In the Strauss Prime League in League of Legends on February 3, there was perhaps the closest game in many years. Eintracht Spandau, the team of HandOfBlood, faced GamerLegion. They had won all 9 games up to that point. Eintracht Spandau was very close to a miracle, but in the end, they were just two auto-attacks away from victory.
What happened?
- GamerLegion was the clear favorite in the match. After 9 wins in the first 9 games, they were on track to break the league record, which previously stood at 10 consecutive wins by MOUZ.
- Eintracht Spandau, on the other hand, had a weak start and even suffered a heavy defeat in the Berlin Derby. Before the match, they stood at 4:5.
- However, this round was very balanced throughout. HandOfBlood’s team was even in the gold lead at one point and secured an important Baron at the 35-minute mark.
- After the Baron, they pushed into GamerLegion’s base, destroying two inhibitors. At the 37-minute mark, Pride then stormed into the enemy base and destroyed both Nexus towers. Suddenly, it seemed like Eintracht Spandau could win.
- In a final fight for the Baron, Eintracht Spandau was once again in the lead. With the buff, they went into a 5v5 team fight in GamerLegion’s base. However, there was no clear focus – enemy or Nexus – which caused Eintracht Spandau to lose all 5 players in the end, but the Nexus still had just enough life for one or maybe two auto-attacks.
- GamerLegion countered the won team fight and promptly ended the match due to the high resurrection times.
How close Eintracht Spandau was to victory can be seen in this clip:
Players are frustrated, but there was also good news
How did the reactions to the match go? The players from Eintracht Spandau vented their frustration on Twitter. The top laner Pride described the game as a “sad loss” and jungler Obsess simply wrote, “What a shit show.”
Even the team’s coach, Christoph “nRated” Seitz shared his disappointment:
Were there any good news? Yes. The team WAVE, which had lost all nine games until now, achieved a victory over EWI, a direct competitor of Eintracht Spandau. As a result, they did not fall behind the spots 3 to 6 in the Prime League despite being in 7th/8th place.
Additionally, the players of Eintracht Spandau are performing really well in the statistics. Top laner Pride is the player with the most solo kills in the league, while mid laner Special is the only one who has managed to get a quadra kill this season.
Eintracht Spandau creates a huge hype
What kind of team is this? Eintracht Spandau was founded by YouTuber HandOfBlood and his agency INSTINCT3. Their goal is to create more storytelling and identification in e-sports. During the celebration of their first victory, they already resembled football fans.
They also aim to compete long-term for the EU Masters, the largest European tournament behind the LEC.
Even now, the team regularly ensures that viewer records for the Strauss Prime League are broken. While in 2020 and 2021 peak viewership was between 14,000 and 16,000, records of over 50,000 live viewers have now been broken.
Also, on Twitter, the team regularly appears in the trends with their hashtag:
This is not least due to the huge fan support that Eintracht Spandau receives. In many cities and regions, they have formed small “fan clubs,” such as the unofficial association in Lower Saxony and Bremen, Eintracht Spandau Section Brandenburg, or the Eintracht Spandau Ultras_Austria.
More about the founding and idea of the team can be found here:
German YouTuber founds e-sport team – Immediately enters the highest German LoL league
