Fnatic have knocked out both Misfits and Team Vitality from playoff contention with their latest win against Excel Esports today, while also increasing their own chances of securing a spot in the League of Legends European Championship Summer Split playoffs.
Jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek was crucial today in Fnatic’s win, showing a monstrous performance on Kha’Zix and receiving the Player of the Game award for his impact in the game and 7/0/8 scoreline.
.@FNATIC are one step closer to #LEC Playoffs! pic.twitter.com/9YUJm20EXi
— LEC (@LEC) August 8, 2020
The game was going quite well for Excel early on. They secured the first dragon, Rift Herald, and a kill in the top lane. But the situation drastically changed once the laning phase ended.
At around the 15-minute mark, Excel secured three crucial kills alongside the second Rift Herald. From this point in the game, Fnatic maintained a gold lead which grew up to 10,600 gold towards the end of the game.
Even though Excel were only one Mountain Dragon away from the Mountain Dragon Soul—which could’ve helped immensely during teamfights—they were unable to secure it since Fnatic got too far ahead.
A crucial combo by Fnatic sealed Excel’s fate. Bwipo on Cho’Gath landed a knockup followed by silence, which gave no possibilities for Excel to respond. This win has increased Fnatic’s playoff chances. They’ll most likely secure a spot if they win tomorrow against SK Gaming. You can tune in at 2pm CT to see if Fnatic can secure the last win to lock in a playoff spot.
Fnatic’s star AD carry Martin “Rekkles” Larsson revealed in a pre-game interview that the League of Legends team “never found their true identity as a team” because of trust issues that have lasted throughout the summer.
“I don’t think it’s a problem of having too many strong voices [on a team],” Rekkles said. “I have had more strong voices before, so I don’t think it’s a problem with that. I think it’s more the trust between the players is not there.”
The 23-year-old veteran explained that in a good team, everyone will be on-board with any role carrying, whether its top, jungle, mid, or bottom lane. The only important thing is that the team comes out with the win, since every player is comfortable and trusting of their teammates to perform—that trust hasn’t been built with Fnatic just yet.
These trust issues stemmed from the team’s lopsided defeat at the hands of G2 Esports during the 2020 LEC Spring Finals, according to Rekkles. He also said that many players believed they should be the main carry at the same time, which effectively “blocked” each other from carrying.
