GIANTX Will win
The LEC Versus 2026 playoffs are gaining momentum, and we continue to publish our series of predictions. As part of the February 21 game day, a Lower Bracket Round 1 match will take place, featuring GIANTX and Team Heretics. We have prepared an analysis for this confrontation: we evaluated the teams' current form and their active rosters, and also analyzed regular season matches to determine the favorite. Continuing our betting tips section, we present a detailed breakdown of the GIANTX - Team Heretics match, which will be played in a Bo3 format and will be decisive, as the losing team leaves the tournament.
Bookmakers Offers For The Match GIANTX vs Team Heretics
Bookmakers have already chosen a favorite for this match. The odds for a GIANTX victory are quite low - ranging from 1.30 to 1.37. Analysts have much less faith in Team Heretics, with their chances of winning estimated at odds between 2.90 and 2.95. Such a noticeable difference in the numbers is quite understandable and logical when looking at the current form of both teams. Most likely, GIANTX will be able to confidently take control of the game and become the main contender to advance to the next stage of the tournament.
GIANTX vs Team Heretics Line-Ups
For the new season, GIANTX decided to forgo any roster changes and kept their lineup fully intact. For a relatively young organization, this approach seems quite logical. Over the past year, the players managed to establish themselves as a fairly solid mid-tier team in the league. By continuing with the same roster, the players will have an excellent opportunity to improve their synergy and teamwork, which should ultimately benefit their final results.
Team Heretics entered the 2026 season with an almost entirely revamped roster. The organization decided to keep only two players from last year's squad - the jungler and the support. Currently, the fresh lineup is demonstrating very confident gameplay. Ice stands out in particular, having reached excellent form. By the end of the regular season, he became the undisputed leader in multikills and managed to secure three pentakills. Therefore, if the team focuses on playing around their ADC, it could be the key to victory.
GIANTX Form & Performance
GIANTX spent the entire previous competitive year as a typical mid-tier team, consistently finishing in fifth-sixth places across all splits. Such stability is not bad, but the lack of progress clearly hinted at the need for changes. Since the organization did not change the roster, the esports players had to look for new approaches and rebuild their very game model.
The guys finished the regular season in fourth-fifth place. The result is acceptable, but the roster's ambitions were surely higher. Their slump in the final matches of the regular season could be attributed to the fact that a playoff ticket was already secured. It seemed that the squad simply took a pause to test new strategies and was saving energy to surprise opponents with prepared tactics in Best-of-3 series.
In reality, the situation turned out to be more complicated. Already at the start of the playoffs, it became clear that the old issues hadn't gone anywhere. GIANTX still struggle to secure maps and look quite unconfident in the Bo3 format. Their main vulnerability remains their macro and a categorical reluctance to fight for dragons, which dictate the outcome of the game in the current meta. The team barely gets any first bloods and rarely takes down first towers, preferring to sit back on defense. They are only able to turn on the aggression against frankly passive opponents - as was the case in the match against MKOI, who did absolutely nothing on the map. However, for the sake of fairness, it is worth noting that GIANTX were frankly unlucky in the first round: they had to play against Karmine Corp, who are currently acting as the main contenders for the championship.
Most popular GIANTX Champions
Here are GIANTX most picked champions and those with the highest win rates from the regular season.
- Rakan — 5 games - 60% winrate
- Jarvan IV — 5 games - 40% winrate
- Orianna — 5 games - 40% winrate
- Azir — 4 games - 25% winrate
- KaiSa — 3 games - 66% winrate
- Rumble — 3 games - 66% winrate
- Taliyah — 2 games - 50% winrate
- Bard — 3 games - 66% winrate
- Corki — 3 games - 33% winrate
- Xin Zhao — 2 games - 100% winrate
The statistics clearly confirm GIANTX's preference for playing reactively: their First Tower rate is only 18.2%, and First Blood - 45.5%. The team prefers to lane carefully and play defensively, but such a passive style often backfires on them. In matches against top-tier teams that know how to properly snowball an early advantage and methodically deny their opponent space on the map, GIANTX find themselves completely shut out of the game and simply cannot execute their usual game plan.
