The time has finally come, when the curtain falls on the League of Legends 2018 World Championships. Fnatic (“FNC”) and Invictus Gaming (“IG”) pushed through all other obstacles to meet each other in this final series. This Worlds meta is one of the most exciting fans have ever seen, and the adaptations from these teams will determine who comes out on top. These two teams have some of the biggest stars in the world who are looking to prove themselves as the best. Everything a League of Legends fan wants is here in this thrilling LoL 2018 Worlds Finals!
Game One
IG dominantly picked up the first win of the series against FNC. It all started with a 2v2 in the middle lane, where IG came out on top and Zhen-Ning “Ning” Gao killied Rasmus “Caps” Winther for First Blood. From here, the game grew harder and harder for Caps and FNC. IG brought more members to the middle lane to kill Caps, which they successfully did. IG brought down two towers in that lane, while Martin “Rekkles” Larsson took one in the bottom lane. Despite this, and a gank by Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen in the top lane that got him a kill, FNC looked in a precarious situation.
And it would only get worse. At 14 minutes IG decided to start the Rift Herald. A team fight erupted around the objective, which resulted in a three-for-one in the favor of IG and securing the objective. This proved instrumental when IG managed to catch out Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau in the bottom lane. They used the buff here to take two towers and this translated to another team fight win for IG near FNC’s Inhibitor Tower. By 20 minutes, IG amassed a 5k gold lead.
IG decided to begin fighting the Baron Nashor at 22 minutes. When FNC came to contest it, they pulled off and initiated a team fight, which they once again won three-for-one. Two minutes later, they returned to the objective and secured it, winning yet another team fight four-for-one. This gave them first the middle Inhibitor, then the top. IG, sick of the siege, engaged one final team fight. Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo got a Quadra Kill, and IG got a clean Ace. FNC could only look on in black and white while IG took their first Nexus at 27 minutes.
Game Two
IG exploited all of FNC’s weak points to push FNC to a quick match point. Ning was the play-maker and the main reason his team amassed such a huge gold lead. He found a gank onto Bwipo to get First Blood, then proceeded to camp him to tilt-inducing levels. Ning ganked Bwipo three more times after this before 15 minutes, making the FNC top laner quite useless. Ning also stole an Infernal Dragon right from under FNC’s nose and carried team fights with his full-AP Gragas build.
Broxah did manage to kill Kang “TheShy” Seung Lok early on, while Caps killed Rookie with the help of his team some time later. But FNC appeared powerless versus IG. At 18 minutes, IG killed the Rift Herald and used it mid to get a tower, which led to a full blown team fight. Like they had been doing so far in the series, IG smashed FNC four-for-zero in kills, giving them another tower and a second Infernal. At the 20 minute mark, IG had an 8k gold lead and were 10 kills ahead.
IG decided to continue bullying Bwipo, and caught him out in the bottom lane. FNC saw their chance and tried to rush the Baron. Though they did secure the objective kill, they got Aced in the ensuing team fight. All the while JackeyLove destroyed the bottom Inhibitor. In the next few minutes, IG demolished even more structures, taking the middle Inhibitor too. As they grouped top at 32 minutes to tackle the last one, Caps was punished for his forward positioning and killed. This emboldened IG, who pushed into the FNC base to slaughter four members in total. IG took their second Nexus of the 2018 Worlds Finals at exactly 33 minutes.
Game Three
IG cleanly finished off this series to sweep FNC and take their place at the top of the World Championship. FNC even had a dream start, with Baolan gifting a free First Blood to Caps at level one. Paul “sOAZ” Boyer also killed TheShy with the help of his jungler. But this time IG’s bottom lane hard carried the game. JackeyLove was spoon fed kills from his team, whether it be from the multiple ganks, the picks they found or the skirmishes he was a part of. It especially blew open when JackeyLove killed Hylissang and took the First Tower bonus in the bottom lane. He dove Caps by himself and solo killed him shortly after.
IG swiftly snowballed their lead as they had the earlier matches. A Rift Herald take led to a bottom lane tower. When FNC tried to defend further they started a team fight and IG capitalized on it, killing five members for two. After securing another couple of kills and a tower IG grew their gold lead to 6.5k, leading by 10 kills.
FNC did have a spark of hope at 20 minutes though. IG tried to rush the Baron Nashor as it spawned. It died quickly but Broxah made a miracle steal at the last second. FNC took the team fight after that and somehow won it three-for-two. FNC attempted to be proactive with the buff, taking outer towers and killing TheShy, but IG was continuously one step ahead, taking towers with no resistance. Finally, IG knew their lead was big enough to push FNC even without a Baron buff.
They began in the bottom lane, smashing the Inhibitor quickly. Here, one final team fight broke out. IG, as they had at almost every point in this series, absolutely obliterated FNC. They won the fight five-for-one and easily pushed on to win at 25 minutes. Invictus Gaming hoisted their first Summoner’s Cup for their team and their region among a roaring crowd soon after.
To re-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/league-of-legends/.
Featured image via LoL Esports Flickr.
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