FNC and C9 team compositions with C9 Jensen center. Photo via Riot Games and LoL Esports.
Fnatic (“FNC”) absolutely obliterated Cloud9 (“C9”) in the first game of this all-important series. FNC commanded the game from the early few minutes and cleanly grew their snowball. Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen got First Blood onto Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen at only three minutes. A few minutes later, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen ganked the top lane. Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau was too fast to kill and Svenskeren ended up running into the tower and dying, while the rest of FNC killed Eric “Licorice” Ritchie. Jensen and Licorice were killed multiple more times with the roams of Rasmus “Caps” Winther and Broxah.
C9 tried again to make a play in the bottom lane, and though they found one kill, three went the other way. This allowed FNC to take the First Tower bonus and to empower the duo lane to roam. They did, and destroyed towers left, right and center. A 19 minute team fight once again went in the favor of FNC three-for-one. Here, FNC melted the Baron and took the buff before 21 minutes, giving them over a 12k gold lead.
Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi did manage to find a shut down onto Caps with his team’s help, but it was no where near enough. FNC methodically dismantled C9’s base, taking first the top Inhibitor, then the middle and finally the bottom. As they wrecked the final Inhibitor, the desperate C9 engaged one final fight. FNC was happy to fight, killing all five C9 members before taking their Nexus at 25 minutes.
C9 and FNC team compositions with FNC Broxah center. Photo via Riot Games and LoL Esports.
This second game resulted in another win for FNC, bringing the series to match point quickly. It wasn’t like the first game though, because it was much slower. C9 actually secured First Blood in a bottom lane pick, which led to a Cloud Dragon. At 16 minutes, a skirmish was fought in the middle lane, which went one-for-one. More importantly, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson was left alone and received the First Tower bonus in the bottom lane. Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam was caught out and some towers were traded moving into the mid-game, but the gold remained quite close.
C9 showed signs of life in a 22 minute team fight, where they found two unanswered kills and and Infernal Dragon two minutes later. Soon after, another fight occurred, but this one went in the favor of FNC. They saw their opportunity and seized it. They started the Baron, killed three C9 members trying to contest and secured the buff. This allowed them to accumulate a 5k gold lead.
FNC quickly destroyed a couple of towers in the middle and top lanes with the buff. C9 decided to engage onto two isolated Fnatic members in the bottom lane, and while they did get the two kills, FNC took an Inhibitor. A few minutes later, FNC sieged the mid lane to crack open another Inhibitor. A team fight erupted and Caps came up huge on his Azir. A great Emperor’s Divide gave him the space he needed to slaughter C9 and get himself a Quadra Kill. No C9 member was alive to defend their Nexus, and FNC destroyed it at 32 minutes.
FNC and C9 team compositions with C9 Reapered center. Photo via Riot Games and LoL Esports.
FNC punched their tickets to the 2018 World Championship Finals with a clean sweep over C9. Like in the past games, they dominated their NA rivals by the end of the match. Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov secured First Blood in a straight up 2v2 on Sneaky. Broxah continued to bully Licorice, finding a kill onto him at 8 minutes. C9 made some moves, like getting an Infernal Dragon, First Tower bonus and skirmish win to accumulate a 2k gold lead by 20 minutes. But even with a lead, once the mid and late game came, FNC simply outplayed and outperformed C9.
The first breaking point came at 23 minutes around an Infernal Dragon. A team fight was the first step of this, where FNC killed four members while losing none. This led to the Dragon take as well as the Baron. This buff was huge for FNC, completely swinging the gold in their favor and smashing multiple towers. At 28 minutes, FNC won another team fight five-for-two and took their first Inhibitor.
They continued to pressure C9 greatly until they decided to go for the second Baron Nashor. FNC secured the buff and managed to win the ensuing team fight five-for-three. This escalated to an 8k gold lead. Caps asserted total dominance when he dove and killed Licorice under his top Inhibitor tower. This emboldened FNC, who pushed forward with vigor and slaughtered more C9 members. FNC finished C9’s and NA’s hopes for a Worlds final when they destroyed their last Nexus at 35 minutes.
To watch the 2018 World Championship, visit Riot Games’ Twitch channel. For more information on the tournament, teams, standings, and players, visit www.lolesports.com. Recaps of former games and other LoL content can be found at https://thegamehaus.com/category/league-of-legends/.
Featured image via LoL Esports Flickr.
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