Echo Fox 2018 NALCS season recap

2018 recap EchoFox NALCS

In 2016, Echo Fox got introduced in the NA LCS. The team had 2 years of struggling, missing out on playoffs barely multiple times. After making franchising, the luck of the team turned, and in spring 2018 the team made playoffs for the first time. At the end of the season, the team ended in third place.

With this success, the team was in a prime position to keep up the tempo and repeat their success. Having scored 50 points in spring, the team started looking for a ticket to worlds. The first week got off to a good start. Huni decided to swap their roles with the funnel meta still being relevant. The top-laner went bot together with Altec, picking Yasuo and picking up first blood early. With the roleswap, the team found success and picked up the win. For their second match, the jungler Dardoch picked his favorite champ Rengar top, and Huni went Taliyah in the jungle. Dardoch got ganked multiple times, but this didn't get the team down – Dardoch even almost got a triple kill after a fantastic outplay. The foxes almost won the match, but due to a bug with the Taliyah, the entire game crashed leading to an interesting end of the game. The foxes received the win from the league officials. Huni didn't play his own dedicated lane until the second game of week 2. The foxes kept their aggressive playstyle through the entire season, leading them to a 1-1 week chain. During their matchup against C9, the situation was looking rather dire – but the most important lesson with foxes is to never drive them against the wall. As C9 was knocking on the door of the inhibitor turrets, the enemies engaged. But Echo Fox didn't flinch, and miraculously the ADC, Altec, picked up a gorgeous pentakill, turning the game upside down and back in the favour of the foxes. For a good couple of weeks, the foxes consistently stayed in the top 4, finding more success with their aggressive playstyles, but not as much with their funnel strats. Despite this, the team decided to change things up. Feeling more confident in their academy players, Damonte and Lost got promoted to the main line-up, along with the addition of C9's former support Smoothie. With their new and updated roster, the team continued their travel to the playoffs - only needing one single victory in either week 8 or 9. The foxes didn't get their playoff position for free though, having a very difficult final two weeks. With only a single match remaining, the updated roster showed they were worth of a playoff position. With CG in their way, the foxes convincingly defeated their enemies, securing their slot in the top 6! Together with three other teams, the foxes had to play through their tiebreaker matches to see who they'd meet in the quarter finals. In the end, the foxes won round one and lost round 2, securing 4th in the regular season.

For their first round of the quarters, the foxes got matched against TSM – who they'd beaten 3-0 during the regular season. However, bad luck struck the team and Huni got sick, which caused them to be unable to practice with their toplaner. Despite their best efforts, the foxes fell in an incredibly close series. With this, the foxes only had gauntlet left as a last resort.

The foxes knew, in order to qualify for worlds, they'd had to beat three teams ahead of them, Clutch being the first of them. Without any issue, the foxes swept their enemy in a convincing 3-0. With this, the foxes moved up to round 2. Here, they met up with TSM again – as if it was destined. The series was close, but despite fighting as hard as they could, TSM was just too strong an enemy and unfortunately the foxes ended up going down 0-3, marking the end of their season.

Despite the team's dream of going to worlds not coming true, the foxes can look back on a fantastic year in comparison to the first two years of the teams existence. The great synergy between Dardoch and Huni, Damonte shaping up to be one of the best American midlaners, and a great botlane duo who we're only just getting to know, shows that the foxes will be a force to be reckoned with in 2019. 2018 will be a year to remember , especially with the foxes having their first international appearance at Rift Rivals. Now, we will have time to rest and will return in 2019, aiming at that first place in the regular season – and maybe even a sacred ticket to Worlds.