, Trashy’s spring split was really shaky and his plays would lead him to simply wait for ganks to happen to react in order to them. Most of Trashy’s time was spent pampering the top lane in hopes of generating enough of a lead to where it would matter later on. As discussed previously, Wunder simply wouldn't perform despite many times having the tools to do so.

A lot of what allowed Wunder to redeem himself as a top laner stems from how Trashy operates around the top lane. Instead of primarily focus on the top lane, Trashy decided to focus on the entire upper side of the map. Whether it be warding in an attempt to pinpoint the enemy jungler’s location or ganking for mid/top, Trashy has shown that with freedom he's capable of putting both of his solo laners ahead, giving enough map pressure to allow Trashy to go into the enemy team’s jungle for himself. If you were to name a flaw from this playstyle, it's that there is a lack of focus on the bottom lane from Splyce’s jungle.

Mid - Chres “Sencux” Laursen

As a young, new to the LCS mid laner, it can be very hard to play with the ease you might have played with during the Challenger series. Early on in spring, Sencux fell fowl of the doubts you have when laning. “Is there somebody from the enemy here? Should I bother with the trade and just take the farm?” eventually lead to Sencux simply letting his hesitation not allow him to play how he had in challenger a few months back.

For the summer, however, Sencux and Splyce’s approach to the mid lane changed to be more team oriented. Rather than seeking an advantage for himself, Sencux would often look to his side lanes to find said advantages. Whether it would be through timely roams or teleport flanks, Sencux found a way to exert pressure and build a team wide advantage. His own lane would see cs deficits in exchange for advantages in Top especially. With power on Wunder, Splyce had freedom to execute split pushing strategies that propelled them to be one of the best macro teams in EULCS.

AD Carry - Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup

Splyce’s AD Carry has never truly been outstanding. Sure, he's had the odd game here or there where he essentially carries the game on his own during the summer split, but most of the time he's simply there doing as much damage as he can without being the primary carry. It is easy see how much Splyce hasn’t relied on Kobbe’s performances to change their status as a team entirely by looking at his stats. During the regular season in spring, the danish ad carry had, on average, 23.5% gold share and dealt 27% of his team’s total damage. Yet we look at the summer stats and, on average, Kobbe dealt 26% of his team’s total damage while gathering 24.6% of his team’s gold.

Theres a lot of good things you could bring up about Kobbe’s performances. If nothing else he’s consistent with his actions, which in of itself is a very enviable trait. Since his team hasn’t been accustomed to playing around the bottom lane, there could be a lot of trouble heading into worlds considering the meta has shifted to favor standard lanes over laneswapping. Despite Trashy’s insistence on staying on the top side, Kobbe has proven he can at least hold the bottom lane from giving away free leads to the enemy team, and one of the major reasons for that is our next player…

Support - Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle

While Splyce’s AD Carry hasn’t changed much about his performances from spring to summer, Splyce’s support really revitalised the bottom lane much harder than was expected of him. Former support player, Nicolai "Nisbeth" Nisbeth, was not necessarily a bad player, just wasn’t very active early in the game. Splyce’s bottom lane has been relatively passive during both splits, but the introduction of Mikyx to the roster has definitely opened up roaming potential from the support position as well as having a higher first blood participation coming from the bottom lane. It’s always nice and refreshing to see a new support player fitting in with the team immediately. Mikyx has not only proven he can be a reliable support in lane, but reliable in teamfights. There is still work to be had with ward placements and timings, but we must keep an eye out for this incredibly young and talented support.

Final thoughts

The fall of teams like Fnatic and Origen have opened the gates for teams such as Splyce to rise up and claim their spot at the top of the league. It’s also a great story to tell. From fighting to maintain their spot after finishing 8th place and having to play relegations, to finishing the split in 2nd place and eventually making it to the worlds’ stage. If Splyce is capable of not bleeding from the bottom lane, the upper side of the map could do enough to win them several games in group stages. The cover image perfectly describes why Splyce wins. While every team essentially does huddles these days, Splyce truly wins because of their teamwork, and lets hope they can portray their synergy on the grandest stage.

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Images and cover courtesy of the lolesports' flickr.

Stats such as "average % of team's damage" taken from oracleselixir.com