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An interesting third week in the LEC as Fnatic managed to defeat G2 Esports while Schalke 04 regains their winning form as of late.
Fnatic strikes first blood against G2 Esports with their dominant victory over the current European champions, showing that they can win games against this star-studded G2 Esports line-up. Following the departure of Rekkles from Fnatic, this was a highly anticipated match with a lot of expectations. What does this win mean, however, and how did the other LEC matches go?
Fresh talent
We saw a lot of close matches on the first day of week three of the LEC. First Misfits faced off against EXCEL in the first match of the day. It was a close game but we finally saw EXCEL craft their own playstyle. They opted to play more front-to-back teamfight compositions with good scaling on either a mage or marksman champion. Misfits are back to the drawing board because they also lost their second match against FC Schalke 04 on day two. Schalke 04 currently sits at the same level of G2 Esports after defeating them in their match this weekend, having regained some of their old form and returning to their winning ways. They haven’t dropped a game since the first week of play.
The new contenders
On the other hand we have MAD Lions and Rogue ramping up to their best form. They both had an equally tough schedule ahead of them. Rogue dropped a game against FC Schalke 04 and the MAD Lions had a rough game against SK Gaming. Determined to strike back, they both won on the second day of the week, going 1-1 overall and placing at the top spots of the ranking holding positive win rates. Even Odoamne got his first KIA Player of the Game, making room for a little celebration.
The LEC encountered some technical difficulties on the second day, leaving the analyst desk to tri-cast a chronobreaked game clip. There was a gamebreaking bug in the game between EXCEL and SK Gaming featuring a Rift Herald. This resulted in a chronobreak, which is a small rollback in game to an exact moment before the bug appeared to then replay the rest of the game, which is not easy to implement in a broadcast. Medic and Ender eventually finished the cast and EXCEL won the game.
Nevertheless the most anticipated match of the week had to be Fnatic vs G2 Esports on the second day. It was Rekkles taking on his former teammates of Fnatic with his new G2 squad. It was a match filled with expectations as both teams wanted to prove themselves to each other. They both wanted to show that they made the better decisions in the off-season. Yet, we do know that G2 Esports only takes games seriously at the end of the split.
This gave us quite the show, as Fnatic have been developing a new playstyle that can only be referred to as “bloody chaotic”. They like to fight. A lot. This time however, they played a bit more conservative and waited for a mistake on G2’s side while setting up some proactive controlled plays themselves. This gave them the edge in the early game and a dragon soul win condition was on the board. They did not fall to G2’s chaotic approach to the game in the later stages and Fnatic won on their own terms. Bwipo in particular had a very good game on Volibear and fought out a personal vendetta against Rekkles, or that’s what it seemed like.
What’s next for G2?
This loss does not mean you can count out G2 Esports. They are known for dropping some games early in the split. Their team still fields the most talented EU players that have ever touched the game, especially for the current generation. We can only judge them when they are playing serious and today felt more like a failed game from the start, connectivity issues included. It is hard to play a game where you get outdrafted and outsmarted in the early game in this meta, because snowballing can be amazingly effective on the opposing team.
Fnatic took advantage of their draft and early game, leaving no room for G2 Esports to recover. The rematch between these teams will be a different story. G2 Esports does not like being down 0-1 to Fnatic and they will for sure strike back the second half of the split.
Up next
That concludes the third week of the LEC and we can already see a big difference between top- and bottom tier teams. Some teams struggle more than others while new teams rise to the occasion. They take advantage of other teams still struggling with the meta and/or their identity. No team stays undefeated, which means that anybody could beat anybody. We see you next week when the LEC returns on Friday the 12th of February at 18:00 CET.
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