This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　The games of day 1 are behind us, we didn't get that many surprises in the results. One of the most remarkable things was Gambit Gaming who had to play with four, yes, four substitutes. Due to visa issues we could only find Edward on stage together with 4 subs. How that turned out you can read below.

　　First, I would like to focus a bit on a certain player who played a certain champion. As the title already revealed, Mike "Wickd" Petersen played his long time love: Irelia. The game turned into a 15 minute farm fest between him and his opponent Simon "fredy122" Payne on Dr. Mundo. After the farming session they both went back and from then on the game started to crack open. For the majority it actually went up quite even with SK Gaming taking the lead around 25 minutes, having a 4,000 gold advantage. The game ended in Alliance's favor however after a game changing teamfight and a baron going to Alliance. This provided them enough to turn the game around and close it out after about 35 minutes.

　　I took the time to have a little chat with Wickd about his Irelia pick and his thoughts on following the meta versus picking what you feel good with.

　　

Was it planned for you to play Irelia no matter what or did it just fall into place and seemed like the best choice at the time of the pick/ban phase?

We used a lot of time planning every single possible scenario in the pick and ban phase against SK Gaming. We wrote down and talked about which champions would be our first choice and what we would fall back on if those were picker or banned. Renekton was the champion I was going for, but since they banned it I could freely play Irelia since Fredy doesn't play any other hard counters to her.

　　

Did you put in some special practice into her prior to this week of the LCS?

To be honest I started practicing her the day before and hand't played her for months prior to that. However, Irelia is a champion that I've played a lot of games with and it only took a game or two to get the hang of her again.

　　

Would you agree that sometimes it's better to play a champion you love and know than to follow the meta? Unless they can easily harcounter you of course.

To some extent yes. Sometimes you got to play the champions that fit you well instead of playing the champions that are believed to be the best. For example, Shyvana is a champion that is good against Mundo and she's known to be good in the current meta, but I, as a player, am better on Irelia and would never be able to do as much on Shyvana in that game. Also they didn't have that much AOE CC and that's generally what shuts Irelia down. If you know a champion very well you also know what counters it.

　　

What was going through your mind during the 15 minute farming session? You went back with about 4,000 gold and instantly picked up a trinity force, what made you go for that item?

A lot of people seemed to think that my laning phase was going great because I had free farm, but in the game I wasn't satisfied with it. I managed to constantly drop Mundo low and made him use his ultimate which made him quite an easy kill if ganked. Sadly we had to focus our resources on other lanes. In this situation I thought Mundo would be stronger than me with equal farm but I managed to outperform him later in the game. Irelia's main strength is taking advantage of the opponents miss positioning and catching them off guard. SK didn't have the best positioning in teamfights and that gave me the possibility to do what I wanted.

　　Regarding the item choice, I went trinity force because it's simply the best item on Irelia if you can afford it. Due to both of us free farming for 15 minutes I could buy it on the first base and there's no reason to buy anything else. If you go full tank on Irelia you'll lack damage and feel completely useless.

　　I'd like to thank Wickd for the short but nice interview and would like to congratulate him and the team on picking up the win.

　　Back to Gambit however, they had to go up against the number one in the LCS: ROCCAT. Gambit pulled slightly ahead in the beginning of the game though ROCCAT took first blood. After 20 minutes the game switched into ROCCAT's favor who closed it out after 35 minutes.

　　Besides these four teams we also got to see Fnatic take on SupaHotCrew. Fnatic has been on a 0-5 losing streak and did not manage to break it. Fnatic started well and got the most kills throughout the game but superior team movement and objective coverage from SHC provided them with the win in about 30 minutes.

　　Longest game of the day was the one between Millenium and the Copenhagen Wolves. A slow paced game which looked to shift in Millenium's favor and for the first half of the game they were ahead. Copenhagen Wolves' control of the map and the objectives slowly gave them the advantage. The game took no less than 56 minutes to end.

　　Score overview of the EU LCS Week 6 Day 1:

　　Millenium vs Copenhagen Wolves 0-1

　　Gambit vs Roccat 0-1

　　SupaHotCrew vs Fnatic 1-0

　　SK Gaming vs Alliance 0-1

　　Make sure to check out this video from Travis where the NA LCS pros give their thoughts on the EU LCS games. Let us know in the comments who you think will win in the NA LCS which starts tonight.

　　Image sources: Riot Games/LoLeSports