Image credit: LoL Esports
Fnatic finally gets going in the Swiss Stage of Worlds 2023.
The LEC finally gets going as Fnatic defeated GAM Esports in the second round of the Swiss Stage to go 1-1, which will put them in the same bracket as NRG, MAD Lions, and Cloud9 for now. Fnatic's run at Worlds 2023 has been decent so far after this victory in hopes of building on it in future matches.
That loss meant that GAM is now at 0-2 and drop to the elimination bracket alongside the likes of Team BDS and Team Liquid. The do-or-die match will also be a best-of-three series, which will give GAM a chance to fight for its survival in South Korea. And despite being the only minor region team, GAM did look like they could have pulled off a miracle at one point.
Unfortunately, GAM's lineup focused on dominating the early game to suffocate Fnatic and to not afford them space and time to farm. That wasn't the case as GAM could not keep Fnatic back for long, eventually conceding ground and kills as the game wore on. The early-to-mid-game portion was fairly stable between both teams but it soon got worse for GAM the moment Óscar "Oscarinin" Muñoz's Renekton came online.
Despite having the most deaths on the team after getting solo-killed three times, Oscarinin was still able to get seven kills in total, the second-most in Fnatic along with a triple kill as his Renekton ran rampant on GAM. This also allowed Hyeon-taek "Noah" Oh on Xayah to dish out plenty of damage, which also landed him eight kills for his troubles.
Lastly, Marek "Humanoid" Brázda showed just why Azir is rated so highly at Worlds 2023 with his teamfight capabilities. Despite only getting two kills to his name, Humanoid was instrumental in many of Fnatic's skirmishes that got him 10 assists, second only to Iván "Razork" Martín Díaz's Rell with 12.
Both Fnatic and GAM will have to wait until the end of the day to know who they will face tomorrow. As of right now, Fnatic will have two LCS and one LEC team to contend with while GAM will have one apiece from the LCS and LEC. And throughout its multiple Worlds appearances, GAM have never made it to the Knockout Stage.
