Originally posted at https://www.echofox.gg/news/na-lcs-2018-summer-split-week-2-recap
Echo Fox continued where they left off in dominating fashion from Spring Split. Last week, they faced FlyQuest and convincingly won after making a risky role swap. The following day, a rematch of the third-place match from Spring Playoffs occurred against Clutch Gaming. Echo Fox made another risky move with a role swap involving Huni and Dardoch. This move worked in Echo Fox’s favor as they won the game. They ended the first week undefeated and at the top of the standings. Does Echo Fox have more tricks up their sleeves in Week 2?
OpTic Gaming
Many people were wondering whether Echo Fox will employ another role swap around Huni, or a brand new strategy we have not seen yet in the NA LCS. To everyone’s surprise, they pulled another role swap strategy around Huni — this time it was a funnel strategy where Huni took Irelia with Smite so he could take gold from both the mid lane and jungle camps. For this strategy to work, Huni needs to carry the game and his teammates would need to protect him at all costs. However, OpTic flew under everyone’s radar and looked great in week one, picking up a win against Golden Guardians. They lost the following game against the new look Cloud9 but looked good in defeat. Echo Fox was unable to obtain map control for the entire game, allowing OpTic to get objectives around the map. Huni was unable to carry the game and ended with a scoreline of five kills, five deaths, and three assists while OpTic Gaming completed a surprising upset.
Golden Guardians
Golden Guardians are another team that’s going under everyone’s radar. They looked impressive with each game thus far in the Summer Split and looked impressive against Echo Fox. Heading into this game, Golden Guardians defeated Team Liquid and Cloud9. Echo Fox came into this game not underrating Golden Guardians. They did not use the role swap strategy
nor show any new tricks. Aside from Altec playing as Vladimir, Echo Fox played a standard comp and displayed their skill on the Rift. Dardoch showed why he is still a top tier jungler as he finished with seven kills, three deaths, and nine assists as Graves. Despite the meta change in the bot lane, Altec had a great game with nine kills, one death, and six assists to carry the team to victory. Echo Fox had a convincing win against Golden Guardians as they finished the match in thirty-five minutes.
Next week will be a litmus test for Echo Fox to determine where their skill lies. They will face the Spring Split champions, Team Liquid on Saturday. Then on Sunday, they will face a struggling Cloud9. Regardless of which roster each team plays, Echo Fox will need to be on their toes and work hard to stay on top of the standings. Watch their chase to win the Summer Split and get to Worlds on live.echofox.gg.