Team Heretics Form & Performance
Because the Team Heretics roster was assembled almost entirely from scratch, we will assess their current form exclusively on their LEC Versus 2026 regular season performance, setting aside any past achievements.
The squad concluded the group stage in fourth place with a 6-5 standing. In the final week, the players really stepped up, securing a three-game win streak against tough opponents: Movistar KOI, G2 Esports, and Fnatic. Their game plan is fundamentally based on lane dominance, and specifically - on a highly confident bot lane. It is vital for Team Heretics that Ice secures aggressive champions that can impact the map from minute one. With these picks, he quickly builds a lead and shuts down his lane opponents. Conversely, late-game hypercarries like Jinx or Zeri, which require extensive farming and time to reach their power spikes, do not suit his playstyle well. When forced onto these scaling picks, he struggles to fully unlock his potential as a marksman.
This focus on strong laning grants Team Heretics a very high First Blood rate. It clearly shows the team is comfortable playing from ahead, ramping up the pace, and snowballing early advantages. However, extended Bo3 and Bo5 series could be their major downfall right now. If opponents strategically target their bans at their ADC's champion pool, the roster will run into severe trouble.
This exact fear was validated in the first round of the playoffs, where Team Heretics fell 0:2 to G2 Esports. Notably, G2 themselves are currently not in peak form and finished the regular season down in seventh place. This loss heavily exposes the weakness of Heretics' current system in Best-of-3 formats.
Most popular Team Heretics Champions
Here are Team Heretics' most picked champions and those with the highest win rates from the regular season.
- K'Sante - 4 games - 50% winrate
- Dr. Mundo - 5 games - 60% winrate
- Orianna - 4 games - 50% winrate
- Jhin - 4 games - 50% winrate
- Nautilus - 4 games - 25% winrate
- Ambessa - 3 games - 50% winrate
- Rell - 2 games - 50% winrate
- Azir - 3 games - 0% winrate
- Ryze - 2 games - 100% winrate
- Aphelios - 3 games - 66% winrate
The foundation of Team Heretics' entire game rests on two key aspects - lane dominance and high pacing. Their main game plan is to seize the initiative from the very first minutes and distribute pressure across the lanes. This allows their jungler to comfortably secure neutral objectives, after which the team simply snowballs their advantage and closes out the game. Heretics are not fans of long, positional games in the late game. At the same time, it is worth noting a major flaw: if the guys have a poor start and fall behind in gold, their chances of a comeback are extremely slim - they have not yet learned how to turn the tide of poorly unfolding matches.
GIANTX vs Team Heretics Head-To-Head
Last year, these teams played against each other multiple times, but due to roster changes, it is much more accurate to evaluate their head-to-head meeting in the current season. During the LEC Versus 2026 regular season, Team Heretics managed to defeat GIANTX. The match lasted for 42 minutes, during which Team Heretics confidently held the advantage on their side for the majority of the time. The encounter logically ended with a score of 19-8 in favor of Team Heretics.
Best Pick For Match GIANTX vs Team Heretics
Looking at the performance of both teams in the previous rounds, GIANTX look much stronger and more confident in my eyes in this Bo3 matchup. In their case, they need to put more emphasis on the macro game and dragon control, as well as pay specific attention to their bot lane and comfortable champions for Ice, with a focus on teamfights.
Betting Prediction: GIANTX win.
Kiril Batulin
Kirill is a writer of articles and blogs at eGamersWorld, having joined the team in 2024. His primary focus is analytics and crafting content about esports. With years of experience in gaming, Kirill brings deep industry insights to deliver high-quality and engaging materials.
All bookmakers have agreed that GIANTX is the favorite. This can be noticed because odds on them are 1.507. This number in the favor of Team Heretics amounts 2.34. Respectively, the last ones are the underdogs of the upcoming match.
How the teams played in the last matches
| Last Matches | GIANTX | Team Heretics |
| 5 matches (wins) | 0 | 0 |
| 10 matches (wins) | 0 | 0 |
It will also be necessary to mention the history of face-to-face meetings between the opponents. The participants in the battle before the meeting played 1 matches with each other. In these battles GIANTX got 0 victories while Team Heretics managed to take 1 matches.
