Each year, the West chooses a team to latch its hope upon. To carry the faithful towards the promised land. Often times, that’s all it is, hope. This year it’s different. Finally, a team has come across that could actually challenge the titans of China and Korea. A rocky start to the group stage, followed by a convincing second week has left Fnatic in prime position to make a deep run into the bracket.
After a shaky first week, Fnatic returned with a blistering performance in the second week of groups showing the world exactly why many teams have earmarked them as a contender. It’s been a long wait, but perhaps Fnatic are ‘The Great West Hope’.
Fnatic vs Edward Gaming
In their quarter-final matchup, Fnatic will need to be at their best to beat Edward Gaming. However, the Chinese second seed didn’t have their best performance in the group stage, proving to be far too predictable in their games against SKT. Clearlove camped the bot lane, while AmazingJ was left on an island in the top lane. In fact, in their second game against SKT, EDG mid laner, Pawn’s Twisted Fate ganked the top lane more than Clearlove.
While top laner Koro1 arguably fits the team dynamic better than AmazingJ, he too has issues with overall play as well as some injury concerns. Many will be hyped up about the return of Koro1 after his excellent performances at the Mid Season Invitational, but this isn’t the same player we saw at MSI. Out of practice, and out of form, Koro1 was one of the weak points in EDG’s disappointing losses in the LPL Summer finals.
After having been benched for AmazingJ in the group stage, it would be surprising to see if anything has changed since then. Although Deft is the damage carry of EDG, the most instrumental player to EDG’s success will always be Clearlove. An off week in the group stage will need to be put aside as he looks to carry his team towards a finals berth. If Clearlove is on top of his game, EDG will be hard to stop.
Fnatic, on the other hand, revealed a myriad of strategies, including the off meta pick of AD Kennen. With Kennen already rising up as a flex pick, as well as a strong support when paired with Kalista, this adds a dynamic to Fnatic’s draft phase that no other team has at the moment. In their games against Invictus Gaming and Cloud 9, they showed the ruthless edge necessary to destroy their opposition, but they also showed key weaknesses in their draft. If it wasn’t for an overzealous engagement from Ziv’s Kennen, and a perfect double distortion play from Febiven’s Leblanc, they probably would have lost their match against AHQ.
Tahm Kench is sure to be a huge pick in the rest of the tournament. He’s a massive counter to Annie support, and burst in general, and works very well in protect the ADC compositions. However, Fnatic hasn’t shown the necessary respect towards Tahm Kench in their drafts. If it wasn’t for an incredibly fortunate 48th minute team fight, they would have gone 0-2 against AHQ and been forced to go into a tiebreaker with Cloud 9 for the second spot in their group.
They were also drafting Sivir in compositions where she would be vastly outranged by the enemy ADC, culminating in their final draft where they drafted Sivir against Jinx, who’s 700 range AOE rockets left Rekkles unable to impact the game. Rekkles has showed that he has a deep champion pool, but for now he’s been put on Sivir duty, besides the two games of AD Kennen.
It seems as if Fnatic has gone into games with a specific strategy in mind, and have been unable to pivot their strategy in the middle of the draft. They’ll need to rediscover that ability if they want to make a deep run in the tournament.
Ultimately, this is a very close matchup. Both teams were not playing at their best in the group stage, so it comes down to which teams show up. Will it be the mid-summer EDG, who looked nigh unstoppable? Will it be the undefeated Fnatic of the regular season? Regardless, this is one of the premier match ups of the quarter-finals, and it’s sure to provide sparks.
Staff Predictions
739 (3-1) AdsMoFro (3-2) | thejuju (3-2) nelsonsng (3-1) oo_Wonderful_oo (3-1) keithasante (3-2) JonGalt (3-0) |
The Heroes of the West
Click on a player's picture to reveal a bio and statistical information on them!
Note:
All statistics are from the EU LCS Summer split.
CSD@10 = Creep score discrepancy at 10 minutes.
KP = Kill Participation. GD@10 = Gold differential at 10
The player that embodies the new Fnatic is their energetic top laner, Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon. Like his personality, there is no self doubt in Huni’s play. Whether he’s playing Rumble or Lulu, he will always be aggressive in lane, looking to push towards an advantage and then utilise his teleport to increase his team’s advantage, usually by teleporting into the bottom lane.
His unbridled aggression has sometimes gotten the best of him, as he has a tendency to give away kills by playing too far forward in lane without the necessary vision. However, unlike some other top laners, these deaths never seem to affect his mentality, as he will go into fights with the same ferocity, regardless of whether he is ahead of his lane opponent or not.
It’s this willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of his team that sets him apart from other EU LCS top laners, as he shows the same proficiency on Lulu as he would on Ekko. His champion pool has also never been called into question as he’s managed to impact games where two or more bans have been targeted at him. While you can pinpoint games where he hasn’t had the greatest of times, his hunger and determination to succeed remain driving factors, both for himself and for Fnatic.
Whether he plays against AmazingJ or Koro1, Huni’s worst enemy will be himself. He needs to ensure that he remains calm and doesn’t try too hard to make big plays. Huni is Fnatic’s X-Factor. Like any wildcard, he can sometimes go off and solo carry a game, and at other times he’ll be the reason you lose the game. If he can perform more often than not, Fnatic will do well.
Perhaps punching bag is the most apt description of Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin role within Fnatic. He is the amorphous player, shaped to fit whatever composition they want. Often times, that will be as the main initiation and tank for the team, and it is a role that he thrives on. Even within his time in Korea, Reignover was not a bad jungler by any means. Sure, he did have a tendency to throw games, with this being the source of his unfortunate nickname “Gameover”, but before those incidents he showed glimpses of the capability to be a top jungler.
