Splyce’s run through the 2016 EU LCS Summer Split was a great underdog story. However, they have not been able to maintain their success in 2017. Despite making it to the playoffs in the Spring Split, they were eliminated in the first round.
This leads to the question: Will Splyce ever be able to reach that level of success again?
Rinse, repeat?
One of the key decisions made by the organization during the off-season was to keep the same roster from the previous split, as well as their winning coach Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi. This roster was able to make it to the EU LCS Finals, although they lost to G2 Esports. But they were able to make it to Worlds after defeating Unicorns of Love in the regional qualifier.
Finishing last in their Worlds Group, also known as the Group of Death, was expected. However, they did have some positive moments, such as playing TSM closely and defeating Royal Never Give Up. With all five players re-signed for 2017, there was hope that they could improve.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case. They were placed in Group B, along with strong teams like H2K and Unicorns of Love. Splyce needed to beat these teams in order to be considered championship material, but they were not able to do so. They also failed to win against top teams from Group A, such as G2 and Misfits. This suggests that even if they had better luck with their opponents, it may not have made a difference.
Splitting apart
Bringing back the same roster assumes that the team will naturally improve. However, while other organizations made signings and focused on internal development, Splyce relied on their existing players to grow. One player to watch was jungler Jonas “Trashy” Anderson, but unfortunately, he was one of the players who did not perform well.
The team often used a 1-3-1 split push strategy, where top laner Martin “Wunder” Hansen excelled. He won many “Player of the Series” awards in the spring split because he was often left alone, with Trashy being the main issue. This strategy requires good coordination from the jungler, but Trashy struggled in this role. He had the worst early game stats of any EU LCS jungler, particularly with a 17% first blood rate. Trashy was often late to plays, leading to his lanes losing priority and the split push strategy falling apart.
What now?
The split push strategy did not work against top teams. It is possible that other teams have figured out Splyce’s play style after a full split in standard lanes. In games against H2K, UOL, and G2, Splyce had more success in teamfights. When they drafted teamfight-focused compositions and relied on Wunder to initiate, they were able to win. However, when opponents avoided Wunder and took advantage of Splyce’s weak teamfight drafts, Splyce had no answer.
After the split, Splyce parted ways with their coach YamatoCannon and replaced him with Fayan “Gevous” Pertijs. Gevous has experience coaching teams in wildcard regions and has worked with teams that had weak junglers. One of the main tasks for Gevous will be to make Splyce more flexible in their play style. They need to improve their vision around objectives and find ways to win without relying solely on Wunder. They also need to better support their ADC, Kobbe, and be able to fight as a team when necessary.
Splyce made a name for themselves as a team that focused on split pushing. Their success in 2017 will depend on how quickly they can adapt and evolve their play style.