The grand final of the Spring Split 2022 in the highest German league in League of Legends took place on Sunday. The teams Eintracht Spandau and GamerLegion faced each other. Just a few weeks ago, Eintracht Spandau achieved a 3:0 victory against their competitor. However, in the grand final, GamerLegion turned the tables.
How did Eintracht Spandau’s season go? The entire Spring Split was a rollercoaster for the team led by HandOfBlood and his agency INSTINCT3:
- To start, the team suffered 4 consecutive defeats. There were discussions because HandOfBlood, as president, declared the aim of competing for a title at the EU Masters in the future. This is the largest European tournament, just behind the LEC.
- At halftime of the season, the team was in 8th place with 4 wins and 5 losses. However, they needed at least 6th place to at least qualify for the playoffs and have a chance to enter the EU Masters.
- By the end of the season, Eintracht Spandau really ramped up. They managed to win 8 games in a row. They always relied on the same strategy. In the end, they secured 2nd place and thus a spot in the upper bracket of the playoffs.
- There, they met GamerLegion, the first placed team in the league, on March 8, against whom they had lost both matches in the regular season. However, the team wiped them off the map almost effortlessly with a 3:0.
- Through the looser bracket, GamerLegion managed to fight their way to the final and got the rematch against Eintracht Spandau. And this match was already under a bad star before it even started, at least from the perspective of HandOfBlood and his team.
GamerLegion dominated the first match right away
How did the first match go? GamerLegion was able to assemble a combo in the first draft that the analysts considered very dangerous and clearly stronger than the champions from Eintracht Spandau. They all gave the victory to GamerLegion.
And that’s exactly how it went. From the beginning, Eintracht Spandau had no chance. Although the major team fights were absent and at minute 15 the kill count was only 1:1, GamerLegion was able to earn a noticeable gold lead and two dragons through platinums and good farming.
At minute 22, the jungler D4nka won the team fight with a good Hecarim-ult and the supporter Visdom secured the kills on Kynetic and Prime with a Thresh hook and quickly eliminated the opposing bot lane. After that followed an uncoordinated action from the remaining players of Eintracht Spandau.
After a short break, the team fight ended with 5:1 kills for GamerLegion. A Baron followed, as well as the dragon soul and the victory at minute 31.
How did the second match go? Eintracht Spandau had a better start this time and took a lead with 2:1 kills after a team fight in the bot lane. At minute 15, the kill count was 2:2 and 1:1 in dragons, but Spandau was slightly ahead with 2,000 gold.
However, at minute 19, Spandau played too aggressively and walked into a 4v5 team fight. Especially the mid laner ESCIK from GamerLegion performed a good flank with Ahri and secured two important kills. This pattern continued in the following minutes, where Eintracht Spandau kept seeking fights, but GamerLegion turned them around and emerged victorious.
The casters highlighted the problem with the top lane pick from Pride, who was playing Dr Mundo. Although he was tanky, he brought nothing else to the team. This pick should be the reason why some team fights were lost.
Until the end, Eintracht Spandau fought, and despite being down 18:23 in kills and fewer towers, they narrowly led in gold at minute 40. However, they made another wrong decision and secured a Baron while GamerLegion simply demolished the Berliner’s base and destroyed the Nexus before the team was able to return in time.
GamerLegion, Eintracht Spandau and the dance around the Nexus
How did the third match go? The final match of the series offers a real nail-biting finale. Again, Eintracht Spandau dominated the start with two kills and a slight gold lead. But at minute 9, GamerLegion turned the tide.
Sacre divides the team of Spandau with the Rumble ultimate Equalizer and secures three kills and the Herald. In the following moments, GamerLegion won most team fights, but Spandau stayed ahead in gold. Especially Jinjo played an outstanding game on Jhin and had a statistic of 13/4/6 at minute 33, which is excellent for a bot laner.
And then it gets curious. At minute 39, GamerLegion is able to destroy the first inhibitor in the middle of Eintracht Spandau. After that, they keep running against the Nexus towers and an enemy team while being outnumbered. But Eintracht Spandau defends and lands their own jabs. They take the opposing inhibitor in the bot lane in a strong backdoor action from Pride. Later on, Pride continued to secure kills to prevent the assault on their base, as well as even a Nexus tower at minute 43.
GamerLegion takes an eternity to finish the game. It almost reminded of the league match between Gamer Legion and Spandau, where the team of HandOfBlood narrowly missed victory.
It took until minute 47 for Spandau’s suffering to end. However, GamerLegion can celebrate their title win.
Eintracht Spandau struggled with injury and illness issues beforehand
What was going on with Eintracht Spandau? Even before the match, HandOfBlood’s LoL team had some issues:
- The top laner Pride suffered a muscle strain in his leg a day before the final but was able to participate.
- The bot laner Kynetic revealed that even the training matches did not go well.
- For their own live stream of the grand final, influencers Johnny and Kalle Koschinsky dropped out, both had to cancel due to illness.
The players and officials expressed their disappointment on their Twitter channels. Nevertheless, the team celebrated their achievements throughout the season, a strong second place, and especially the reach they were able to build.
Both Pride and HandOfBlood promised that Eintracht would strike back at the upcoming EU Masters.
The final set a new record: For the officials of the Prime League, the final was still a huge success despite GamerLegion’s dominance. At peak, 38,187 people were watching on Twitch, a new record for the channel.
Additionally, 35,271 viewers peaked for the event on Eintracht Spandau’s channel. This was the second-best value. However, the numbers remained consistently over 30,000 for several hours (via Sullygnome).
EU Masters begins in April and both teams are there
What exactly does the outcome of the match mean? GamerLegion is now officially the winner of the Spring Split 2022. They have secured the title and the trophy.
However, both GamerLegion and Eintracht Spandau are directly entering the main event of the EU Masters Spring 2022. Therefore, they do not have to play the first play-in phase. The German team qualified in 3rd place for that, the Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition.
The EU Masters start on April 4th and run until May 7th. A prize pool of 150,000 euros is waiting to be divided among the best teams.
Who will the teams face at the EU Masters? Against the best teams from other European leagues. A title favorite is the French team Karmine Corp. They have the well-known AD carry Rekkles, who has played several times for Fnatic at the LoL Worlds.
Another strong team comes from Spain, Fnatic TQ. This is the second team of Fnatic, where talents and substitute players from the main team come into play. They dominated the Spanish league with 16:2 and also won the Upper Bracket in the playoffs against the team Barcelona eSports with 3:1.
In general, the European leagues below the LEC are currently enjoying great popularity. Why this is so, we have broken down here:
