Did that really just happen?
In a story straight out of a fairytale, Fnatic pulled a complete 180 to take down Korean juggernauts Kingzone DragonX. After going 0-2 on the first day of the group stage, many were already writing off Fnatic. To be honest, who can blame them, Fnatic made mistake after mistake, with the only hope for the team being mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Winther. However, today it seems that Fnatic has patched over the cracks in their foundation and are here to contend.
Source: Riot Games Flickr
Right off the bat from level 1, Fnatic decided to go on the offensive, setting up their famed brush of death in bot side river. Unfortunately for Kingzone, Kim “PraY” Jong-in decided to face check the brush and paid for it with his life. Right off the back of this Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen and the rest of Fnatic began to invade KZ’s jungle, forcing Han “Peanut” Wang-ho out, and securing red buff and raptors.
This already set up KZ at a massive disadvantage, as they make all their plays through Peanut. Peanut is the one snowballing lanes, Peanut is the one opening up the map. However, with him neutralized and top laner Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong getting shoved under his tower, KZ had no foothold in the early game.
Source: Riot Games
Fnatic didn’t stop at the early game. They continued to put constant pressure on Peanut’s red buff. Every time they would do this peanut would try and contest and every time he would fail. Although the blame wasn’t just on peanut for trying to contest, it also fell on Kim “Khan” Dong-ha, who made terrible teleport calls and awkward dives into the entire Fnatic squad.
With the constant mistakes coming out of the two biggest playmakers on KZ, all hope was lost, they lost team fight after team fight. When the time came for baron they had such little map pressure and vision that they couldn’t even make a dent. As soon as they even got close to the baron pit, Fnatic would turn around and chase them off, denying Peanut the 50/50 smite. Therefore, cementing the fate of the match.
Source: Riot Games
Kingzone put up a valiant fight whilst Fnatic was sieging their base, but it was only a matter of time till Fnatic took the nexus. With every subsequent attempt at cracking KZ’s base, they whittled away at their defences. They took inhibitors whilst keeping KZ busy with team fights, and whilst KZ won the fights, they lost the war. Their base laid in tatters as a result of constant waves of super minions, KZ put up one last fight before Fnatic did the impossible and defeated the tournament favourites. Will Kingzone be able to bounce back? Will Fnatic continue this stellar performance? Only time will tell.
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Featured image courtesy of Riot Games
