In Week 1 Day 2 of the LEC, the giants of the European League of Legends scene G2 and Fnatic faced each other. The game concluded with G2’s total domination from the bot side.
Fnatic had a shaky year in 2022. In Spring, they finished the split in second place. However, their playoff performance was not so impressive and they lost to G2 in the semifinals in a 3-0 fashion. In the Summer, they settled at 5th place in the regular split and lost 3-1 to RGE in the semifinals. After this relatably lousy year for a well-rooted organization, Fnatic had to make some moves. They signed Rekkles, a former Fnatic legend, to win it all in 2023. However, the first week didn’t go as expected as they lost to Vitality and G2. It might take some time for the new pieces of the team to build up a synergy. It will be exciting to watch Fnatic this season.
New G2 players popped off against Fnatic
On the other hand, the freshly signed players of G2 had an incredible performance against the rival team Fnatic. G2’s game plan seemed to be focused on the bottom side. They had an aggressive answer to Rekless’ hard carry playstyle. Rekkles tends to pick late-game hyper carries and manages to survive the lane most of the time. This time it was not the case. G2 countered Zeri Yuumi of Fnatic with a Draven Nautilus combo. Which is a very aggressive duo in the bot lane who can create picks and snowball the game out of control. Razork went to the bottom side of the map to reduce some of the pressure from Hans Sama and Mikyx, however, Yike with his Viego was ready to counter. 4 minutes into the game, a 3v3 skirmish occurred in bot lane and G2 demolished Fnatic in a 3-0 trade. Hans Sama’s Draven got 2 early kills from this skirmish and it all fell apart for Fnatic.
The older players of G2, Caps, and Brokenblade, didn’t even have to do much. Their freshly signed Jungler Yike, Adc Hans Sama, and Support Mikyx, who made his return to G2, started a snowball that couldn’t be stopped. From there all Caps and BrokenBlade had to do is to stabilize their lanes and let their bottom side carry the game, and they did exactly that. G2 seems to be always ahead of their rival Fnatic, but I believe Fnatic will also have success in this split.
