“This weekend is a weekend full of surprises”, words uttered by LEC color caster Christy “Ender” Friersen. And boy, was it ever! Upsets all around, S04 had their first win – and against G2 at that. As for Fnatic…
Courtesy of LoL Esports flickr
Coming into this match Fnatic were far and away the favorites to come out on top as Vitality had yet to win a game.
Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, feeling confident, brought out the seldom-seen Singed as an answer to Lucas “Cabochard” Simon-Meslets first picked Sett. If having a Singed running in circles with poison weren’t foul enough, Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek picked up Cassiopeia to further spread the toxicity on the rift.
The match throughout was surprisingly even, Vitality certainly did not look like an 0-6 team. They were able to get the leads that could have ended up giving them the win, but in the end the experience from Fnatic persisted. The stability from Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, the Lee Sin engages – and disengages – from Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek were both huge factors.
What sealed the deal, however, was when Nemesis destroyed a flank attempt from Cabochard in the top lane during a split push. His four man ult wiped out Vitality, and Fnatic were able to destroy the Nexus.
Player of the match: Gabrël “Bwipo” Rau for his Singed pick. He did have a messy early game, but his existence managed to completely shut down Vitalitys valiant efforts to play through their top lane. Silent disruption at its finest.
Courtesy of LoL Esports flickr
This was the match of the week. A lot of hype surrounded the bottom lane matchup, the young talent versus the veteran star. Fans were eager to see this play out. With a win over Mad Lions, Fnatic could have tied for first.
Fnatic took control and called for an early three-man dive on bottom lane. Selfmade on Elise picked up first blood. After that, Hylissang fell, making it a 1 for 1.
After an uncoordinated and unsuccessful play in top lane where a lot of resources were used, MAD Lions found themselves having priority on the bottom side of the map and took the first Drake.
This would be a catalyst for a map-wide MAD Lions control, by that, a catastrophe for Fnatic. They got impatient and forcefully picked fights that were essentially unfavorable to them. Hylissang was a shadow of himself, numerous times he was caught out of position. For instance, when he died while facechecking a brush in the enemy jungle. Without vision. And without his teammates.
Through multiple flanking attempts, Fnatic were unable to stop the bleeding from the Lions.
Baron buffed and confident, MAD Lions stormed Fnatics base. Only 30 minutes in and the Nexus blew.
Player of the match:
Zhiqiang “Shadow” Zhao
He had a massive presence in this game, finding several engages that helped MAD Lions gain momentum. When he didn’t use his ult for a guaranteed pick, his Lee Sin kicks saved his teammates when Fnatic wanted to engage. Game-winning ults all around.
This weekend concluded the first half of the split. With that, Fnatic starts the second round robin as they did the first; playing Origen on Saturday. But first, a Friday night match against Rogue.
It has been a rather slow start for Fnatic this Split.
As both teams are currently in the contention for second place, a lot is at stake. Rogue will be looking to keep their winning streak going, and it will be crucial for Fnatic to be able to bounce back from the past week’s messy results.
Player to watch: Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov has been fairly impactless recently and it is not the monster support that fans know. Taking into consideration the importance of this match, he has to be able to simply be present. He needs to find those engages that enables his team to shine.
Prediction – Rogue wins. They are on a roll.
A rematch of the very first game of the 2020 Spring Split.
A lot of things are going well for Origen at the moment, they are climbing the standings and are currently tied for first place alongside G2 Esports and Misfits Gaming.
The first time around, they got the better of Fnatic. But four weeks have passed and you gotta believe that they have made the proper preparations and adjustments. Will Mithy be able to help his players take down his old team?
Player to watch: Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek. After a thoroughly unlucky debut for Fnatic, he will be looking to redeem himself. It’s the Fnatic jungler versus the jungler that were rumored could have been.
Prediction – #FNCWIN
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