In from work about three hours after the series started. So catching up:
Game 1: SK v UoL
SK have a strong scaling comp, with Maokai and Cassiopeia providing serious late game DPS and teamfight control. Rek'Sai provides the early muscle, and Nami provides some sustain. This is important, because UoL are running an AP Kog'Maw with Jinx and are going to be gunning for SK's towers after poking them down.
Lane swaps in effect, the game opens extremely slowly. At 9 minutes, Kikis gets first blood on Forgiven, punishing his early Avarice Blade with an excellent flash-cask gank. SK try to take dragon when their bot lane gets back, but Kikis steals it, Fox fail-flashes and dies, and fredy is stranded. 3-0 UoL.
SK stabilise things for a few minutes until Hylissang lands two superb bindings to kill their bot lane with help from Vizicscaci's TP. UoL then use smart, quick rotations to pick off SK's outer towers, completely catching out fredy and Svenskeren under the top outer. SK can't engage on UoL's poke squad - they're stuck fighting Sion and Gragas while Kog'Maw with Luden's Echo chunks them. They fall 6k behind.
At 28 minutes SK throw all their summoners at UoL and just about break even in a very long fight, but that's them out of ammo, and Kog'Maw is soon back to raining death on SK's squishies, taking their first inhib at 30 minutes. GG follows soon after.
UoL got an early lead, but SK contained the situation well enough. It was only when lane phase ended when UoL's smart rotations pulled them into a large lead and the compositional disadvantage became blatant - SK had very few options to get near to Kog'Maw and Jinx. Nami's sustain was laughable in the face of the Luden's-charged Bio-Arcane missiles relentlessly bombing them.
0.5 - Rotational play
0.5 - Team composition
Game 2: SK v UoL
Assassin vs. assassin in the mid lane for game 2, a blast from season 3. SK's Zed is backed up by heavy poke/control/disengage in Maokai, Caitlyn and Lee Sin, along with Annie for engage ability. UoL's Leblanc is backed by a TP/Smite Shyvana, a Gragas and Jinx, protected by Thresh. If UoL can keep Jinx safe from Zed, their comp looks to have superior tankiness and damage as the game progresses, so SK need to use Lee Sin and Zed to get an advantage.
Terrible start for SK as nRated gets trapped under tower by Hylissang's Death Sentence and gifts Jinx first blood. This lets UoL's bot lane (in the top lane) hold roughly even despite laning against Caitlyn, and the team as a whole takes an early gold lead. Pressure's on SK to turn things around, and fast.
Fox knows this, and tries to roam top to force a dive. Shyvana TPs in advance of the dive, and for a moment things look good for SK - TP wasted, large lane advantage for Morgana. But then Kikis blindsides Fox with Flash->Body Slam and his cask, and nets them one kill, before Hylissang catches nRated again. UoL make some mistakes at this point, getting collapsed on in enemy jungle, but fortunately for them Svenskeren gets all 4 of the kills that result.
SK look to be fully recovered from the early mistakes until, on 17 minutes, fredy gets caught moving through his north jungle and they end up getting second dragon in exchange for two towers and a kill, thanks to UoL's well planned rotations. But the overall pattern of play is unchanged, with UoL giving up more and more kills. SK manage to force and convincingly win a large teamfight at the third dragon after Svenskeren steals in for it. nRated's engage is excellent and Fox gets on to Vargads with the UoL tanks poorly positioned.
More or less the same thing happens two minutes later when UoL take Baron but get 4-0'd by a strong engage and good chase from SK. SK then make good use of fredy's Binding and nRated's stun to find more picks and UoL are forced to flee their inhibitor tower line. SK stupidly refuse to let them flee, and end up feeding a bunch of kills with a reckless tower dive (this is straight out of solo queue). UoL might be able to hang around long enough for their scaling comp to carry them to a messy win.
