G2 Esports and Misfits have already qualified for the World Championships, but two things remain in play for both teams: A nearly $100,000 payday and the title of best European League of Legends team.
To get here, G2 Esports and Misfits bowled over H2K Gaming and Fnatic in the EU League of Legends Championship Series semifinals. G2's victory came as a surprise to no one, but Misfits beat expectations and reached the World Championship within its first year of LCS play.
Now, the legacy organization and an upstart group will face off in the finals for a bigger share of the EU LCS prize pool and the No. 1 seed out of Europe at the World Championships in China.
If the playoffs are any indication, this matchup will not be as lopsided as their most recent encounter, where G2 annihilated Misfits in two games. G2's flexibility in champion picks was an impossible problem for Misfits in that matchup, but Misfits has shown renewed confidence during the playoffs. Even as an underdog against Unicorns of Love and Fnatic, Misfits forced its game plans on its opponents, and AD carry Steven "Hans Sama" Liv's improvement on-stage is notable.
If Misfits is to claim the crown, it needs to overcome G2's flexibility across the board. Denying preferred picks in the draft likely won't work as well as it did against Unicorns of Love and Fnatic.
Misfits top laner Barney "Alphari" Morris and G2 Esports top laner Ki "Expect" Dae-han share similar champion pools with meta picks Jarvan IV and Gnar at the forefront. However, Expect has showcased his ability to play Cho'Gath in the current meta with some jungle pressure. Misfits will have to obtain deep vision in order to pressure the top lane in this matchup if Expect goes with that Cho'Gath pick.
A key to that vision advantage is Misfits containing G2 jungler Kim "Trick" Gang-yun. That's where his counterpart on Misfits, Nubar "Maxlore" Sarafian, and his teammates face a problem. Banning out Trick's best picks opens up the draft for G2 support Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez, and the champions he's most comfortable on, such as Janna, Tahm Kench and Alistar, are high-impact characters in the current meta. Alistar has been a particularly strong choice for mithy of late, and he's managed to control teamfights by screening out damage threats and using his crowd control prowess.
Misfits will try to counter G2's deep champion pool with characters that specialize in breaking down players individually. In the playoffs, Misfits has showcased its ability to control the map and pick its fighting spots carefully. The team prioritizes Trundle, Gragas, Ashe, Xayah, Orianna, Syndra, Gnar, Cassiopeia and Galio -- champs that excel in splitting a tight unit apart -- to turn five-on-five situations into five-on-ones.
Should G2's concentration waver, Misfits may turn Baron Nashor fights into death traps. And if G2 bans out those champions, Lee "Ignar" Dong-geun still has his trademark Thresh (71 percent win rate including playoffs, 36 percent ban rate during the regular season) or Blitzcrank. In addition, G2 needs to decide whether Maxlore should be allowed to use Elise, or whether to let Misfits mid laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage play Orianna (83 percent win rate across 12 games).
If all else fails, may the best teamfight composition win -- and throughout the Summer Split, that honor has usually gone to G2. As long as G2 is able to follow the "stand together" mantra it has stuck to since Week 6 of the EU LCS, it holds the upper hand against Misfits due to the diversity of its picks, its superior teamfighting ability, and its heavy focus on Dragon (73.1 percent control rate) and Baron Nashor takedowns (78.1 percent).