Coming from March 7’s G2 Esports (G2) vs Origen (OG) match, two teams now hold the spot of first place. But not for long – immediately after, G2 faced Fnatic (FNC) for a second tiebreaker for first place. Both teams have ten wins and three losses.
If G2 wins, they stay at first place, like they have been for the entire split. If FNC wins, they keep their spot on top and G2 will likely be tied for second place with OG.
Week 3: G2 vs FNC
Last time the two teams played against each other, they went neck and neck in the early game. FNC’s strategy for most of the split was to gain an advantage and snowball it to victory. They have the capability to take a small loss and rotate it into their lead if needed. G2 on the other hand is all about aggression, and they can make bigger losses and convert them to wins. Due to that play style, the game in Week 3 featured G2 playing very aggressively, trying to make sure Fnatic could not find any lead.
There were five ganks within eight minutes of the game by G2. Both teams were equipped with two or more teleports to make fights more frequently. And both were actively searching for fights, constantly getting items and getting ready for the next fight before the other could.
But, both over-committed to fights, trying hard to prevent the other team from gaining anything. The unfortunate news for FNC was that G2 is more skilled in team fights. Resulting in Fnatic engaging in fights, and G2 reversing the advantage and taking over. Similar to how G2 played against OG, Luka “PERKZ” Perkovic came from the back with Ryze and destroyed the back line while Martin “Wunder” Hansen and Rasmus “Caps” Winther took the front. The game ended with 25 kills to G2 and just nine to FNC, proving that FNC was not able to come back from their losses.
Week 7
Last time, the LEC was focused on Caps and Martin “Rekkles” Larsson facing each other in the bot lane. This time, there was none of that. Every player was treated as a king of the game, but this game was more of a gladiator fight. Fnatic improved their play style to adapt for losses better.
From the draft, they picked champions that they knew they could easily make outstanding plays like Sett, Yasuo, and Kai’sa. And they had Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov on Rakan, known to be good against Caps. And instead of being 100% safe, G2 opted to pick champs that they haven’t played often but knew would be fun and strong in their own respects. Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle on the latest healer in meta: Yuumi and Martin “Wunder” Hansen playing second support on Janna in the top lane.
G2 also locked in Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski on Olaf for the early game lead potential, PERKZ on Akali for assassinations and Caps on Ezreal again, since he didn’t die during the OG game the day before.
Pressured To Engage
Due to Wunder playing Janna, there is was pressure up there. Both teams knew that, so FNC made initial plays to make sure Wunder can’t farm, but Wunder was able to back off and stay safe. It’s all about gaining gold so that he can be an influential play maker later in the game. And he was. The additional healing and disengage from Janna’s Monsoon (R) made sure PERKZ’s Akali and Caps’ Ezreal stayed alive to deal damage.
And it also helps that Mikyx was playing Yuumi to keep Caps alive. And it worked, Caps died zero times, giving him a zero death weekend on his old pocket pick of Ezreal.
Fnatic felt the pressure of starting fights. They made the first attempts at taking down PERKZ and they had a hard time going all-in into fights. Usually after G2 got into the flow of battling a few members of the team, the rest of the team would come in and help out. This wasn’t bad, but it shows how intimidating G2 can be in the game.
Mikyx still misses shots, except this time it’s Yuumi’s ultimate, and that’s devastating when trying to make plays. Sometimes it was okay, since Fnatic would avoid the waves of her Final Chapter (R). On the other side, Hylissang would run in early to Rakan’s knockup but if nothing happened, then he’d take damage and run off to the side, but he didn’t die. The pressure of engaging hurts both support players, since it’s all up to them. Yuumi has to keep the healing up, and for the most part Mikyx did, but sometimes he wasn’t there in time, like when switching players to heal.
Playing the Slow Game
Like the G2 vs OG game, G2 abandoned making full scale battles for kills in favor of taking down towers and getting Dragons. Jankos got first Dragon like he likes to do. Fnatic is no slouch though, they kept up in Dragons too and also got six towers, to G2’s eight towers taken. Until 16 minutes into the game, both teams made small trades and only focused on pushing in lanes. At 16 minutes, the first major fight happened, after both teams got a Dragon each.
G2 was willing to give up lives for objectives too. Their second Dragon was traded for Mikyx and Jankos. That wass a good trade, though – the double Cloud Drakes gave them ability to roam the map efficiently. But they didn’t start making movements for towers until 23 minutes in, focusing more on gathering gold and building up items.
Even though G2 started playing for fun, this game was more tactical than their previous games. There was no serious fighting and none of the back and forth that they like to do. Fnatic made sure that G2 was locked into laning for the longest time, only letting them slip out to take a Dragon. The game was almost even until 27 minutes in. G2 had four kills from quick picks and FNC had five kills from coordinated team fights.
Stealing Baron and Then the Game
At the 27 minute mark Fnatic decided enough is enough and went for Baron Nashor. With just 13 health left, Jankos jumped in with a Blast Cone and stole the Baron. He died, of course, but giving G2 the Baron buff was the game’s clincher. Either team would’ve won with the Baron buff there, since G2 had four towers taken down and fewer kills and gold. The Baron would’ve given Fnatic the push power to clear out objectives.
Yet, that’s exactly what G2 needed too. Once they got the buff, Caps went mid and PERKZ went top and evened up the tower count. The additional gold made items, and the new experience put G2 at terms with FNC. The game was then minimized to a team fight at 30 minutes, with no kills (thanks to Janna), an Inhibitor taken by G2 and a Dragon.
FNC pushed back, not willing to go down yet, and got mid base tower, but had to back off. The last fight at 33 minutes ended the game, with four down on Fnatic, G2 was allowed to walk into base and take everything. That one Baron steal by Jankos put G2 back into the game and finished it.
Tied for Second
With G2 winning first place, and never leaving it, they have basically solidified their position to go to the Mid-Season Invitational tournament. Fnatic tied with Origen for second place, since Origen won their game against Misfits Gaming and the both have 10 wins and four losses. G2 has 11 wins and three losses.
The happiest person was Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez, taking to Twitter to call out Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann and the Janna top pick. It’s safe to say, Riot might be looking to nerf Janna as well.
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