Fnatic Week 8 — Playing with Meraki
2 AUGUST 2021 — by League Analyst
Believe it or not, we’ve already reached the final week of the regular season and it’s time to decide who makes it into the playoffs. It’s time for the final super week of the 2021 season, but before we jump into the games we’ll take a quick look at the format for this year.
To qualify for the playoffs you’ll need to place within the top 6 in the regular season just like previous years. But unlike what we’ve seen previously, seedings will be decided by championship points gathered throughout the Spring- and Summer season.
Going into week 8, Fnatic had already locked their spot in the BO5’s and was looking to secure championship points in order to get a better seeding in the bracket.
But the start of the week was mediocre at best as Fnatic fell against both Misfits and the Mad Lions, extending their loss streak to 4 games in a row. Even with some stellar individual plays and early game advantages, the team stumbled around the neutral objectives and lost out in multiple 5v5 scenarios.
These two losses also locked Fnatic into 5th place in the seedings which means they’ll have to play against the 6th place team in the bracket. It also means that it’ll be do or die from start to finish in the BO5’s as they’ll be starting from the ‘losers bracket’.
As day 3 of the super week came, Fnatic didn’t really have much to play for in terms of seedings. But behind them an extraordinary race was taking place for the last playoffs spot and a chance to play against Fnatic in the first round.
In their last regular season game, Fnatic finally managed to break their loss streak against the 10th placed Schalke, a team that we now have to bid farewell as they’ll be leaving the LEC for the foreseeable future. Replacing them for 2022 will be Team BDS after acquiring the spot for €26.5 million.
But like earlier mentioned, that game didn’t matter for Fnatic since they already locked their place in the standings. A game that mattered however, was Astralis vs Vitality as they battled it out for the 6th seed. As Vitality came out victorious and Excel fell against G2, Vitality locked the last remaining playoff spot and will have to take on Fnatic in the first knockout round.
All teams are have now been placed into the bracket and the fight for the championship and the 3 worlds spots are about to begin. The 8x champion, 7x champion, defending champion and three other contenders are here in the BO5’s and I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes the closest playoffs to date. The first match is MSF vs RGE on August the 13th, don’t be late!
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