Originally posted at https://www.echofox.gg/news/echo-fox-takes-on-europes-best-at-rift-rivals
The annual battle of North America vs Europe lives on as Rift Rivals has come and gone. One region wants to prove they are better than the other. Three teams from each region came into battle. Echo Fox, Team Liquid, and 100 Thieves represented NA LCS. G2 Esports, Fnatic, and Splyce represented the EU LCS.
Day 1
Echo Fox faced Fnatic in their first game. In this game, Echo Fox implemented the funnel strategy as they have been doing in the NA LCS in Summer Split. However, Fnatic had an anti-funnel strategy using Heimerdinger. The Heimerdinger pick held Echo Fox from
utilizing the funnel strategy to its fullest potential and Fnatic won. In the next game against Splyce, Echo Fox played more of a standard comp aside from using Vladimir and Shen in the bot lane. In the Summer Split, Echo Fox has proved to be effective with a standard comp and it did not change in this game. They defeated Splyce and broke even in the first day.
Day 2
Echo Fox had only one game on day two against G2. G2 is known as masters of the funnel strategy and continued to prove it in Rift Rivals. G2 played around Luka “Perkz” Perković, who was the player focused in the funnel strategy as he showed with champions such as Kai’Sa and Lucian. In
this game, Perkz was unable to get shut down by Echo Fox as he had ten kills in the game. Another power pick in Rift Rivals was the newly reworked Aatrox. Martin “Wunder” Hansen had the opportunity to use Aatrox and was unstoppable as well with 4 kills. Altogether, Echo Fox was unable to stop G2. The silver lining of it all is Tanner “Damonte” Damonte stepped up in the bot lane with Vladimir, being active on the map, and getting three kills — the most kills out of all players in Echo Fox.
Finals
The final day of Rift Rivals was the real contest to get bragging rights over which region was superior. Echo Fox had the first opportunity to get NA to a commanding lead. They faced G2, who defeated them in the previous day. G2 utilized the funnel strategy once again. Echo Fox answered by playing a standard comp. Johnny “Altec” Ru played Lucian in the bot lane, while Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett played Kindred, a champion that’s become more popular recently. Lastly, Kim “Fenix” Jae-hun played Lulu — a champion not seen in the NA LCS since week one. The team had a dominant victory against G2, not giving up any gold lead, and finished the game in twenty-four minutes. 100 Thieves and Team Liquid were unable to pick up wins against Fnatic and Splyce. Echo Fox was chosen to represent North America in the fourth blind-pick game. They had the task to force a game five against Fnatic. Echo Fox ran the same comp against Fnatic. However, Fnatic significantly stepped up their game and defeated Echo Fox in twenty-four minutes to clinch Rift Rivals for EU.
Europe holds bragging rights this year as the better region in the battle of NA vs EU. Nonetheless, this event was great practice for Echo Fox as they learned how to adapt to the meta and get a step ahead of the competition in the NA LCS. This week, Echo Fox faces tough competition against Counter Logic Gaming and TSM. Continue to cheer and watch Echo Fox as they strive to the best in the NA LCS.
