Fnatic Week 4 — Hardwired
9 JULY 2021 — by League Analyst
We have reached the halfway point of the Summer Split and things are beginning to take shape in the LEC. The top dogs are slowly settling into the top of the standing but there is a notable newcomer who is keeping up with the favorites, Misfits.
The team hasn’t achieved particularly impressive results since their finals appearance in 2017 Summer, but now they find themselves tied for 1st after the first round-robin. Just behind them, Fnatic is sitting comfortably in 3rd place after securing a 1–1 score in week 4.
The orange victory came in against a struggling SK Gaming, a team that Fnatic made short work of during their Sunday game. The Saturday game however, was a spicy one as they faced of against Schalke!
A failed invade from Fnatic in the red side jungle put them in quite a heavy disadvantage early on. Their one saving grace was a split pushing Adam on his signature Olaf pick. The game progressed slowly with S04 stacking dragons and Fnatic patiently waiting for their time to strike. As the clock ticked past 20 minutes, Fnatic found a convincing 5–0 teamfight with Adam bulldozing the enemy team.
Even against the Cloud soul, Fnatic collected the Nashor and looked poised to win the game. But it wasn’t meant to be, instead they got caught in enemy territory whilst being a 4v5 scenario. It was another strange case of greed from the team that got punished heavily. But it has to be said that moments like these are bound to happened when a team tries to extract every single ounce of pressure, even when being a man down.
Later today we enter the second phase of the Summer Split and Fnatic will try to keep up their good momentum. All in all it’s been looking solid for the first 4 weeks, but improvement is the critical factor. Because when playoffs rolls around, these game scores won’t matter in the slightest.
The logic is quite simple; make playoffs and make sure you are one step ahead of the rest of the league once the knockouts begins. Mechanics, game knowledge, strategic depth and every other skillset will be tested and even a small advantage can be critical in the BO5's.
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