World Elite 2:1 FnaticRC
Game 1:
The first game of the night kicks off between two of the strongest teams commencing in the jungle right off the bat. To the dismay of World Elite, Fnatic would find themselves grabbing 1st and 2nd blood. Fnatic has been confident throughout the tournament and shows it by committing to aggressive plays even against such intimidating foes. Following Rekkles grabbing the first and second blood, Fnatic sends 4 people top to get the early feed into xPeke and bullies down Caomei. Fnatic would retain the dominance and consistency needed to seize the advantange as they had already acquired a 3k gold lead around the 10 minute mark, including an uncontested dragon. As the game progressed, Fnatic would find the lead growing larger and larger, up 8-2 to World Elite with the kills in all the right places, distributed evenly across Rekkles and xPeke. Not willing to drop out of the fight yet, World Elite manages to even up the kill score, but Fnatic is ahead in towers and takes an extremely early 15 minute baron. Off the back of the baron play, they push forward into mid inhibitor, putting World Elite in a hopeless situation. Wanting to maintain a healthy mentality for the next game of the series, World Elite surrenders and prepares themselves for game 2.
Game 2:
With game 2 kicking off, Fnatic starts with a massive initial morale boost due to getting yet another first blood and building an early lead once more. The kill goes to Soaz on Jax, which is the last target that World Elite would want the kills going to. The bullying on Caomei would proceed to continuously happen which would grab the hyper-carry Jax yet another kill. Caomei shows how formidable of a foe he is, despite all of this, by maintaining a double CS lead ahead of Soaz due to bullying him with constant Reckless Swing harass.Though the morale is high and the lead in their grasp, World Elite would end up evening the kill lead and actually get ahead by taking baron off the back of the fight prior. After a mellow phase of the game, Fnatic heeds advantage of their superior map vision and dives for a turret and 3 kills, looking to push back into the game. Not long after, absolutely crazy fights blip all over the map with Fnatic getting the unfortunate short end of the stick. Janna blows everyone away with her performance showing her viability in the teamfight, heals up the team, and World Elite pick up their second baron of the game.
At this point of the game, Fnatic knows they have to make something happen to maintain any control of the map. Soaz leads the charge and the team marches towards mid tower while all 5 of World Elite are bottom. Rekkles utilizes his genius and sends an ultimate bottom, nailing and stalling three people from World Elite from backing, but it didn't make a difference as Fnatic would get nothing out of it.
Though far behind, Fnatic pulls some impressive stalling strategies, and Rekkles grabs his own red with a Trueshot Barrage steal which would assist in fending off bottom. Despite the early help, Caomei is much richer and stronger than Soaz at this point. World Elite picks off 3 of fnatic. With the third baron pick-up of the game, Fnatic surrenders much in the same fashion of World Elite in game 1, pushing the series to 3 games.
Fun Fact: Fzzf made a very key play by flashing over the purple golem wall to interrupt xPeke's teleport with Howling Gale.
Game 3:
The game starts out mellow with both sides of the opposition focusing on the fundamentals and a safe start. First blood does not happen until 7:30 when Fnatic, yet again hops off to a solid start acquiring two kills bottom in exchange for one. The last thing that Fnatic needed was approaching as a premature baron attempt would leave them aced at the 12 minute mark.Fnatic does not want to give it up without a fight and turns it back around, however. For instance, Soaz roams and makes a play on Weixiao by flash taunting him, throwing the game temporarily into Fnatic's control and bringing the gold values to a near tie. World Elite was not ready to let this go and would pull ahead 11-8 at 22 minutes in, grabbing baron and dragon and showing a fine display on their objective-focused prowess. While Fnatic held well considering the early dragon ace and the huge lead that World Elite had developed, they surrender and get sent to the loser's bracket, with World Elite reigning king of the Winner's Bracket.
FnaticRC 2:0 Taipei Assassins
Game 1:
The epic clash of World Champions happens once again, meeting in the Loser's Bracket Finals. Early on, Fnatic press an early level 3 advantage in an attempt to snowball top lane, putting Fnatic ahead 1k gold of the Season 2 champions 4 minutes in. Early in the game, Ezreal achieves 2-0, and the tournament's history suggests that whenever he gets ahead early, Fnatic wins the game.In a greedy attempt to extend their lead, however, xPeke goes in for a gank top with the help of Soaz and unfortunately reaches a culinary demise, dying to the mighty crowd control of the cupcake trap and turning it into a quick double kill for Toyz on Twisted Fate. The game progresses, and Sona finds a wild ninja in the bushes middle, falling and allowing Fnatic to nail an early dragon. This is the point of the game where Fnatic starts showing their trademarked expertise of brave diving, taking towers for free, diving and catching out Mistake, and getting Ezreal so fat that Cop would be proud.
TPA is stubborn and will not go down without a struggle, but between split pushing and pulling off a baron, Fnatic puts astounding amounts of pressure onto TPA, clearing paths for all of their inhibs, making them vulnerable, and aggressing only safely and intelligently, backing off when necessary. Despite the greatest efforts in this game by TPA to hold off, they are unable to successfully do so and fall to Fnatic for Game 1.
