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We continue to review what's happening on the European professional scene with LEC Winter 2024. In case anyone forgot, the split play-offs are heating up and it's an important event.
Important, because Europe is the first to play in the new season, and also the prizes of LEC Winter 2024. At stake, by the way, is not only 80,000 euros, but also two tickets to the future top professional tournaments: LEC Finals 2024 and Mid-Season Invitational 2024.
Among the contenders to win the championship are place and BDS with Vitality. They will play each other in the semifinals of the upper grid and we'll be looking to see who will be stronger in this Bo3 French match.
Let's go.
BDS Form
Let's open the match with an analysis of the BDS form. In this match BDS will play as the number one, with odds in the region of 1.5.
At LEC Winter 2023 BDS reached the group stage, but quickly fell out of it, taking the last place in their quartet. The result was a top-7 finish.
Next up was LEC Spring 2023 and BDS' moment of glory. Completely unexpectedly, they reached the grand final, but there they lost to MAD Lions, who were on a terrific spree in the spring.
- BDS line-up: Adam, Sheo, nuc, ice, Labrov.
Before LEC Finals 2023 BDS played at LEC Summer 2023. They were one map short of reaching the play-offs. The championship ended on the 5th place.
Thanks to the near top places and TOP 2 at LEC Spring 2023 BDS managed to get to LEC Finals 2023, and also to the top grid, where they got to G2 Esports in the first round. The International didn't end up with anything interesting and G2 had no trouble closing out the match with a 3-1 score.
After the defeat from the main favourite of LEC Finals 2023 - G2 Esports - BDS played against SK Gaming. The German club was unable to give anything to the French and fell with a score of 0-3.
However, BDS' path to the LEC Finals 2023 ended with the game against SK. The team lost to Fnatic 2-3 in the next round of the lower bracket, thus failing to make it into the top 3 of the tournament for direct participation in the main tournament.
BDS have already started Worlds 2023 on a positive note. They ran over Golden Guardians at the Worlds Qualifying Series in class, thus snatching a slot in the same Play-In.
After a confidence-boosting win over GG at the Worlds Qualifying Series, BDS unexpectedly fell in their first match at Worlds 2023. They lost to No. 2 Vietnam, thus becoming the main losers of the World Championship so far.
They managed to partially rehabilitate themselves in the match against DFM. The Japanese club did not provide proper resistance and BDS closed the series with a very simple 2-0.
In the match for the exit here BDS played against CTBC. The Frenchmen outclassed their opponents, closing the series 2-0.
BDS battled PSG Talon to advance to the group stage. The French were a map away from elimination, but on the third map Adam and his Olaf gave his team a chance to clinch a comeback and BDS took it: a reverse sweep in the group stage match actually allowed BDS to qualify for the group stage.
In the group stage of Worlds 2023, BDS first ran into JD Gaming. Obviously, the first team of the world was not up to the French and they lost without much of a chance. Next was a match against MAD Lions and again an ironclad defeat. The BDS final at Worlds 2023 was as ignominious as their entire stay at the tournament - they lost 0-2 to Dplus.
BDS will make their LEC Winter 2024 debut against G2 Esports. Cheers to them! Later on it will be a match against GIANTX, which will be easier, but not easy.
BDS had almost no equal in the regular season of LEC Winter 2024. The French club lost only 2 matches: the first one of the year against G2 Esports and the last one in the regular season against Karmine Corp.
In the play-offs LEC Winter 2024 met Team Heretics. There, the French beat Heretics 2-0 on class.
The most popular BDS champions
On the top line the most frequent picks are KSante (4 matches, 50% wins), Gnar (3 matches, 100% wins).
Foresters picks are Wukong (4 matches, 50% wins), Vi (2 matches, 50% wins), Nocturne (2 matches, 50% wins), Viego (2 matches, 0% wins).
On the centre line Gragas (4 matches, 50% wins), Annie (4 matches, 50% wins).
Aphelios (6 matches, 33% wins), Jinx (3 matches, 66% wins), Zeri (2 matches, 100% wins).
Lulu (3 matches, 66% wins), Rakan (3 games, 0% wins), Nautilus (2 matches, 50% wins).
Vitality Form
We continue our match analysis with an analysis of Vitality's match form. In this match they will play as an outsider, with win odds around 2.4.
Vitality is a rather dubious team. They showed a rather unstable game throughout last year. Globally speaking, they failed in the 13th season, and seriously.
They started last season by participating in LEC Winter 2023. In the regular season, Vitality went over the heads of their opponents: they played it 7-2 and then went to play the group stage, where they had much less luck. So much so that Vitality failed to get out of their basket, Ledgeiv SK Gaming and KOI. As a result, the top 5.
Next up was an appearance at LEC Spring 2024. This was Vitality's best split where they managed to make it to the top 3. However, that was enough for exactly nothing: just Top 3.
The last tournament last season for Vitality was LEC Summer 2023. And it was a total fiasco: Vitality had their worst performance of the year, going 1-8 in the regular season and finishing the split in the top 10.
- Vitality roster: Photon, Daglas, Vetheo, Carzzy, Hylissang.
The team has a pretty strong lineup, but the realisation is Vitality's kryptonite.
In the first match of LEC Winter 2024, Team Vitality will play against GIANTX, where I see problems for the Bees. I think EXCEL's peppy core will give Vitality a boost. And so it happened. And two more defeats later, against Fnatic and Team BDS.
Vitality were actually pleasantly surprised. After Long Sogpeg 0-3, the "bees" managed to comeback to score 4-5, thus making it to the next stage of the tournament.
In the first round of the LEC Winter 2024 play-offs Vitality played against SK Gaming. Surprisingly, the French were very convincing and closed the series with a score of 2-0.
Vitality's most popular champions
The most frequent guest on the top line is Jax (2 matches, 100% wins). Also picked were KSante, Gnar, Gwen and Ornn, Renekton and Gragas. Ornn and Renekton, who didn't quite hit the season 13 meta, lost their matches.
Bo predominantly played as Vi. One of the most meta characters of the season appeared in spades 4 times and won all his games. There was also Sejuani and Maokai (2 games and 1 win each).
On the centre line, Azir was the favourite character (3 games, 100% wins). The Croatian also played Ryze, Syndra, Cassiopeia, Tristana, LeBlanc and Taliyah. Only Tristana and LeBlanc lost.
Of the shooters, Zeri (3 games, 66% wins), Ezreal (2 matches, 100% wins), Varus (2 games, 100% wins) appeared most often. Caitlyn and Sivir peaked once each: the former won her game and the latter lost.
Of the supporting characters, Yummi (3 games, 33% wins), Ashe (2 games, 100% wins) played three times. Leona, Braum, Nami and Lux won once each.
History of head-to-head meetings Vitality - BDS
BDS defeated Vitality in the regular season.
Predicted result of BDS vs Vitality at LEC Winter 2024
In this match I expect a pretty close game from the two teams, something I couldn't have thought of at the Long Run of the season. The progress that Vitality showed after the first 0-3 week at LEC Winter 2024 shows that the team has character. Even though BDS still look much stronger and are likely to win, I think Vitality will be able to put up a fight at least on the map.
Bottom line: +1.5 on Vitality.
