Esports Vainglory8

Vainglory 8 Spring Breakdown: NA / EU Split 1 Week 2

North America and Europe finished the second week of play in the 2017 Spring Season and head into week 3 of Vainglory8! Last week saw unexpected victories, shifts in the meta and even a Grumpjaw ban. Need to catch up on last week’s action? Want a preview of games and things to watch for? Then read on for this week’s Vainglory8 update from Broken Myth!

Europe – What To Watch

Vainglory 8 Spring Season: EU Split 1 Week 2 (Replay)

Last week’s grand finals repeat as the first match this week! G2 eSports was able to take a 2-0 victory against FNATIC last week when they met. There’s two things to look out for in this game. First, Hundor played Adagio as Carry for both of these matches. Will we see a different Carry for these first games? Second, FNATIC had more kills than G2 eSports game one yet still took the loss. This shows FNATIC has the potential to make the upset if they can convert early momentum into a win. Will we see that upset? The only way to answer these questions is by tuning in!

The battle for last! Mousesports and Rising Lotus face off this week, and the results will decide who is on the bottom of the rankings. Neither team had a real chance to show off what they have to offer making this match the perfect opportunity.

Cyclone has a strong road to the finals this week. Denial looks to be the one team that could change this, and they play in the first round. While these two teams have yet to meet this season Cyclone tops the rankings for good reason with their strong synergy and smart draft choices. Denial has brought out a Carry Rona, an Ozo and other curious picks this season. Watch to see if they try to surprise Cyclone this week with an off-meta pick.

The Jungle has diversified! While Samuel is still the most popular Jungle pick, Reim no longer is the second most popular — Glaive and Kestrel rival each other in that respect. For Carries, Baron has slowly crept up as a more popular pick. Despite Vox holding the superior win rate, Ringo has been picked equally in matches.

If Adagio was allowed through — he’s the second most-banned character after Lyra — he was played almost exclusively as Captain despite his potential flexibility as a Carry. To put this in perspective, Adagio has been played as a Carry as frequently as Rona. The third most-banned hero? Kestrel, by a very slim margin.


North America – What To Watch

Vainglory 8 Spring Season: NA Split 1 Week 2 (Replay)

GankStars has been in the finals for the past two weeks. The first stop on a potential return trip is through Rogue, a team they have already beaten 2-0 this season. With more time to prepare, Rogue may have plans to abuse R3cKeD favoring the Lance pick thus far. They may also pull out another surprise pick like a previous Crystal Powered Jungle Ringo. Rogue does not want to remain in the bottom three this week, so expect them to pull out all the stops.

Unless Misfits pull off an upset, the next most likely team GankStars will have to face is Cloud9. Not only would this leave Misfits with zero points on the board yet again, but it would be the first time they and Cloud9 face off this season. This match has the potential to come very close as both teams have found small successes against the dominant TSM.

TSM is finally on the opposite side of the bracket from Cloud9 and will not have to face them in an early round this week. Unless Echo Fox manages a surprise upset, TSM likely come up against either Immortals, whom they’ve already beaten, or Hammers. These two mid-ranked teams want to try and pull ahead of the pack to guarantee safety from the Challengers incoming soon.

North America took a page from Europe’s book as we saw Joule enter the Fold as a more frequent Carry pick. In spite of Lyra’s ban rate — she was the second most-banned character — she was also the most popular choice as a Captain followed by Lance.

While many are aware Koshka’s success in the NA Vainglory8 has been impressive, she still was among the top 5 most banned heroes. Koshka was the most chosen character in the Jungle. Look for more Koshka bans in the coming week, and for other popular Crystal Power Junglers like Taka, Glaive and Alpha to replace her.


Be sure to catch the action this weekend at Vainglory’s Twitch. Matches for NA & EU begin at 9 AM PDT and a full schedule is available in this post. Which match are you most excited to see? Let us know in the comments and we’ll see you next week for another NA & EU Vainglory8 Update!