But they don't, SK finally getting themselves over the line after taking down the next baron. I'll put this one down to good teamfighting, because there was some strong teamfighting from SK in this game, but this was an absolute mess from both teams. UoL completely lost their composure after getting an early lead with a late game scaling comp, while nRated was making mistake after mistake during the laning phase and SK engaged an awful tower dive when they had UoL's base at their mercy, almos throwing the game.
1.0 - Teamfighting
Game 3: UoL v SK
UoL go for a kiting focussed comp with Orianna, Morgana, Udyr and Sion providing the protection for Jinx to mow down SK's tanks. SK has Shyvana, Gragas and Cho'Gath, meaning that they'll likely need a superb Tidal Wave from nRated's Nami, or a great flank, to get anywhere near Jinx and Orianna. I'm not sure what Cho'Gath is meant to do in competitively play against a kiting comp other than hope to snowball his lane. Hmm.
nRated gets his Flash blown at 2:30 by getting caught by a Dark Binding. His laning has been so rough this series - Forgiven will not be happy. Thankfully for him nothing much happens during the entire laning phase other than fredy taking top tower thanks to relentless pushing.
At 18 minutes Svenskeren and Fox attempt to invade UoL's south jungle but get engaged and kited around by PowerOfEvil's Orianna and Kikis' Udyr for a 2-0. This is immediately turned in to two mid towers. The power of UoL's compositon is apparent and Cho'Gath's weaknesses are well exploited here.
At 23 minutes a dragon teamfight shows their comp's advantages even more. Even though Vardags' whiffs his ult UoL win the teamfight 3-0 and take their first dragon of the game. SK can't do anything without being ran down by UoL's squad at this point - they kite better, chase better and do more damage. They don't give up a single kill. GG!
1.0 - Teamfighting
Game 4: SK v UoL
UoL go back to their comp from game 1, with AP Kog and Jinx. SK have a classic Shyv/Ori "ball delivery" combo with Caitlyn/Annie and Lee Sin to provide the early pressure.
Kikis punishes fredy for not taking Flash (I think this should happen much more often than it does) with a level 2 gank and gets an easy first blood. Forgiven then gets completely caught by Hylissang and gives up second blood to Vardags, although Svenskeren comes in and kills him after stealing Kikis' blue (SK are lucky here - would have been a 2-0 for Vardags if Svenskeren wasn't nearby). Kikis' ganks top again, this time letting the kill go to Viziscaci. He comes bottom and secures a second kill for Vardags thanks to Hylissang's hook on nRated. Strong opening from UoL.
SK start fighting back thanks to Svenskeren and Fox catching Kikis in his jungle. He immediately moves bottom and secures a double kill since they'd been brawling, before moving on to take the first dragon. Forgiven sticks around too long and dies needlessly to Kikis. Game is pretty much even after 10 minutes, but UoL will rue the mistakes that led to them giving up a sizeable lead.
Svenskeren doesn't let up, helping to punish UoL's lane swap by taking their bot inner tower with Forgiven and nRated, and taking a kill when UoL desperately engage. Two more kills follow when UoL try to move into their jungle - he has the awareness to hold his second Q till after Vardags takes the Thresh lantern. He has single-handedly turned this game on his head. It goes on for another 20 minutes as SK take dragon on spawn and eventually take Baron, and UoL do actually threaten SK's hold a little with Kog'Maw's extreme poke damage, but the damage had been done. Game 5 here we go.
1.0 - Individual Play (Svenskeren)
Game 5: SK v UoL
UoL allow Lulu through and take Lee Sin out. SK take it and form a mid-game focussed comp with Corki, Rek'Sai and Zed. UoL end up with jungle Gnar as their game 5 surprise. They appear to be very dependent on their top lane and Cait/Annie to maintain enough pressure not to get steamrolled by SK's power spike. If they can reach the 3-4 item mark, their comp will be tough for SK to handle, with all its tankiness, AoE and CC.
