Is Miracle Run 2.0 On The Cards?
The day is February 6, Astralis are 1-6 and staring down the barrel of a likely tenth place finish. Changes needed to be made, and with Erlend “Nukeduck” Holm taking a break for personal reasons, Astralis saw an opportunity.
Swede Felix “MagiFelix” Boström spent Seasons 9 and 10 at the Northern League of Legends Championship side Fnatic Rising, winning four consecutive splits and reaching the playoffs of the European Masters three times.
His immediate impact was undeniable - the new roster’s first match was against one of the (at the time) top two sides in the league, FC Schalke 04 Esports - the game wasn’t even close. Despite poor composition synergy and dire top and mid-lane matchups Astralis did the unthinkable and beat Schalke in under half an hour. Last week Astralis gave G2 Esports more of a run for their money than most other rosters and then took down Excel Esports to climb within two wins of a playoffs spot.
Some of the most marked differences between Astralis’ two mid laners are the amount of resources they’re able to gather and their share of the kills. Nukeduck, across his seven games averaged 8.18 CS per minute, ninth in the league. MagiFelix currently places second in the league across all roles with his 10.08 minions clobbered every 60 seconds, and he also has the highest team kill share of any mid laner at 30.4% - Nukeduck’s 23.1% pales in comparison.
It is crucial to Astralis’ success, however, that MagiFelix is not just spending his time farming stats as it felt like he did in their game against Misfits, where he went deathless, collected the most CS but only assisted 1 kill for his side in team fights.
With seven games to go, Astralis need, as a bare minimum, a 5-2 record if they’re going to make playoffs, meaning they have to take wins off at least three of Fnatic, Schalke, SK Gaming and MAD Lions while avoiding choking against Misfits and Vitality. It’s going to be a stretch, but the crowds love a miracle run.
Their first match of the week, at 9pm tonight against Fnatic is sure to be hotly contested. Last time they faced off, in Week 3, Astralis took control of the mid game with a convincing Herald gambit, securing a turret before the 10-minute mark but eventually fell when the drakes started stacking against them. Fnatic won the game in 28 minutes and 33 seconds, but this time Astralis are in better shape and have MagiFaker on their side. Can’t wait? Don’t worry, there’s more news, interviews and features here at GGRecon!
Images via Riot Games