After a tough 6 games, Astralis has finally managed to find their first win of the 2023 LEC Winter Split. Astralis took advantage of a shaky Excel Esports team that came into the stage looking for any opportunity to cut the slump, however, this time around it did not work. Through 31 minutes of game time, Astralis was in total control of the map against Excel, who had to constantly look for small opportunities to even things up in the midgame.
It is rather obvious that this game was a rare case of Astralis being in form. However even if analysts assured fans Excel was gonna win this one, Astralis managed to prove them all wrong, as all members played well together to achieve the win. Once they destroyed Excel’s nexus, Astralis posted 26 total kills versus 8 from their opponents.
This skill score might not mean much to viewers, however, for Astralis it shows a front to back aggressive performance they were able to execute. On top of that, it shows they never trailed behind Excel resource-wise after taking first blood extremely early in the game (3 minute point).
After this bottom table matchup, both Astralis and Excel Esports are even in last place with a 1-5 record each. Theoretically, going into the final week of the regular season before the newly implemented group stage, both of these teams should be mathematically outside of the playoff race and would be eliminated from contention of the next stage of the LEC’s new format.
Only the top 8 organizations within the LEC table will advance to the group stage, of course thanks to these changes, things are looking rather uncomfortable for Astralis and Excel since they currently both stand in the ninth and tenth slots of the table. An early exit would hurt both the organization and players economically, with less sponsor time plus less salary for players if they are released due to their performance.
Going into next week, Astralis will have an “easier” set of matches than Excel, as they will not have to play against the top 3 teams tied for 1st place in the LEC leaderboard. Excel will have a chance to break their 3 game losing streak against an unstable Team Heretics squad, who has been inconsistent throughout the split. Both Excel and Astralis will most likely require a perfect week and for 3-0 to finish out the single round-robin split in the league’s top eight, and lastly push for the group stage.
Only time will tell if any of these organizations have what it takes to climb out from the edge of the LEC table.
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