Fnatic managed to win the EU LCS playoffs in a best of five series filled with thrill till the last moment.
The final battle of the season was saved for Gambit Gaming and Fnatic. The top two teams of the regular season faced in a best of five in order to determine the champion of Europe, which would bring not only extreme bragging rights but also a reward of 50 000 Euro.
Fnatic vs Gambit Gaming 
By bringing most of their early aggression to Darien’s face, Fnatic were able to bring Gambit’s top laner to quite the negative start. As states the running joke, however, “if Darien feeds, Gambit will win” and this game was no exception. Once the laning phase was over, Darien crawled back into the positive by playing magically in team fights while the rest of his team was growing fatter and fatter.
Knowing perfectly well the reach of Fnatic’s AoE stacking composition, Gambit played each team fight perfectly, dancing in and out to avoid the heavy damage. The effect of multiple victories quickly snowballed out of control, eventually allowing Gambit to 4-1 an engagement, take Baron, win the very next fight and force out a surrender out of xPeke’s crew.
The second game looked promising with Alex Ich able to pick his pentakill Kha'zix who had to face xPeke on Ahri in the middle lane. Contrarily of the expectation xPeke was able to take first blood from Alex and after a quick dragon, Fnatic were able to establish a 2k gold lead by the 7th minute mark. At that point Soaz had pc problems and the game had to be paused for about five minutes while the issues were resolved.
After the reset of the game the game continued slowly and by the 15th minute the lead of Fnatic was extended to 3.5k. In the next ten minutes Fnatic just kept pushing, taking towers and extending their lead. Even though they were leading only with five to three kills, the gold lead was 8k. Using their lead Fnatic kept dictating the game pace. On multiple occasions they simply out positioned Gambit, which resulted in inhibitor tower, few kills, baron and a 10.5k gold lead.
Using the baron buff Fnatic managed to take mid inhibitor and then transitioned bottom for a siege which ended tragically for them trading four of their members for just two of Gambit. The small victory for Gambit however did not matter. Fnatic managed to get two fast kills in the next engagement, which were followed by a baron and using the buff they took middle and bottom inhibitor and after a short siege the top inhibitor and nexus towers. Fnatic waited for the next baron respawn, took it and followed it with one final push to even the score of the series to one to one.
Game three started with the usual Thresh ban against Edward and a ban of Zac, who seems to be very strong champion in all games played so far. After a slow start, Gambit managed to get first blood thanks to a successful gank of Diamond at bottom lane and Darien picked the kill after finishing YellOwStaR. By the 15th minute mark Gambit managed to extend their lead to 2k gold and three to one kills.
At the 18th minute mark a series of crazy fights appeared. Gambit out positioned Fnatic and took three for zero. They tried to follow it with a baron but paid with three of their own, followed by another turnaround and two kills for Gambit, finishing with another over stay of Alex and his death. At the end of the crazy exchange the score was five to eight and only 1k gold lead for Gambit. By the 30th minute mark, nothing much changed - Gambit was leading with few kills and the gold lead was about 3k.
The slow, cautious play continued until the 43rd minute when Fnatic pushed heavily on Gambit but got counter engaged and got aced in exchange for only two members of Gambit. The Russians followed the engagement with a fast baron and that resulted in a 4.5k gold lead. Using the buff Gambit managed to get all inner towers, but could not push their position further than that.
At the 52nd minute YellOwStaR got caught out of position which resulted in uncontested baron for Gambit. With the buff all Gambit had to do is push and seal the game. With that the score became two to one for Gambit and the team was just one game away from the first place of the EU LCS.
The game started again with the usual ban of Thresh against Edward, while xPeke manage to take Kha'zix off of Alex Ich. Alex on the other side made very surprising pick on Zac which he chose to play at the top lane. Meanwhile Darien on Malphite went bottom lane facing xPeke on Kha'zix.
The game started explosively. Soaz managed to steal the blue buff off of Alex and escaped with the help of Janna. Diamond however countered immediately and brought first blood for Gambit after a level two gank on mid. Shortly after a fight at top jungle appeared and Fnatic managed to snatch two kills. Meanwhile at the bottom Darien soloed xPeke after a great tower dive. The game continued to be action packed. Fights emerged in every lane and by the 10th minute the score was eight to five and Gambit had 2k gold lead. The biggest difference was at the bottom lane where Maplhite was bullying xPeke out of the lane and had almost double the cs and a full level advantage.
The game continued to be exiting as before and by the 20th minute the score was 11 to 10 in favor of Gambit but Fnatic were leading with about 500 gold. The next ten minutes of the game passed in much slower mode. However at the 30th minute mark Gambit managed to do great engage and take three free kills and follow it by a baron which turned the gold back in their favor. With the baron buff Gambit tried to take middle inhibitor tower but Fnatic managed to defend it with only two deaths, while taking one kill on their own.
By the 45th minute the game was dead even. The crazy engagements continued over and over again. The score was 21-15 for Gambit but thanks to the amazing cs of Fnatic there was no gold difference. Just a minute later Genja got caught out of position and Fnatic took a free baron. Using the buff they managed to get a tower and dragon resulting in a 5k gold lead. With the next push Fnatic managed to catch Gambit out of position and take four kills and follow it with a final push to destroy the nexus of Gambit. With that the result is tied at two for two between the two best teams in Europe and with the end of one of the most exiting games in EU LCS the teams were preparing for the one last final game.
The last game of the season started with the usual bans - Thresh, Zac, Kha'zix and Twisted Fate. All the lanes were classically set: Top vs. Top, Mid vs. Mid and the duo lanes at bottom. The game started much slower than the previous one. However at the 9th minute a three versus three fight emerged at the bottom lane which resulted in two kills for Gambit and an early dragon.
The game continued at the same slow pace and by the 20th minute Fnatic were leading five to four and had about 4k gold lead. Slowly but steadily Fnatic managed to extend that lead. Time after time they caught Gambit members out of position and just six minutes later the score was ten to four and the gold lead was at 6k. Fnatic continued with the same tactic and at the 35th minute mark they managed to get two free kills off of gambit and followed it by a baron, resulting in 11k gold lead. At that point the game looked decided. xPeke seemed to be impossible to kill with over 400 cs.
While going through the jungle to push the bottom inhibitor, Fnatic caught Diamond and took him for free. With that advantage they didn't need any other invitation and got the bottom tower and inhibitor. At the 43rd minute Fnatic took the baron, pushed top and destroyed Gambit in one final battle which resulted in a win of the whole series and the first place of EU LCS.
With that game over the results of the EU LCS are clear. Fnatic takes first place and 50 000 Euro prize money. Gambit are second and will go home with 25 000. The third place goes to EG and they take 15 000. Those three teams in addition to SK who took the fourth place all have secured places in the next season of LCS and will be facing each other again to prove themselves and get the so desired revenge.
