EU LCS Replacement Play In Recap

The EU LCS replacement playin happened today with Ninjas in Pyjamas(NIP), Meet Your Maker(MYM), and Supa Hot Crew (SHC) playing a round robin to see who takes over the disqualified Lemondogs LCS spot. Unfortunately after 25 minutes of delay incurring several ban loss penalties

We are waiting on NIP to have all players in the lobby. They have currently lost 2 bans for lateness. #LCS #leagueoflegends
— Scott Parkin (@RiotaBhorsen) January 11, 2014

NIP now lost all 3 bans due to lateness.
— Leigh Smith (@RiotDeman) January 11, 2014

 Riot was forced to disqualify NIP due to their failure to field a complete roster.

NIP are disqualified from the LCS Promo for not fielding a full team in time for the match. MYM vs SHC in a Bo3 for final EU #LCS spot.
— Leigh Smith (@RiotDeman) January 11, 2014

According to NIP members the problem was a player failing to update his client before the match.

So we lost our 3 bans due to on of our players being late with patching. I feel so sad right now. 1 minute till we get Dqed
— Freeze (@FreezeLoL) January 11, 2014

As a result of the mishaps Riot changed format to a Bo3 between the two remaining teams MYM and SHC.

The first game started rather even between the two teams. SHC was able to pick up an early aggressive first blood thanks in part to MYM's support Libik not having the Annie stun prepped, but otherwise the lanes were relatively slow and farmcentric in the early game. Impaler the jungler for SHC made repeated visits bottom lane, at first there was not much achieved with his gank attempts, but they eventually resulted in a few more kills picked up and the first Dragon. From that point on the game was mostly about SHC's team play, they were constantly out rotating and out team fighting MYM. Despite some strong individual plays from MYM they were just never able to win a team fight convincingly. Even a desperation baron at 25 minutes was not enough to win a fight for MYM as they'd instantly lose 3 members to SHC's post baron engage. The Baron did allow MYM to stall the game for awhile, even pushing down two mid turrets, but it was not nearly enough to turn around the monumental lead SHC has accrued.  About 36 minutes into the game SHC would seize an opportunity to take baron and use it to push through for a strong finish to game one.

MYM made changes going into game 2, taking away Thresh and Vi from SHC, as well as bringing Yasuo to top lane. An successful extended invade from SHC managed to set Mokatte's Vi behind as well as take away vital flashes from MYM. Game two was much more fight heavy than the first; the teams wound up splitting 12 kills evenly between them before the first dragon fell. Had SHC not taken the early advantage of setting Vi behind and burning MYM flashes the myriad of early fights may not have gone so even and SHC may not have been able to steal away the first dragon and pick up a kill off the back. An advantage in hand SHC went to work on MYM pressing down towers across the map and eventually securing an ace in a tower dive top lane. A completely uncontested baron for SHC at 26 minutes and another 4-0 team fight victory at dragon was enough for the picture to be as clear to MYM as it was to everyone else, they surrendered  the 2nd and final game of the best of 3.

Just like that Supa Hot Crew are in the EU LCS. Three days from now they'll face off against fellow newcomers Roccat (who qualified as KMT) in the first super week of the spring split. A job many people lust over, and few get the second chance for that SHC just seized. Now it is on SHC to make good use of that second chance, and turn it into results in the spring split.

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