SK open up the lane swap better, punishing UoL's aggressive TP, but otherwise the first 6 minutes are uneventful. Svenskeren and Fox try to dive mid, but although they secure first blood on PowerOfEvil, Kikis trades 1-1 before Hylissang flash-stuns Fox from across the outer tower wall to trade 2-1. Fredy is then punished for stealing Kikis' red, being ran down and killed by Kikis and Viziscacsi. SK are still pulling out to a gold lead thanks to the huge cs disparity in the bot lane - Vardags is not showing much effectiveness on Caitlyn and Forgiven is farming up a storm on Corki.
The next 10 minutes see SK rotate aggressively to pressure UoL's towers, before UoL commit Flash-Tibbers and Flash-Gnar to get one kill and push SK back. Even though SK increase their gold lead they are far from building a game winning lead. Perhaps they're going to rely on the fifth dragon's buff to win.
An engagement by UoL at 23 minutes doesn't do anything and they're lucky to escape 1-1. At 27 minutes SK turn down a free top outer tower to force a fight on UoL. Both teams play this extremely well and although UoL lose 2-1, they take their first dragon afterward (trading Hylissang's life for it). This could have been the turning point either way, but it ended up just delaying SK's dragon win condition.
SK move on to bait Baron at 29 minutes. They get Kikis and it looks for all the world like they're about to get Baron safely and easily. Somehow PowerOfEvil steals it over the wall with Shockwave before Svenskeren uses his Smite. They also get mid outer tower, and after basing and spending their gold, take top inner. This game is looking desperate for SK now.
But Kikis goes far too deep at a dragon teamfight at 34 minutes, and therefore Fox is able to reach Vardags. Although they win the fight and get 6 kills, including Kikis again when he respawns, they can't break UoL's base. SK move on to baiting baron again. Fox gets a kill on Kikis, but they are low, and UoL are able to break through on to Forgiven thanks to Hylissang's flash-W stun and Maokai's follow up lockdown. With him down, and SK scattering, they can get Baron! They do so, and as the clock hits 40 minutes everything is going their way - they've outscaled SK and soon they take down the first inhib of the game.
SK aren't done yet though, and send fredy to splitpush with a huge minion wave in the bot lane. For a moment it looks like they might even win by delaying UoL's bases, but Maokai gets his TP off (by the way, if this is interrupted, and it was on a ward, SK likely win the game, though only Lulu W/R could really break it since Svenskeren wasn't close enough) and UoL hold on. SK use the downed inhibitor in the bot lane to take Baron by having Fox splitpush on to the Nexus towers. UoL make the (IMO) smart call to give up Baron and kill Fox - they should be able to deal with a Baron buffed SK once their inhibitor is respawned.
UoL are able to see off this Baron buffed push. At 52 minutes the dragon spawns in - if SK get it, they'll get the massive 5 dragons buff. But UoL are ready for it, and engage on Rek'Sai as soon as SK group before kiting back and dealing with Shyvana's and Zed's dive attempt. SK's comp can't hold up to UoL's at this point - too much damage, too much tankiness, too much reliable CC - and they are 5-0'd and knocked out 3-2.
This game was won because UoL picked a good comp which could make it to the late game. I also give a lot of credit to PowerOfEvil. He made very few errors, went for a greedy build in a tough lane and completely got away with it, landed important ultimates when SK looked like they were about to collapse on the backline. And, of course, in a moment which will haunt Svenskeren for years, he stole a crucial Baron with Shockwave.
0.5 - Individual play (PowerOfEvil)
0.5 - Team composition
Playoff Totals:
7.5 - Teamfighting
7.0 - Laning phase
5.5 - Rotational play
5.5 - Individual play
2.0 - Objective calls/preparation/vision
3.0 - Team composition
The Unicorns of Love charge on past the favourites, winning a gruelling best of 5, complete with a 52 minute decider. Can they win the EU LCS in their first season?