(original photo courtesy of slaskiepozytywnie.pl)
Chinese powerhouse and IEM Katowice top contender Royal Never Give Up rocked their way through the group stage of the tournament to an automatic semifinal berth. Meanwhile, the legendary European powerhouse Fnatic has struggled to find their footing domestically, but had an impressive showing in the group stage and earned a hard-fought spot in the playoff round. As underdogs, Fnatic had nothing to lose.
Game 1
Bans
Royal Never Give Up
- Lee Sin
- Thresh
- Nautilus
Fnatic
- Lissandra
- Nidalee
- Lulu
Picks
Royal Never Give Up
- Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok (Poppy)
- Shiyu "Mlxg" Liu (Graves)
- Yuanhao "Xiaohu" Li (Viktor)
- Cheng "Wuxx" Wang (Kalista)
- Jo "Mata" Se-hyeong (Braum)
Team Archetype: Team fight
Fnatic
- Noh "Gamsu" Yeong-jin (Trundle)
- DaYun "Spirit" Lee(Gragas)
- Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten(Zed)
- Martin "Rekkles" Larsson(Jhin)
- Johan "Klaj" Olsson(Alistar)
Team Archetype: 1-3-1 Split push
Very complex composition by FNC. They were essentially trying to apply so much pressure across the map RNG will just fall apart. It’s incredibly advanced but built extremely well. Zed and Trundle are notable split pushers in their own right, then you have the ball of death in Gragas, Jhin, and Alistar. Jhin pumps massive amonts of damage but has low mobility. Putting a bunch of peel around him makes Rekkles almost unstoppable.
The game was pretty much over from the get go, Mlxg, along with the rest of his team, simply got caught out of positition over and over again. Towards the mid game, Fnatic played to their 1-3-1 split push win condition which eventually forced Royal to crumble in a quick 23 minute contest.
Winner: Fnatic
Game 2
Bans
Fnatic
- Lissandra
- Corki
- Kalista
Royal Never Give Up
- Jhin
- Nidalee
- Zed
Picks
Fnatic
- Gamsu (Nautilus)
- Spirit (Lee Sin)
- Febiven (Lulu)
- Rekkles (Lucian)
- Klaj (Braum)
Team Archetype: Juggernaut Lucian, Team Fight
Royal Never Give Up
- Looper (Poppy)
- Mlxg (Gragas)
- Xiaohu (Ezreal)
- Wuxx (Kogmaw)
- Mata (Alistar)
Team Archetype: Team Fight
Even though Royal had picked up a similar win condition, the actual picks therein could not be more different. Instead of steadily building a lead in the last game, they needed to bide their time until the late game where they can out-fight anyone. Fnatic on the other hand took a much safer "protect the hypercarry" composition that looked to pick fights around objectives at any stage of the game.
Heavy side lane pushing in the early game transitioned into tower losses for both sides. Funnily enough this was benifical for both teams. Fnatic wanted to take as many towers as possible for their win condition, while Royal shared the same sentiment because turtling in base or behind towers allows them to farm up constantly and scale into late-game form. Tons of trading in the mid game, and though Fnatic come out just a bit ahead every single time, it was not enough to overcome the monsters cultivating on the other side. Fnatic fall apart in the late game, and it’s not a question of chamion power either – they got picked off one by one by one. With such a large gap in pressure Royal took baron and pushed for the win.
Winner: Royal Never Give Up
Game 3
(courtesy of Riot eSports, flickr)
Bans
Fnatic
- Lissandra
- Gragas
- Kogmaw
Royal Never Give Up
- Nidalee
- Jhin
- Zed
Picks
Fnatic
- Gamsu (Nautilus)
- Spirit (Elise)
- Febiven (Lulu)
- Rekkles (Kalista)
- Klaj (Thresh)
Team Archetype: Jugger Kalista, Team fight
Royal Never Give Up
- Looper (Fiora)
- Mlxg (Lee Sin)
- Xiaohu (Corki)
- Wuxx (Ezreal)
- Mata (Alistar)
Team Archetype: Poke/Siege, Split push
Standard picks all around. Fnatic looked to fight around objectives at any point of the game while Royal sought to sit back a bit and whittle towers down and build a gold lead that way.
Rekkles dominated the bot lane, building a 20 CS lead only eight minutes into the contest. The tagline for Royal this game was simply: and it got worse. The only high point for Royal was a dragon steal away from Kalista. However, the rest of the match went down the drain. They lost dragons, they lost major team fights, they lost map pressure, they got picked off, they lost baron, and they fell 10k gold down. Fnatic stormed their base, took down the inhibitors, the nexus towers, and ultimately the nexus with very little kickback.
Winner: Fnatic
Last Thoughts
Dissapointing end for the one of China's premier teams. I expected more. Fnatic played quite well despite being so far down in the standings in the EULCS. Rekkles, though, is really maturing as an ADC, and continues to be a formidable carry for Fnatic. I personally think they’ll get destroyed by SKT, but we’ll see very soon.
