G2 vs Splyce – 2017 EU LCS

Lore & Background

By the time the 2017 EU LCS calendar rolled around, G2 Esports had already cemented itself as the continent's most feared organisation. The roster assembled that year was almost unfairly balanced: a top laner in Jankos whose split-push and teamfight timing were surgical, a jungler in BrokenBlade whose map awareness read like a second scoreboard, and a mid laner in Perkz—a teenager whose mechanical ceiling and creative champion pool made every G2 mid-lane matchup feel like a different game entirely. x6tence and Nemesis anchored the bot lane with a calm, coordinated pressure that bled opponents dry in the late game. Together they formed a unit whose synergy was as much a talking point as any individual's highlight reel.

Splyce, meanwhile, carved out a reputation as a team that played with a distinct European aggression. Their identity was built around early-to-mid game teamfights, disciplined objective control, and a willingness to trade picks in ways that made G2's otherwise smooth macro game stutter. In a league where most teams either out-farmed G2 or tried to out-macro them, Splyce's approach of forcing chaotic, multi-person engagements in the river and around Dragon added a variable that even G2's star power could not simply outplay. Fans on both sides of the rivalry remember the tension of those series: the feeling that a single mispositioned teamfight could flip a series that had looked decided.

The broader 2017 EU LCS landscape amplified the significance of these matchups. With the region's talent pool at a peak and the path to Worlds hanging over every split, every regular-season result carried weight. The G2–Splyce encounters became a litmus test: could G2's individual brilliance survive a team that prioritised collective execution over star power? The answers, scattered across several series that season, fed a fan discourse that still echoes in EU community spaces years later.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights hum a low electric blue. Five G2 jerseys sit in a row, headsets on, the monitors casting pale rectangles of light across their faces. Across the stage, Splyce's setup mirrors theirs, a perfect symmetry of black cases and glowing peripherals. The crowd noise is a low tide—anticipation, not celebration. Perkz cracks his knuckles, eyes already on the draft screen. Jankos leans back, jaw set, the kind of stillness that means he has already seen three games ahead. The announcer's voice swells. The first pick is locked. Somewhere in the back row, a fan in a faded G2 hoodie grips the seat arms and whispers, not a cheer, just a breath held. The game begins, and for the next forty minutes the only sound that matters is the click of a mouse and the distant, rolling thunder of a crowd that knows it is watching something it will talk about for years.

Reader's Guide

The 2017 EU LCS season was a gauntlet. G2, riding a roster that fans still call the gold standard of the EU era, entered the split with the kind of confidence that comes from a year of dominance. Splyce, a team built on collective discipline and aggressive mid-game play, sat in that competitive middle tier where every series against the top felt like a genuine test.

The head-to-head encounters were defined by a simple tension: G2's macro precision and individual ceiling versus Splyce's willingness to force chaotic, multi-person teamfights in the river and around objectives. In the best series, Splyce's early aggression created windows where G2's mid laner—then a teenager whose mechanical range was already legendary—had to carry the tempo in a lane that was supposed to be the safest. In others, G2's jungle and top lane simply out-scaled the map, turning Splyce's aggression into a resource drain that bled them out by the twenty-minute mark.

Perkz and Jankos are the names fans reach for first when this era is discussed. Perkz's mid lane in 2017 was a masterclass in creative champion selection and mechanical execution, while Jankos's top lane operated on a different register—patient, punishing, and almost always one step ahead of the opponent's engage. Their synergy with BrokenBlade's jungle pathing made G2's mid-game transitions feel inevitable.

Fans still reference these series because they captured a specific flavour of EU LCS: a league where five-man synergy could still be outplayed by a single individual's brilliance, and where a team like Splyce could make the best team on the circuit work for every single objective. It was competitive, it was personal, and it was the kind of regular-season drama that made the playoffs feel earned.

Did You Know?

• G2's 2017 roster—Jankos, BrokenBlade, Perkz, x6tence, Nemesis—is frequently cited by EU fans as one of the most balanced and dominant lineups in the league's history.
• Perkz was a teenager during the 2017 EU LCS season, making his star-level performances in that era all the more remarkable to fans who followed his development.
• Splyce's identity as a team built around aggressive, collective teamfighting made them one of the more physically demanding opponents for G2's macro-heavy style of play.
• The 2017 EU LCS season is widely regarded by the European community as one of the most competitively dense and talent-rich years the circuit has seen.