The parents of the Fnatic roster evidently never taught their talented youngsters not to play with their food. With victory comfortably within their grasp against a bruised Team ROCCAT, FNC opted to toy with their opponents, accumulating kill after kill instead of simply ending the series. Fnatic’s schadenfreude ultimately came back to haunt the league leaders.
After defeating G2 eSports, the reigning kings of Europe, Fnatic were framed to reclaim the EU LCS title that had been theirs for so many years.
With an unblemished record in Group A, victory over Team ROCCAT would lead the squad into the cross-group fixtures as heavy favourites.
EU LCS teams should know better than to write off Team ROCCAT. After mounting a spirited revival at the end of the Spring Split, the European underdogs started slowly upon returning from the mid-season break, notably losing to G2 eSports despite facing three substitutes.
The first game between Fnatic and ROCCAT appeared to follow a familiar script. Every individual ROCCAT player was comprehensibly humiliated, notably top laner Ambrož “Phaxi” Hren was consistently caught over-extended, paying the price with his life.
Before long, Fnatic owned the entirety of the map, gradually extending their individual advantages whilst slowly chipping away at their opposition’s base.
Slowly suffocated over a 40 minute period, ROCCAT’s play became more erratic and desperate as Fnatic finally put them out of their misery, a trend that would only continue as the teams loaded into Game 2.
.@FNATIC take down @ROCCAT in game 1! #FNCWIN pic.twitter.com/Y4n6hpuHPP
— lolesports (@lolesports) 15 June 2017
Things went from bad to worse for Phaxi in the top lane, having pitched a score of 1/6/1 in Game 1, at one point in the second game the Slovenian pro had 12 deaths to his name with just 1 kill in return.
Who said you cant run it down in LCS hah.. on a serious note im really grateful for my teammates that didnt give up when they saw me int 😀
— Phaxi (@Phaxilol) 15 June 2017
The game quickly descended into a massacre, with Fnatic stacking the body bags across the rift, without securing any major objectives however. Missing their window to close out the game comfortably, Fnatic allowed ROCCAT the opportunity to get back into the game.
With kills being traded left and right, Fnatic crucially served ROC two barons on a silver platter, Milo “Pridestalker” Wehnes delivering the vital baron secures as the momentum of the tie began to shift. What had looked like a standard meal for FNC was now biting back.
Having afforded Fnatic yet more early advantagesin Game 3, ROCCAT settled into a safe strategy with Phaxi pushed away from the action in the bot lane. Baiting the mistake from FNC, Pridestalker pounced at the perfect opportunity to steal away baron from a Fnatic roster eager to quickly wrap up victory and escape from the stage.
By the end of the game, Pridestalker had stolen not one but two barons away from Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen; Fnatic were left with nothing by scraps from the table.
.@PridestalkerLoL steals the Baron! #EULCS pic.twitter.com/zgahJwAogR
— lolesports (@lolesports) 15 June 2017
Perhaps too complacent in closing out the game, Fnatic allowed a seemingly sealed victory to slip through their fingers as they became overly blood-thirsty.
As impressive as Martin “Rekkles” Larsson’s Kennen and Rasmus “Caps” Winther’s mechanics were, Fnatic will need to suppress their desires for individual glory and focus on securing clean concise victories if they are to establish their dominance in the EU LCS Summer Split.
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