After a Mid Season Invitational to remember from the defending champions Pentanet.GG, the LCO returns for its second split under its newly minted name & structure.
The DoorDash LCO returns for Split 2, this time with the traditional triple round-robin competition we grew to love in the last two years of the OPL.
While more games played means more chances to slip up without it impacting your season, we’ve learned throughout Oceanic League of Legends history that every game still matters, very much, and one win or loss could change a team’s destiny forever in the race for the illustrious World Championship.
Reece “Ties” Perry breaks down the biggest LCO battles on Matchday 1.
Perry‘s Pick of the Week: Pentanet.GG vs Dire Wolves
Prediction: PGG win.
Tuesday marks our first opportunity to see our returning Mid-Season Invitational MSI heroes, Pentanet.GG, in action and the LCO has dished us up a tantalising matchup with a 1st vs. 2nd regular-season showdown with the Dire Wolves.
You may have forgotten the Dire Wolves finished second in Split 1, because Peace promptly dispatched them in less than an hour and a half come playoffs. But the team that had pundits the region over salivating prior to the first split will be out to show they’re closer to that form than their finals whimper.
Role-swapped Brandon “Claire” Nguyen was hot and cold, as was Andy “Cupcake” Van Der Vyver, and too much was left to the rest of the pack to do all at once to keep them in enough games to meet their expectations.
PGG, obviously, met their own expectations in winning the split and going to represent the LCO at MSI. That story is now in the annals of Oceanic esports history, and they’ll need to make sure they have knocked off the ring rust to prevent a slow start to their title defence.
The mid lane battle, and wider mid/jungle 2v2 is a tantalizing morsel and is what I’ll have my eye on when the teams clash. Ari “Shok” Greene-Young has gone from being a hole in the donut to one of the shining lights in the mid lane, and Chazz won hearts and 1v1’s alike at MSI and is arguably in the form of his life.
Coupled with veteran leaders Jordan “Only” Middleton and Jackson “Pabu” Pavone in their pockets, I think the winner of this matchup wins the map. I find it unlikely that either side lane will collapse so badly to move the win condition from either side.
At the end of the day, I think Pentanet.GG will secure the win
Their recent international experience overpowers the Wolfpack on Day 1. The time for the Wolves to look to challenge and topple PGG will come later in the split, as they continue to work on this iteration of their roster.
Perry’s Week 1, Day 1 Predictions
- Legacy def. Gravitas
- Peace def. Chiefs
- Pentanet def. Dire Wolves
- Order def. Mammoth
The LCO returns today. Pentanet.GG vs Dire Wolves will be played on Tuesday, June 15 at 8pm (AEST). Catch up on all the LCO 2021 Split 2 details in our ultimate coverage hub.
