G2 Esports are LEC Winter 2024 champions

The LEC Winter 2024 has concluded, and unsurprisingly, the team that emerged victorious was G2 Esports. This team showcased their dominance even during the group stage, finishing in first place with a record of 7 wins and 2 losses. On the other hand, the other finalist, MAD Lions KOI, finished the group stage with a record of 5 wins and 4 losses.

The LEC Winter playoffs consisted of eight teams. Only two teams from all the participants in the group stage made it to this aforementioned stage. These teams were Rogue and Karmine Corp, both of whom concluded their performances with a 2-7 record.

G2’s path to the title

Last year, G2 Esports emerged victorious in both the LEC Winter and LEC Summer. They also secured a 4th place finish in LEC Spring, finished 5th-6th in the MSI, and then reached the 9th-11th spot in the Worlds. They were undoubtedly seen as the clear favorites by everyone.

Their first match was against GIANTX and it turned out to be quite easy for them. It was a best-of-three series, and G2 picked champions like Senna and Maokai against the trio used by GIANTX in both games: Ezreal, Yuumi, and Xin Zhao. Game 1 concluded after 32 minutes, while the next one lasted only 22 minutes. The MVP of the match was Caps, who has been playing for the team for almost four years now.

In their second match, G2 faced Fnatic, who had defeated MAD Lions 2-0. The second game presented some difficulties for G2, leading to their defeat, primarily due to the well-executed draft by their opponent featuring Jax, Orianna, and Varus. However, G2 proved to be superior in the other two games.

MAD Lions lost the first match of the upper bracket

Surprisingly, MAD Lions, despite losing their first match in the upper bracket, managed to reach the Grand Finals without much trouble. To achieve this, they had to win all four matches in the lower bracket. Along this challenging path, they indeed outplayed teams such as:

• GIANTX
• Team Vitality
• Fnatic
• Team BDS

The third match of the G2 playoffs was against Team BDS and ended in a confident victory for the former. At this stage, the matches were already in a best-of-five format, giving BDS plenty of opportunities to showcase their skills. However, they couldn’t defeat the strongest team in Europe even once.

BDS insisted on playing around Varus and picked him three times, but this strategy failed time and time again. On the other hand, G2 played with Kalista, which they also used three times, but their execution was on a completely different level.

In the Grand Finals, G2 lost the first game due to a series of tactical mistakes. MAD Lions surprised them with picks like Zac and Yasuo. However, after that initial setback, everything went in G2’s favor, and the final score was 3-1 in favor of G2.