On Fnatic, these glimpses have turned into great performances, no doubt thanks to an improved mentality and a great deal of confidence. What started as a play style that was intrinsically linked with his Korean top laner Huni, has developed into a more complete synergy with his team. He’s not the most flashy player, nor is he one to get the accolades, but he is what his team needs and he’s one of the best role players in Europe.
In the group stage, Reignover showed the world what he was made of. He single handedly took over the early game against Invictus Gaming to put his team in prime position to exit the group stage in first place. Against Kakao’s Lee Sin, Reignover played Rek’sai and showed exactly what he’s been doing for Fnatic all year. An early game gank for Huni snowballed the top lane matchup, and then he immediately invaded Kakao’s jungle to get vision of the bot side. After neutralising Kakao, Fnatic outplayed Invictus Gaming at every facet of the game, but it was Reignover who started the snowball.
He wasn’t perfect in the group stage, with his Elise build in their final group stage game against AHQ questionable, but it’s clear that Reignover is a critical element in Fnatic’s performance. With EDG’s Clearlove coming off of a poor performance in the group stage, this is one matchup that will tilt the game in either team’s favour.
Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten was recognised as a potential superstar right from the start of his League of Legends career. He also garnered attention for often tilting on LAN events. The most famous of these being the best of five series against Supa Hot Crew, where he had three terrible games to be bundled out of the 2014 LCS Summer Promotion tournament in straight sets.
When Fnatic picked him up he had just come off of a solid win with H2K against Giants Gaming, whose midlaner Isaac "Pepiinero" Flores was also a hyped up midlaner in the challenger scene. Despite this success many were still wary of his ability to perform under pressure, but just like Reignover, he too gained an enormous amount of confidence. One of the critical parts of his progression as a player came midway through this season, where we saw Febiven grow into a player who thought beyond his laning matchup, and more about his role within the team. While others played mostly long range poke champions, he stuck to the strongest mages in Viktor and Azir.
While you could pinpoint occasions where another mid laner peaked ahead of him, none of them could keep up the same consistency as Febiven. He will never shy away from making a big play, but nor will he grow overconfident in his abilities. The once silent boy wonder has turned into the silent assassin, and nobody, not even Gods, are safe from his wrath.
Fnatic’s favourite son, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson returned to his debut team after an ill-advised and short lived move to rivals, Elements. Rekkles has had his detractors over his career, but nobody can doubt his determination to win. He puts obscene amounts of hours into the game, and he is a clear improvement over former AD Carry, Pierre "Steeelback" Medjaldi.
One of the biggest points of criticism against Rekkles was his lack of aggression, and over the season he’s attempted to rectify this issue, culminating in his finals performance, where he lept into enemy backlines with Tristana without a second thought. I might sound like a broken record, but once again this is a by-product of confidence. Going undefeated in a season is not something many teams achieve, and the confidence that such a run grants a player is something that cannot be measured.
Rekkles’s performance in the group stage was just average. His good performances came in some of Fnatic’s losses. In their final game, a questionable draft of Sivir against an enemy composition that far outranged him, as well as some early game errors led to a performance that he wouldn’t be proud of. For whatever reason, Fnatic have kept Rekkles off of Tristana and Kalista. He did bring out a surprise pick in AD Kennen which will lead to an interesting dynamic in the draft phase, but he’ll need to be on his A-game against one of the best AD Carries and the main carry of EDG in Deft.
If we were to make a list of the greatest Western players of all time, Bora “YellowStar” Kim would definitely be on the list, if not purely for longevity. He’s never been the best mechanical player, nor has he been a superstar, but without a doubt YellowStar is a champion. It’s something you’re born with, and it’s what separates the good players from the great players.
When your backs are against the wall, a team looks towards its champions to inspire them to victory. As the main shotcaller and the oldest player on the team, YellowStar is the leader that dictates Fnatic’s gameplay. It’s not to say YellowStar is a bad player mechanically, it’s just that his leadership is so important to Fnatic that it outshines all other aspects of his game.
Without YellowStar, Fnatic would have probably placed somewhere in the middle pack of the EU LCS. They would be just like all the other EU LCS mid table teams, filled with a lot of talented players, but without a leader. YellowStar is the differentiating factor between Fnatic and the rest of Europe. He’s the greatest leader of them all.
After winning 24/26 games in the Summer split it’s hard to find many unflattering statistics for Fnatic. That’s not to say they’ve been absolutely flawless. Throughout the season they played several compositions, some to more success than others. They’ve had issues in the early game where they sometimes fall behind, but their mid game shot calling has been allowed them to recover, even though they would have a huge deficit in gold.
This mid game shot calling will be called into question at Worlds, where teams are far better than their usual opponents. While they could afford to drop gold leads against teams like H2K and Origen, where they are better, both strategically and mechanically, that might not be the case at Worlds. While the ability to come back from deficits is great quality to have, any team would rather never be caught in the position at all.
Usually Fnatic will lane swap to create early pressure for a dive, and then if the enemy attempts to defend their towers they almost always tower dive. They’re more than willing to give up an early dragon if it means that they can secure other objectives. Towards the mid game, they will have Huni split push in the bottom lane to create pressure and as soon as they have any advantage in numbers in the mid lane, they’ll immediately call for Baron. This has led to an astonishing 83.3% first Baron rate, and is a major win condition for Fnatic.
Many would agree that Fnatic are the best chance for a Western team to make a deep run into the World Championship Finals since Season 2. Everything up until now has been for this moment. It won’t be the easiest ride, but for Fnatic this is the time that they finally put themselves on the map as a world class team.
Click here to bring you back to player selection!
If you think Fnatic has what it takes to prove the West is no joke, consider registering on LiquidLegends.net and joining us in the discussion on our forums!