FC Schalke 04 vs G2 Esports

Finally, to close out the week, we have a match that, depending on your allegiance, may or may not be endlessly alluring: G2 Esports vs. Schalke 04. Frankly speaking, it would've been endlessly more enticing had Schalke not lost three games in a row. And, well, not all of those losses made sense -- dropping a game to Astralis (with a substitute mid laner, to boot) just isn't a good look. Then they'd lost to both MAD Lions and SK Gaming which, frankly, is even worse albeit for an entirely different reason: they're all practically competing for the exact same spot in the playoffs. So, with that in mind, dropping a game to Astralis who, by all means, won't accomplish much isn't the be-all and end-all; losing to your biggest and most direct competitors, on the other hand, is as egregious a mistake as it gets.

And all of this came right after a mind-blowing four-game win streak. It makes no sense whatsoever, but that's Schalke 04 in a nutshell basically. Their win streak made no sense either, so it's all a zero sum game. How high they'll eventually soar is anyone's guess at this point, but things don't look nearly as good as Schalke would want. They're making some huge, egregious blunders game after game, and they've shown little to no improvement ever since their win streak ended. And, frankly, it's not like their flaws aren't evident — they're as clear as day, so it's even more surprising that they're struggling to fix these issues despite having more than enough time to do so. But you never know with Schalke 04, for better or worse. They might enter this match with G2 looking like an absolute beast and get their hands raised or, conversely, fail to mount an offensive and just roll over en route to a one-sided shellacking. It's always a coin toss, whenever they're scheduled to compete.

Granted, G2 hasn't looked all that invincible either, but they're head and shoulders above the boys in white and blue and have already done more than enough to warrant our benefit of the doubt. Despite G2's inconsistency, we know what they're capable of, and there's no doubt on anyone's mind that they're well-equipped for the task at hand.