Fnatic Finish Their Week 2 with a Historic Run to Quarterfinals
No team at Worlds had ever finished 0-3 in the first week of group stages and then advanced to the quarterfinals. Fnatic had something else to say about that. After falling short and not meeting expectations in Week 1, the European third seed seemed to have lost all hope. When asked about moving on to the quarterfinals, Rekkles, the AD Carry for Fnatic, said, “There was so much regret and frustration inside of us,” after their Week 1 results. However, the team came out strong on the first day of Week 2, only losing to the dominant Longzhu squad out of Korea, who had already secured first place in the group. Fnatic finished at 2-4, winning 2 of their 3 games in Week 2.
They had secured a spot in a three-way tie, including Immortals from the NALCS and Gigabyte Marines from the Vietnamese GPL. Fnatic took a commanding victory from Immortals in a 27-minute win, which showcased a surprise Malzahar mid-lane pick for Caps. However, the day was not over for the European team; they still needed to beat the strong and unpredictable Gigabyte Marines for the second quarterfinals spot in Group B.
After heavy criticism during last week, Fnatic’s top laner, Soaz, finally got his hands on a lane-dominant champion with his Gnar pick. They rounded out the composition with more early game, snowballing picks including Elise for Broxah in the jungle, Caps on Syndra, and a Lulu for Jesiz at support. Rekkles secured his classic Sivir as the late game insurance. Gigabyte Marines, on the other hand, decided on a very dominant, late game, team-fighting composition including Archie on Maokai in the top lane, Levi on Sejuani, Orianna for Optimus in the mid lane, and a bot lane duo of Tristana and Rakan for Noway and Sya (subbing in at support for Nevan).
Fnatic took an early gold lead through 20 minutes, despite being down in kills 1-5 due to some early picks by Gigabyte Marines. This was thanks partly to a massive CS lead in the bot lane for Rekkles. However, after a kill onto Caps in the mid lane, the Vietnamese team pushed strongly through the top lane for a free inhibitor at about 26 minutes. Fnatic came roaring back after the fallen inhibitor a minute later to win a close team fight near the baron pit and subsequently took the neutral objective to keep the gold even.
The EULCS third seed made a couple crucial picks in the mid lane around 33 minutes as both teams traded inhibitors - Fnatic’s bot lane and Gigabyte Marines’ mid lane. This control in the mid lane allowed Fnatic to secure a quick baron at 35 minutes that would spell doom for the GPL squad. After a successful team fight and ensuing long chase, the European team was able to close out the win behind a very dominant performance from Soaz on Gnar, finishing at 8/4/7 after starting 0/4/1.
At the end of the day, Fnatic stood tall, finishing as the second seed from Group B and moving on to the quarterfinals. Stakes, tension, and frustration were high. Harsh criticism was coming from every corner of the world. But despite all those factors, Fnatic still found a way to make history and still found a successful road out of group stages.
