G2 Esports and Fnatic have both been at the top of European League of Legends for over 4 years. They have both shown the world that Europe is one of the contenders for best region in the world. Fnatic was the first European team to reach the Worlds Finals (2018) since the first World Championship. The next year G2 Esports followed and even won MSI. But if we currently look at the LEC rankings, they are not where you would expect them.
First let us take a look at the current standings in the League of Legends European Championships (LEC) 2020 thus far. We see both MAD Lions and Rogue at the top of the ladder. Of course, it is still too early to call but both Fnatic and G2 Esports are currently ‘middle of the pack’ with Fnatic even ranking 7th. As both teams have shown great dominance internationally, they are now obviously held to higher standards. Still, they are Europe’s biggest organisations and strongest teams, but something is happening. They just do not look good right now and other teams are really stepping up. So why is it that they are slacking so much?
The #LEC Standings after Week 3:
1) #MADWIN (6-1)
2) #RGEWIN (5-2)
3) #G2WIN (4-3)
-) #MSFWIN (4-3)
-) #OGWIN (4-3)
-) #SKWIN (4-3)
7) #FNCWIN (3-4)
-) #VITWIN (3-4)
9) #XLWIN (2-5)
10) #S04WIN (0-7)— LEC (@LEC) June 27, 2020
What’s up with Fnatic?
First let us take a look at Fnatic and their communication. Since the LEC brings out a mic check every week, this gives us some insightful knowledge about the team’s communications. Of course, most of the footage is edited but we could still hear a crucial part at the end. We can hear Bwipo say “Mordekaiser has ult, okay?” and Rekkles follows up with “Can we go on Morde then?”. This ends in Rekkles being killed by the Mordekaiser who uses his ultimate on him. This is a clear communication issue since Rekkles did not hear that Mordekaiser had no ultimate even though it was called out by Bwipo. In the end, we even hear Rekkles say that he misheard Bwipo and thus resulting in the loss versus G2 Esports. Although this might look like a small mistake in communication, it feels important and we can only guess how many times it happened.
Fnatic’s gameplans have been looking shaky for the beginning of the split. It looks like they are not sure who to play around. The blessing and curse for the team is that they can literally play around every player. They could play around Bwipo’s creative picks with Selfmade, Nemesis and Rekkles all three being able to play the main carry role as well and Hylissang has great engages and playmaking. This makes it unclear on what their intentions in-game are sometimes. Their identity is once again being questioned but sooner or later they will have to agree on a playstyle if they want to get some wins on the board.
As an organisation Fnatic usually starts the split really strong, but after week 3 or 4 it is clear that they struggle with some issues. After resolving them, they usually make a deep play-offs run and make it to the international stage. This has been the script for Fnatic for quite some time. It could just be them trying to figure out their issues and trying new things. The more concerning part is that they did not really start strong this time and look weaker overall.
G2 Esports and burn-out
Something similar could be said about G2 Esports. They are known for their ‘G2Vacation’ meme and honestly it still fits them to this day. Not to say that they do not take international events seriously, but we still like to think of them as this team that likes to have some fun from time to time. Especially after tryharding all year and reaching heights that were never seen before by a European team. This explains why they sometimes lose games in the LEC they are not supposed to lose. We have seen Garen picks, Pyke flexes and many other “fun” strategies. But this team, it seems different. Something else is going on in the team.
I’m so happy we won today with good performance!
I’ve been having a bit hard time dealing with stress so I will be taking a break from competing from next week so it feels really good taking a break on a very high note 😃😃
— Luka (@G2Perkz) June 27, 2020
Although, Caps still looks like a top tier midlaner, Perkz has had a harder time in the bottom lane. His performance was acceptable but nothing what we expect from this top tier player. Both him and Mickeyx have been slacking a lot and other teams have taken notice. G2 Esports as a team just did not punish teams the way they always did and it left room for teams to crawl back into the game. With Perkz temporarily stepping down from the main line-up due to what looks like burn-out symptoms, room has been made for a new player. Enter Pinoy, the substitute bottom laner from G2 Esports will make his debut in the 4th week of the LEC.
Overall, you should not be too concerned about Fnatic and G2 Esports being in a lesser form than we expect of them. The expectations set for them are high, but there is still time to meet them. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or on our Discord!
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