LEC Matchup of the Week : Humanoid vs Caps

"For sure, Caps and Humanoid are by far the top two of the LEC midlaners. There is no denying it," Adam "Jackies" Jeřábek humbly assured us at the end of the second week of the LEC Summer Split, the EMEA elite of League of Legends. This Sunday, the two rivals will once again measure themselves in the G2 versus Fnatic clash. While the Orange and Black got the split off to a flying start, the same cannot be said of the Samurai, who seem to be in a slump after two imperial segments. The cards are therefore being reshuffled ahead of the confrontation between two of the league's undisputed best players: Caps and Humanoid. Analysis.

In his interview, Jackies pointed out something else after having solo-killed the main concerned one: Caps is in poor form from the start of this split. When 'Claps' turns into 'Craps', the Samurai, as imperial as they have been since the start of the year, seem far more vulnerable. This is particularly apparent in their less controlled gameplay since summer started, which has resulted in two defeats but also three victories, which have been far trickier than usual.

For example, 'Baby Faker' was second in the average KDA rankings (5.5) this spring, behind Elias 'Upset' Lipp, which was not necessarily the most relevant given his team's results and the number of games he has played (9 compared to 21 for Caps). This summer, at the end of the second week, the Dane is among the 10 worst average KDAs in the LEC (2.5). However, the midlaner is far from out of his depth when it comes to most other statistics.

Even though he averages 2.8 deaths per game, putting him in last place in this ranking among players in his role, Caps remains pretty sharp when it comes to generating gold. With an average of 449 gold per minute, he currently holds second place in this statistic, trailing Yasin 'Nisqy' Dincer (455) but narrowly beating his Sunday opponent, Humanoid (443).

For his part, the Czech prefers damage generation over gold generation. With 747 damage per minute, he is way ahead of his opponent this summer (592), as he is also in kill participation: 75% versus 51%. This statistic reflects the very different playstyles of the two midlaners, who have generally not played the same role in their respective teams over the five games.

With three matches with Hwei and one with Galio, Humanoid worked hard in teamfights and mainly played objectives alongside his teammates. His contribution was mainly in these phases of the game, while on the other side, Caps was also decisive for his team but in a different manner.

The Dane was the key to two of his team's three wins. Despite the statistics not necessarily being in his favor, he still creates opportunities to turn games around, as displayed by his games against GIANTX and Rogue. In troubled times, where he seems to be struggling and his team lacks solutions, Caps often manages to keep his composure to open a breach in the enemy base with a playstyle that seems inherent to G2 in 2024: the split-push. With one push (against GIANTX), he recovered an inhibitor and both T4s and with one push (against Rogue), he closed out the game.

Given the respective momentum of each team at the start of this split, Fnatic looks favored to win and maintain their invincibility this Sunday. In the spring regular season, it was Humanoid and his teammates who toppled the reigning champions, with the Czech putting in an XXL performance on his Taliyah (9/1/12). But the Samurai should not be overlooked, as they will have no better opportunity to turn things around in a BO1 this summer.

In fact, while the two midlaners know each other well and have battled it out for five years (59% win rate for Caps against 41% for Humanoid since 2020), this year it is clear that the Dane has the upper hand (73% win rate for Caps versus 27% for Humanoid in 11 matches). It remains to be seen which one will adapt better to the other's playstyle in this split. So, one-on-one in sidelanes or teamfighting?