Equal Esports Cup Playoffs Day 1
The Equal Esports Cup makes its return after the intense finale of the Group Stage.
The first day saw G2 Hel vs Nexus Reapers, and Solary Academy vs Vitality Rising Bees.
Each team are fighting for more than their tournament lives, as the top three teams will be invited to the recently announced LoL Game Changers Rising.
G2 Hel sweep Nexus Reapers
In Game 1, G2 Hel selected a great selection of skirmish champions to disrupt Nexus Reapers before they could come online.
However, one team fight could change everything, as Nexus Reapers had the Nocturne/Orinana combo with a follow-up to make the team extra deadly.
Both teams played cautiously since only one kill was secured in the first 10 minutes, to the way of G2 Hel.
The game slowly ramped up from there with Nexus Reapers taking an early lead before G2 Hel won a team fight around the Rift Herald.
Despite G2 Hel taking the Baron, they were held off by the Nexus Reapers.
Ultimately, a deep dive in the mid lane saw them crumble to G2 Hel in a 5v4.
The G2 Hel top laner, Mina "Zeniv", was setting up the team to close out the game while the final fight was happening.
Equal Esports Cup on twitch.tv/EUniverse_TV
Game 2 seemed to play out the same way as Game 1, as the only kill went in favour of G2 Hel’s mid laner, Rym "rym" Salloum.
However, this time around, G2 Hel picked up kill after kill to gain a significant advantage.
First onto Alena "TIFA" Maurer, then Sabrina "Ghidi" Ghidini, Elianne "Dunneboshond" Haas, and Agnė "Karina" Ivaškevičiūtė, in one quick play.
After all of that, G2 Hel ran away with the game to win the series 2-0.
Equal Esports Cup on twitch.tv/EUniverse_TV
Solary Academy shoots down Vitality Rising Bees
On the other side of the bracket was Solary Academy as they faced off against Vitality Rising Bees.
Solary Academy managed to become the top seed for Group B after the shenanigans during the final day of the Group Stage.
This match would not disappoint as both teams were equally matched.
The first game saw Solary Academy take a comfortable gold lead, thanks to securing 3 kills in the first 10 minutes.
The game remained mostly stable as Vitality Rising Bees slowly came back into the game.
This came to a head around the third Dragon as Solary Academy took the Dragon but lost the subsequent teamfight to Vitality Rising Bees.
The following Dragon fight played out the same way, except this time, Solary Academy had secured the Hextech Dragon Soul alongside a tower in the top lane.
A pick onto British top laner for Solary Academy, Evie "Pivotless" Pullen, pulled Vitality Rising Bees to the bot lane, which allowed Solary Academy to take the Baron.
Vitality Rising Bees had more kills and the gold lead, but Solary Academy had the objectives.
A combination of Baron, Elder Dragon, and Hextech Soul almost spelt the end for Vitality Rising Bees.
However, they managed to hold on and push into Solary Academy’s base.
It all came down to the second Elder Dragon of the game to decide who would come out on top.
Solary Academy were the ones to take the Elder Dragon and cleaned up to take the first game.
Equal Esports Cup on twitch.tv/EUniverse_TV
The second game proved to be another nail-biter as Solary Academy held on against Vitality Rising Bees’ early lead.
Vitality Rising Bees held this lead and control of the game up until the 24-minute mark.
Solary Academy managed to split Vitality Rising Bees and pick off Iulia "Yushia" Boldor and Alessandra "Nenris" Schmalfuß to come back into the game.
With the game almost even and both teams looking to jump on the other, the game could’ve easily gone either way.
Once again, it was Solary Academy’s dominance over objectives in the later stages of the game which helped them secure the game and series.
Equal Esports Cup on twitch.tv/EUniverse_TV
Equal Esports Cup Playoffs Lower Bracket
The second day of the Equal Esports Cup Playoffs will see the lower bracket teams face off against those that lost yesterday.
Losing today will see teams knocked out of this year’s Equal Esports Cup.
Nexus Reapers will go up against Zerance Bloom in the first match at 5 pm BST today.
Following them will be Vitality Rising Bees facing Galions Pearl, who just made the Playoffs after a tiebreaker with Supernova Comets.
Meanwhile, Solary Academy will take on G2 Hel as both teams look to secure their place in the final and LoL Game Changers Rising.
Watch the Equal Esports Cup at 5 pm later today on the EUniverse Twitch channel.