Game 2:
The game begins with lots of action commencing immediately and many-a-summoner blown with frantic flashes going off everywhere. The finesse of these players and their utilization of their arsenal is clearly visible between the World Champions as every bit of execution is calculated and precise. No kills go down until 7 minutes in, where with the help of Requiem and 3 flashes, TPA picks up the kill on Fnatic's bottom lane, swiftly taking the dragon afterwords.However, Fnatic seizes revenge and grabs 2 kills of their own shortly after the dragon, bringing the gold to a tie 10 minutes in, though Fnatic maintaining superior map control with a 2 turret advantage. The champions butt heads and remain even until the oracle drops for Lilballz, who finds himself severely punished in the jungle by SoaZ's Kha'Zix. The lack of vision from Taipei Assassins would prove for Fnatic's plays to be quite devastating and formidable. Fnatic takes this advantage and drives it hard, because they have something to prove. They are here to prove that they are the rightful World Champions and they are willing to tear through Taipei Assassins to get their title back in their hands.
The advantage escalates higher and higher and Fnatic retains their dominance. With a gigantic 10-2 score 8k gold lead, they push out, take baron for free, and rampage through their base, simply melting Taipei Assassins off the map. Fnatic proceeds to the Grand Finals against World Elite.
World Elite 3:1 FnaticRCGame 1:
The final showdown commences and Fnatic shows up as the final contender to the Chinese powerhouse, creating the first international final in some time to not end with an all Asian finals. As the game commences, things appear very even for quite some time. The game plays standard and the fields of justice are peaceful. Eventually, the draw must yield and Cyanide takes the opportunity to do just that.With beautiful juking and mechanical play, Cyanide crushes mid, outplaying Misaya with xPeke due to beautiful juking, which would land him the first blood. Things simmer down a bit, but SoaZ abuses his teleport on Lee Sin to pull off an excellent teleport gank bottom. Though Weixiao felt secure in his escape, he would soon find himself face planted into a wall, granting Fnatic a 2-1 trade. As one would suspect, Soaz continues to abuse his teleportation-enabled presence and successfully offers his bottom lane an easy ride. The team has impeccable decision making and Cyanide gets his free farm top while Soaz terrors the rest of the map.
With continual aggressive diving and and all 3 lanes having over 4 kills, Fnatic walks all over World Elite convincingly and practically live inbetween the turrets making play after play. 23 minutes in, Fnatic completely melts World Elite in their own jungle, pushing in for the mid inhibitor and just deleting Baron Nashor. Shortly after, xPeke ends the game with a quadra kill and sends a message to WE with a convincing victory in game 1.
Game 2:
The stakes are high and the nerves are tense; if there's one thing you should do if you get outplayed, it's outsmart. Game 2 starts with a bait on Soaz to grab first blood for Irelia right off the bat, with Soaz falling an unsuspecting victim to an early bush jungle gank. Despite the nerve-wrecking start for snowbally top lane, kills go back and forth relatively. Fnatic makes some plays bottom and picks up the first dragon, grabbing the first 3 towers, consistently outplaying World Elite. Fnatic is not ready to stop the blows and extends the lead to 7-3 and a 3k gold difference with a fed Rekkles assisting his team. World Elite is no stranger themselves with heavy diving aggression though, and show it with a successful dive mid. Unfortunately, a split pushing shen bottom would threaten and almost take the bottom inhibitor turret, but ultimately is forced to retreat and allows himself to become picked off by Weixao and Caomei. When a fight erupts mid, either by phenomenal luck or by genius calculation, Cyanide soaks just enough to escape and lets Rekkles acquire 2 kills. Looking ambitious, Soaz pulls off an astonishing play by preemptively ulting onto top with Diana. However, things would not remain cheerful for Fnatic in the upcoming minutes.
An unsuspecting follow up is applied up top from World Elite and WE takes a 3 for 0 kill trade and yields baron off of Fnatic's attempt. The tables turn a full 180 and it looks as though World Elite has suddenly gained control. With the gold tied up, World Elite pushes their baron advantage and aggressively shoves, forcing Fnatic to use abilities to wave clear.
Fun Fact: 31 minutes in, the gold was exactly 45.2k gold to 45.2k gold on the spot!
World Elite attempts another baron, Fnatic tries to stop them, but Clearlove assassinates all of them with the backing of his team, grabbing baron and shredding Fnatic down. As the inhibitors fall one after another, Fnatic would reenact Helm's Deep in a desperate attempt to hold their Nexus in a game fully in their hands, but to no avail. World Elite successfully takes this game to a nail-biting game point.
Game 3:
As with any team, if you throw a game you have complete control of, you're going to go into the next game clouded, and this is no exception. Fnatic steps a little out of their comfortable boundary and gets caught off guard in World Elite's red side. With one of the most mind-boggling anticipatory preparations ever seen in a League match, WE stands on the inside of the baron pit waiting for the flash over, getting killed by both bottom lane players for World Elite.The outlook for Fnatic, though once bright, now turns grim as World Elite are up ahead by two thousand gold in the first 7 minutes, and then drops another death to set the score 0-3.
Fun Fact: Fnatic acquires their first kill 8 minutes into the game by Soaz, the only player not to die on Fnatic at this point.
The outlook continues to be be dark and grey for Fnatic as World Elite's gold lead stretches to 4.5k with a free dragon and a pick on xPeke. Fnatic is slowly falling apart and it is clear that the nerves from the game prior have gotten to them.
It is not just in kills and map control that World Elite shows dominance, but farm. Bottom lane, Wexiao is ahead of Rekkles by a stunning 50 cs. Desperate for that victory, there are no throws or vulnerabilities available for Fnatic to capitalize on and they are completely starved of the possibility of catching up. The mistakes pile, World Elite seizes advantages like baron, and Fnatic's play falters. In a tough fought series and one of the most memorable ones yet, World Elite takes home the pride and prize of being the IGN Proleague 5 World Champions.
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