Europe and ties. One of the most popular and famous memes when referring to the EU LCS, born from the infamous message by Riot Games to justify the implementation of the - definitely not missed - best-of-2 system for the 2016 season, where the developer claimed it was selected exclusively for the region because “(unlike North America, Europe is) a region where ties are both understood and accepted in sports culture,” it became an embodiment of the league itself, so used to close contests and known for its unpredictability.

With the final week of the regular season of the 2018 EU LCS Spring Split fast approaching, and considering how close – once more - most teams are in the standings, with every single side still having chances to reach the playoffs, it is no surprise at all that we will likely have some extra – and decisive – games after the end of Fnatic v Schalke 04, who close out the normal schedule.

And according to a simulation made by the LoL Esports team, we may be in for a very long and exhaustive day: after simulating each game – with 50/50 odds for each team - 30.000 times, 0.02% of the scenarios gave out an astonishing number of 7 tiebreaker games that would need to be played! That is a bit more than a full day of normal broadcast, which consists this year once again of 5 games.

And what is even more impressive – or tragic, depending from your point of view: considering the day kicks off at 5pm CEST, if the start of each game is separated by one hour – which is honestly a conservative approach, considering some games tend to approach the hour-mark, and we also need to take into account the pick-ban phase as well as preparing the actual stage for the next game – the last of the 7 tiebreak games would kick off at 4am!

Yes, it is true that the possibility for that to happen is extremely slim, but it wouldn’t actually be the first time something similar happens in Europe: in the 2013 Summer Split, 4 teams – Fnatic, Evil Geniuses, Gambit Gaming and Ninjas in Pyjamas – ended up the regular split tied for 2^nd place, while two more, SK Gaming and ALTERNATE aTTaX, shared 6^th, forcing the teams to play 6 extra games, including a full-bracket – inclusive loser’s bracket – to determine the final placements.

After the 13-hour long broadcast, which included some legendary moments, such as Mitch "Krepo" Voorspoels and Henrik "Froggen" Hansen swapping roles to give Evil Geniuses the win over Gambit, Fnatic showed the better endurance to come out with two wins, earning themselves the all-important bye to the semi-finals (and later, the split’s title itself), while ALTERNATE aTTaX managed to take down SK to clinch the very final spot to the playoffs.

Almost 5 years later, there is only a slim chance that this scenario will repeat, but still, there is a high probability that at least two teams will head back to the Rift to decide their fate this split. Nonetheless, remember that this is Europe, the region where sometimes the unexplainable and the unexpected shows around to fool us. So be warned: unless something has precisely zero percent chance of happening, never, ever truly count it out….especially here in the Old Continent. Therefore, make sure to stock up, and prepare yourself for perhaps a (very) long and exciting weekend of games!


(Photos courtesy of Riot Games andKazaGameZ)