Fnatic has had a long road to the Finals. Starting in the lower bracket, they have made their way through 3 nail-biting best-of-5s, but their journey has come to an end in the LEC Semi-finals against Rogue.
In the first finals in a live arena for quite some time, the fans were certainly on Fnatic's side, but the day, unfortunately, was not. Let's take a look at the story of the series.
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So far in the LEC Playoffs
For Fnatic, it certainly looked good coming into the weekend. With 3 best-of-five wins under their belt in the LEC playoffs so far, many considered them the favourites.
Rogue picked up the win against Mad Lions in Round 1, but was demolished 3-0 by G2 in the series that followed. Fnatic on the other hand was going from strength to strength, defeating XL, Misfits, and Mad Lions in convincing fashion.
Even the analysts were on their side. Rekkles, Broxah, and the LEC Discord all predicting 3-1 or 3-0 wins reflected Fnatic's incredible form these last few weeks.
Rogue vs Fnatic
Fnatic came out of the gate strong, and true to form in game 1. Upset was on form with his trusty Zeri, but the game belonged to Humanoid in the mid lane. With two early kills on Sylas, he was able to snowball out of control.
With an incredible 1 vs 3 outplay, he finished 11/1/6, and made a statement that was impossible to ignore.
Rogue was quick to answer back though. With the Sylas now banned, both Humanoid and Larssen in mid were relegated to control mages, where Larssen shined.
In front of his home crowd, Larssen was able to garner an early lead on his Viktor, and one-shot the carries on Fnatic. And so the series continued in the same vein.
Fnatic was simply unable to answer Rogue's aggression and teamfight prowess from then on. Comp's performance dishing out damage from the AD Carry role earned him the Series MVP, but all of Rogue stepped up in an incredible bounce back.
On to LEC Finals, and Worlds
Rogue will now advance and face G2 Esports for their rematch in the Finals on Sunday. With so many top 3 and top 2 finishes, Rogue will be dying to win their first ever LEC Title.
While both teams will be heading to the League of Legends World Championships later this year, Rogue will now advance straight to the group stage. Fnatic will have to fight through the play-in stage with Mad Lions, beginning September 29th.