Who can finally defeat Fnatic, and how?
There’s a distinct lack of fist-pumping or high-fiving. No-one is thumping their desk or yelling in celebration, on either side of the LCS stage. Instead, Fnatic’s players hang their heads, exhausted. Huni looks visibly disappointed and their group hug reeks of defeat. As another Nexus falls in the Summer Split of the EU LCS, you’d be forgiven for assuming that Fnatic have finally been bested, their winning streak halted at last. Yet their Nexus stands.
It's Week 5 of the EU LCS Summer Split and Fnatic has just won against Gambit Gaming. Even if they don’t feel like it. “A shaky win feels like a loss for us,” Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim explains in a blog post on Fnatic’s website. “The mood was quite down because they felt that they didn’t play very well. Especially Rekkles, Huni and even Reignover.” If the members of Fnatic all recognize weaknesses in their play style, how can other teams hone in on these and take advantage in the upcoming LCS Summer Split Playoffs?
FOOL'S GAMBIT
Gambit was able to achieve the biggest gold lead against Fnatic in the first five weeks of the Summer Split. 2.8k gold is not what you'd consider a huge lead, but it brought the team closer to victory against Fnatic than arguably anyone else. So how did they do it? Objective control was key. Some early towers and a Dragon allowed Gambit to counteract Fnatic's early CS lead. Along with the first blood bonus and some extra income brought in by isolating Seung-hoon "Huni" Heo and Ui-jin "Reignover" Kim for the kill, this lead grew steadily.
Fnatic's no stranger to having a shaky early game, though. Their defeated attitude may seem surreally self-deprecating in light of their 18-0 win record, but it highlights that the team has vulnerabilities. Chinks in their armor to be exploited. Several of their Summer Split games started badly. None more so than their Week 7 game against H2K. The team won an early lead thanks to an ill-conceived jungle invasion by Fnatic which allowed H2K to collapse on isolated members of the team. This resulted in top-laner Odoamne gaining two kills in the first minute. Later, another two kills by KaSing helped cement the lead - even if these were also the last kills he landed in the game.
Again, it was obtaining the first Dragon that steepened H2K's trajectory, snowballing into two tower kills and a successful team fight. Judging by this performance, H2K will be the team to watch in Playoffs. If anyone is going to topple Fnatic, it's them. They racked up a 4.7k gold lead in that game through smart objective control and plenty of vision. Not only that, but the team's positioning during the initial jungle invade meant they could capitalize on Reignover's isolation and collapse on him. As a team, Fnatic is an almost unstoppable force. But when they’re separated, they're a lot easier to kill. Especially if leader and shot-caller YellOwStaR isn't around.
NORTH StaR
YellOwStaR's influence is something Martin “Rekkles” Larsson mentions after the H2K game. "Definitely I think YellOwStaR's shot-calling kept us in the game and allowed us to take these towers for free and eventually come back enough so we could win a team fight and take a Baron." That Baron, along with YellOwStaR's fight-winning shot-calls, won Fnatic the game, despite H2K being comfortably in the lead for the first 26 minutes.
YellOwStaR sees it as his job to keep morale and focus high with his optimistic shot-calling. “During the game against Gambit I was confident, but I saw the atmosphere in our team, the guys were a bit negative but they responded to my lead,” he explains in the blog post on the Fnatic website. “That’s what I am there for. Others might have a bad game, but I’m strong enough to get the emotions in control and make them win.”
That's easy for YellOwStaR to say when his KDA is so consistently good. Even in the team's weakest games, their fearless leader only has a handful of deaths to his name. In Fnatic's Week 2 game against Team Roccat -- in which YellOwStaR played Nautilus, jumping into the center of the fights with his hook -- he died only twice. Though these deaths did allow ROCCAT to turn the tables on Fnatic and reduce their 4.2k gold lead to a 1.8k gold deficit. The latter kill came as part of a team fight which resulted in Fnatic being aced, while ROCCAT took no casualties whatsoever.
ROCCAT ROLL
It looked as though ROCCAT could turn this into a win, but sadly it wasn't to be. Which is a shame, because this was another match where Fnatic had a bad early game. Some early kills by ROCCAT granted them a solid gold lead and allowed them to capture the Dragon (there's that objective control again), but Fnatic was able to claw it back.
The best example of this, however, is easily the Week 4 game between Fnatic and Origen. It was a hugely anticipated match-up considering the history between the teams' players. What better team to defeat Fnatic for the first time in the Summer Split than one made up of ex-Fnatic players? Many expected this to be a close game, and we weren't disappointed. Origen kept Fnatic's gold lead down, despite Fnatic taking an early Dragon. Again, this was through isolating individual members of Fnatic early on. At one point Origen had a huge 6.8k gold lead after a successful team fight in the Baron pit, but were not able to keep control of this advantage thanks to Febiven wreaking havoc with a very scary, very bursty Victor. Despite making it into Fnatic's base and destroying a couple of inhibitors, Origen still lost the match.
BOSS RUSH
So how does Fnatic keep turning things in their favor? Without exception, Baron Nashor seems to be the key. In every game mentioned, a decisive Baron call catalyzed the team's comeback trajectory. A similar event took place in their infamous game against Giants Gaming in Week 6. Giants had chipped away Fnatic's 5.3k gold lead with two Baron buffs and things were very much looking in their favor. Here too, Giants made it into Fnatic's home. Jumping on the couch and muddying the carpet, they took an inhibitor and a bunch of turrets, but Fnatic responded by taking both Baron and Dragon. Plus a few kills for good measure. With that done, they stormed Giants' base and took the game. This "Baron and win" attitude is present in all of Fnatic's close calls, and this Giants game was the closest of close calls. If things are looking ill for the team, this seems to be their magical panacea -- and so far it's worked.
So, if teams are looking to finally defeat Fnatic in the Playoffs (and beyond), they'll need to learn the lessons of the past. Solid objective control, with plenty of vision of the map, will help keep Dragons and Barons out of Fnatic's hands. At the same time, maybe it's time to start focusing on YellOwStaR? Maybe he'll be less of a cheerful influence, and more of a shoddy shotcaller, if he's seeing a grey screen on a regular basis. Finally, if things are looking your way, don't get complacent. And whatever you do, don't let Fnatic anywhere near Baron Nashor.
If NA did win worlds it would be a bigger upset in the Esports world than we've ever seen. Even after Kabum and C9 beating EU (Sorry, had to do it because your pride in your region was too deep.) I will root for Fnatic and SKT as always, though.
:D
