Fnatic Claims Their 5th LCS Championship
The Year of Fnatic
Let’s make one thing clear. Fnatic has been in the European League of Legends Championship Series since its inception in the spring of 2013. That’s 6 splits of doing battle against the rest of Europe’s top teams—and every time, they’ve managed to make it to the playoff finals.
Many teams have headlined the finals over the years, but whether it was the classic Gambit Gaming (Moscow 5) lineup, SK Gaming, Lemondogs, or Unicorns of Love, they all had one thing in common—Fnatic bested them all.
After their single 2nd place finish against Alliance’s great run of form in the summer of 2014, Fnatic has been on a tear all year. By now, League of Legends fans are familiar with the man, the myth, and legend that is Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim who rebuilt Fnatic from the ground up after the rest of its long-standing members left. His outstanding performance and leadership earned him the 2015 Summer Split MVP award.
The former rookies of Fnatic, Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon, Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin and Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten are now veterans after dominating Europe under YellOwStaR’s command. With returning star AD Carry, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson”, Fnatic was unstoppable and in a class of their own this summer.
A historic 21-win streak consisting of 18 regular season wins and a fresh 3-0 sweep of Unicorns of Love would propel Fnatic into the European finals. However, to cement themselves as the best western team in the history of League, they’d have to face down… their former selves.
The Battle
Origen, the #2 team in Europe, is the brainchild of Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez, the former captain and a founding member of Fnatic. He crafted a veteran squad that mirrored the classic Fnatic flavor: Two aggressive solo laners between him and Paul “sOAZ” Boyer, another classic Fnatic member, an early pressuring jungler a bot lane consisting of a seasoned support and a young AD carrying prodigy.
There was no more legitimate threat to Fnatic’s throne than this team. The history, between the players, the wealth of professional experience that Origen’s squad brought, vs the seemingly untested mettle of Fnatic’s new faces.
And was it ever a bloody battle. Origen fired out of the gates by doing the unthinkable and breaking the 21-win streak with a powerful poke and siege composition. Fnatic fans were stunned—the streak was broken, and Origen dismantled the champions handily. Fnatic only managed to pick up 2 turrets in game 1.
Not to be outdone, Fnatic fired back by turning Origen’s comp against them, with Huni using Gangplank to send sOAZ’s Olaf to the briny deep. The rest of the series was more of this give and take (or rather take and counter-take). Champion picks would be exchanged and exchanged again, lane matchups would go tit for tat, and after a massive game 4 comeback by Origen it all came down to a crucial game 5.
Fnatic dug deep, they went for comfort picks like Rumble and Olaf and still Origen battled back. The champions barely managed to find their stride and clear a path to a victory and an LCS trophy. It was a win for Fnatic, but a well-fought one on both sides. If you haven’t seen it yet, head over to the LoL Event VoDs subreddit to witness one of the greatest LCS finals ever.
Looking at Worlds
On the one hand, Fnatic did not break the record books with a 24-0 record. But some would say this outcome could be more beneficial for Europe. This series will have taught Fnatic some valuable lessons about their own play and they’ll no doubt be ironing out the kinks that caused their losses to Origen in their upcoming boot camp. Battle-hardened champions are greater than untested ones after all, and for Fnatic to be greater than they ever could be, Europe’s fans have Origen to thank.
With Fnatic advancing as Europe’s #1 seed, H2k have earned enough Championship Points to qualify as #2. Origen will enter the regional qualifier, where they’ll have to best the Unicorns of Love and other teams for a chance at the last EU slot for the World Championships.
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