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The League of Legends competitive season is about to begin. It starts, among other things, in Europe, where we are expecting battles within the framework of LEC Winter 2025.
Among the contenders for the LEC Winter 2025 championship are Vitality and BDS. Both teams are pretty big names for the European scene, and that's why their head-to-head match will be definitely The International interesting to watch.
Let's try to find out which of the pair BDS - Vitality will be stronger and earn the first points in the run-up to the real massacre for slots in the LEC Winter 2025 play-offs.
Let's go.
Vitality uniforms
Let's open the BDS vs Vitality match with an analysis of BDS' form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.6.
Vitality started last season with their participation at LEC Winter 2023. In the regular season, Vitality went over the heads of their opponents: they played it 7-2 and then went to play the group stage, where they had much less luck. So much so that Vitality failed to get out of their basket, Ledgeiv SK Gaming and KOI. As a result, the top 5.
Next up was an appearance at LEC Spring 2024. This was Vitality's best split where they managed to make it to the top 3. However, that was enough for exactly nothing: just Top 3.
The last tournament last season for Vitality was LEC Summer 2023. And it was a total fiasco: Vitality had their worst performance of the year, going 1-8 in the regular season and finishing the split in the top 10.
- Vitality lineup: Naak Nako, Lyncas, Czajek, Carzyy, Hylissang.
In the first match of LEC Winter 2024 Team Vitality will play against GIANTX, where I see problems for the Bees. I think EXCEL's vigorous core will give Vitality a boost. And so it happened. And two more defeats later, against Fnatic and Team BDS.
Vitality were actually pleasantly surprised. After Long Sogpeg 0-3, the "bees" managed to comeback to score 4-5, thus making it to the next stage of the tournament.
In the first round of the LEC Winter 2024 play-offs Vitality played against SK Gaming. Surprisingly, the French were very convincing and closed the series with a score of 2-0. However, things were not so rosy after that, as Vitality played a derby against BDS, which ended with a super confident victory of the latter. The next match was the last one for Vitality in LEC Winter 2024. They played it against MAD Lions KOI and lost with a score of 0-2.
At the end of LEC Winter 2024 Vitality were ranked in the top 6. In the spring split Vitality performed much better and made it to the top 4. In Summer 2024, Vitality clearly failed to do well, finishing in the top 9 and thus failing to make it to Worlds 2024.
Vitality's most popular champions
The most frequent guest on the top line is Jax (2 matches, 100% wins). Also picked were KSante, Gnar, Gwen and Ornn, Renekton and Gragas. Ornn and Renekton lost their matches, not quite hitting the season 13 meta.
Bo predominantly played as Vi. One of the most meta characters of the season appeared in spades 4 times and won all his games. There was also Sejuani and Maokai (2 games and 1 win each).
On the centre line, Azir was the favourite character (3 games, 100% wins). The Croatian also played Ryze, Syndra, Cassiopeia, Tristana, LeBlanc and Taliyah. Only Tristana and LeBlanc lost.
Of the shooters, Zeri (3 games, 66% wins), Ezreal (2 matches, 100% wins), Varus (2 games, 100% wins) appeared most often. Caitlyn and Sivir peaked once each: the former won her game and the latter lost.
Of the supporting characters, Yummi (3 games, 33% wins), Ashe (2 games, 100% wins) played three times. Leona, Braum, Nami and Lux won once each.
BDS Form
We continue the analysis of the match BDS - Vitality with the analysis of the BDS uniform. In this match the French club will play as an outsider with odds to win at around 2.4.
At LEC Winter 2023 BDS reached the group stage, but quickly fell out of it, taking the last place in their quartet. The result was a top-7 finish.
Next came LEC Spring 2023 and BDS' moment of glory. Completely unexpectedly they reached the grand final, but there they lost to MAD Lions, who were on a terrific spree in spring.
- BDS line-up: Irrelevant, 113, Nuc, Ice, Parus.
Before LEC Finals 2023, BDS played at LEC Summer 2023. They were one map short of reaching the play-offs. They finished the championship in 5th place.
Thanks to the near top places and TOP 2 at LEC Spring 2023 BDS managed to get to LEC Finals 2023, and also to the top grid, where they got to G2 Esports in the first round. The International didn't end up with anything interesting and G2 had no trouble closing out the match with a 3-1 score.
