Fnatic and Cloud 9 went into today’s crucial qualifying games as favourites, but knowing they had difficult tasks ahead of them. Fnatic already lost one match in the group stage but started this best-of-five in the best way possible, taking down the first two games against Hong Kong Attitude.
2-0 up, Fnatic looked to book their ticket to the finals proper and started game three in perfect fashion. Broxah’s Gragas roamed through mid to top, picking up three kills for his team inside the opening five minutes. Fnatic were rampant, and a skirmish in the bottom lane put them in a commanding lead. They picked up four kills and a turret for the cost of a single kill. With ten minutes on the clock, Fnatic were already ahead by 4k gold, and even after HKA’s first successful team fight the advantage was still Fnatic’s. Hong Kong were able to keep the game soewhat close thanks to a handful of unnecessary death’s on Fnatic’s part, but that was as good as it would get. The European team remembered to play to their strengths and grabbed an ace in the next team fight. Fnatic secured a baron soon afterwards, which proved too much for HKA to defend against. Europe’s had a third team qualified for Worlds, and they did it without losing a single tower in the final game.
Similarly, Cloud 9 got off to a fantastic start, dominating game on in their series against Lyon. They were made to sweat in game two, but still emerged victorious after an hour-long slugfest. With a clean sweep up for grabs, Cloud 9 built their game three composition around protecting Sneaky’s Twitch. They had the best of the early game, trading turrets at the ten minute mark and being ahead on CS in every lane. Lyon took down a second tower soon after, but the gold lead was still in C9’s favour. It took a further five minutes for first blood to happen, and it was Cloud 9’s, thanks to a big play from Jensen’s Orianna getting some help from Shen and Janna. Lyon’s support roamed to try and help, only to give up his own life, and with another two turrets going down, C9 were up by 4,000 gold just 18 minutes in.
Cloud 9 dominated from then on, never giving Lyon a look-in. A baron buff followed numerous kills, and a 10k lead looked insurmountable at the 25 minute mark. Indeed, the third game of the series ended in under half an hour, with Lyon being limited to just two kills. Both major western regions will now have three teams in the main tournament, starting in October.
