The LoL team Eintracht Spandau faced Berlin International Gaming (BiG) last weekend. It was the first major city derby in the German-speaking Strauss Prime League. The duel was heavily promoted beforehand, and at the start, it all looked like a victory for HandOfBlood’s team. But then the battles for dragons and Baron began.
How did the match go?
- The first 17 minutes of the game looked really promising for Eintracht Spandau. They were ahead by 4 towers and nearly 3,000 gold. In dragons, it was also 2:1 for the newest team in the league.
- The top laner Pride was particularly outstanding, securing a kill and a tower on his own. On the other hand, Eintracht’s mid lane struggled as Special was repeatedly attacked and killed by BiG players.
- However, starting from minute 25, the battles for dragons and Baron began. BiG’s jungler managed to steal two dragons with Smite.
- At minute 29, it looked like Eintracht could secure the Baron. In that fight, Pride and Special killed BiG’s entire bot lane, but the players from Eintracht came out of the fight with very little health. Instead of retreating, they continued to fight against the Baron. BiG went in a second time, and the fight ended with 3 dead players on both sides and a tower in the middle for BiG.
- At minute 33, Eintracht gave the dragon soul to BiG and wanted to swap it for Baron. But they waited too long, and the dragon was already dead before they even started on Baron. Therefore, BiG could enter a fight against an already weakened team from Eintracht Spandau. The team fight ended 5:0 for BiG, who then could finish the match immediately.
Decisive for the victory were mainly four things: BiG had the better late-game team, Pabu – BiG’s jungler – was able to steal two dragons with Smite, Special – Eintracht Spandau’s mid laner – usually only hit one or two players with Orianna’s Shockwave at a time, and the team fights were played too riskily by Eintracht.
You can watch the complete match on YouTube (from 4:15:30):
“Century Derby” drew a lot of attention beforehand
What was so special about the match? In November 2021, HandOfBlood announced that he would be taking over a LoL team in the Strauss Prime League with his agency INSTINCT3. This is the highest league in the German-speaking region, including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The best teams from this league participate in the EU Masters, the largest European tournament behind the LEC.
Eintracht Spandau represents a district in Berlin, where HandOfBlood lives and which he had previously represented as “Spandauer Inferno”. Recently, the team achieved three consecutive victories.
On the eighth matchday, Eintracht Spandau faced Berlin International Gaming. As both teams come from the same region and in this case even from the same city, such a meeting is referred to as a derby.
Derbies are typically characterized by special rivalry. This was also heavily promoted.
How did the two teams present themselves? HandOfBlood announced in November that his team wanted to work a lot with storytelling. This was especially noticeable last weekend.
On Twitter, there were ongoing verbal exchanges between HandOfBlood, as president of Eintracht Spandau, and Christian Lenz, the Chief Gaming Officer of BiG. Both took on rather unsympathetic roles.
There were several “apologies” from Eintracht, leading to the decision to watch the derby together at BiG’s headquarters. They even brought guest gifts in the form of an Eintracht flag.
However, after the match, the next major “argument” broke out there, which even became “physical”.
Even the shoutcasters and the Prime League YouTube channel significantly fueled the rivalry. There was already a video beforehand discussing who would win the “Century Derby”.
Maxim celebrates comeback as a shoutcaster for Eintracht
Eintracht Spandau showcases the team’s matches on its own Twitch channel. They are commented by Boerki, the in-house streamer. However, this week, Maxim “Maxim” Markow was a special guest.
Maxim had commented on the LEC, the Worlds, and other major tournaments in German for years. In 2021, however, he announced his retirement from the casting business.
For the Berlin derby, he returned and achieved a peak of 37,000 simultaneous viewers. This peak was enough for 18th place in the LoL category for the last 7 days (via Sullygnome). They had more viewers than the official shoutcast of the Prime League on Twitch.
Moreover, with this peak, they surpassed streamers like Caedral, Doublelift, Rekkles, and NoWay4u_Sir, one of the most famous German players, who had more streamed hours but not as many simultaneous viewers.
Big party at Spandauer Bock immediately reminds of football
To watch the derby and celebrate a possible victory, many fans of Eintracht Spandau gathered at the establishment “Spandauer Bock”. There was a kind of public viewing.
The atmosphere there was very good before the match and reminded one of classic football fan nights.
However, there was some criticism for this celebration, as such large gatherings are viewed negatively by some in times of the pandemic, despite the precautions.
HandOfBlood had set as a goal for Eintracht Spandau that a fan culture should develop like in football. The video and also the victory celebration of the team definitely look like that:
LoL team of YouTuber HandOfBlood celebrates the 1st victory as beautifully as football fans