After the defeat from the main favourite of LEC Finals 2023 - G2 Esports - BDS played against SK Gaming. The German club was unable to give anything to the French and fell with a score of 0-3.
However, BDS' path to the LEC Finals 2023 ended with the game against SK. The team lost to Fnatic 2-3 in the next round of the lower bracket, thus failing to make it into the top 3 of the tournament for direct participation in the main tournament.
BDS have already started Worlds 2023 on a positive note. They ran over Golden Guardians at the Worlds Qualifying Series in class, thus snatching a slot in the same Play-In.
After a confidence-boosting win over GG at the Worlds Qualifying Series, BDS unexpectedly fell in their first match at Worlds 2023. They lost to No. 2 Vietnam, thus becoming the main losers of the World Championship so far.
They managed to partially rehabilitate themselves in the match against DFM. The Japanese club did not provide proper resistance and BDS closed the series with a very simple 2-0.
In the match for the exit here BDS played against CTBC. The Frenchmen outclassed their opponents, closing the series 2-0.
BDS battled PSG Talon to advance to the group stage. The French were a map away from elimination, but on the third map Adam and his Olaf gave his team a chance to clinch a comeback and BDS took it: a reverse sweep in the group stage match actually allowed BDS to qualify for the group stage.
In the group stage of Worlds 2023, BDS first ran into JD Gaming. Obviously, the first team of the world was not up to the French and they lost without much of a chance. Next was a match against MAD Lions and again an ironclad defeat. The BDS final at Worlds 2023 was as ignominious as their entire stay at the tournament - they lost 0-2 to Dplus.
BDS will make their LEC Winter 2024 debut against G2 Esports. Cheers to them! Later on it will be a match against GIANTX, which will be easier, but not easy.
BDS had almost no equal in the regular season of LEC Winter 2024. The French club lost only 2 matches: the first one of the year against G2 Esports and the last one in the regular season against Karmine Corp.
In the play-offs LEC Winter 2024 met Team Heretics. There, the French beat Heretics 2-0 on class. The quarter-finals were not much harder for BDS: again a confident 2-0 win, but now against Vitality. They fell to the lower set after a scoreless defeat to G2 Esports in the small final of the upper set. And already there, they lost to MAD Lions.
LEC Spring 2024 was not bad, but they couldn't reach MSI 2024. They were hampered by Fnatic, who knocked out BDS in the grand final match.
BDS made it to the LEC Summer 2024 play-offs with great confidence, sharing the regular season top 1 with SK Gaming. The playoffs of the Long Sogpeg Championship started with a 2-1 win over MAD Lions KOI. Then met with G2 Esports and the outcome was more than obvious - 0-2 in favour of G2. Falling into the bottom set BSD outlasted GiantX, closing out the series with a score of 2-1. Prior to this match, BDS played against Karmine Corp and it was a pretty tough match, but still ended with a 3-2 win for BDS. But in the match for the exit to the grand finals was unlucky to meet G2: 1-3 and departure to the top 3.
LEC Finals 2024 started with an idle loss against Fnatic. Next was a similarly scoreless win over SK Gaming in the first round of the lower bracket. Then there was a match against G2 Esports for the top 3 LEC Finals, but there BDS lacked literally one map for victory and with the score 2-3 they left the tournament.
The most popular BDS champions
On the top line the most frequent picks are K'Sante (4 matches, 50% wins), Gnar (3 matches, 100% wins).
Foresters picks are Wukong (4 matches, 50% wins), Vi (2 matches, 50% wins), Nocturne (2 matches, 50% wins), Viego (2 matches, 0% wins).
On the centre line Gragas (4 matches, 50% wins), Annie (4 matches, 50% wins).
Aphelios (6 matches, 33% wins), Jinx (3 matches, 66% wins), Zeri (2 matches, 100% wins).
Everything is also stable on Suprorts: Lulu (3 matches, 66% wins), Rakan (3 games, 0% wins), Nautilus (2 matches, 50% wins).
History of head-to-head meetings between BDS and Vitality
In the season 2024 the teams played each other 5 times, among which 4 times BDS won and only once - Vitality.
Predicted result of Vitality vs BDS at LEC Winter 2025
In this match I expect BDS to win. As far as I'm concerned, they went through the off-season much better, having retained the fighting potential of the roster, while the "bees" can boast only a confident bot-lane, which is not very optimistic.
Bottom line: BDS wins.