Fnatic ensures the LEC are still number one.
Day one of the Worlds 2022 group stage kicked off with a banger as Fnatic took down Cloud9 in Group A. The LEC titans had C9's number once again with the last meeting between both teams, Fnatic came out on top. This was back in the semifinals of Worlds 2018. Fnatic has also carried over the momentum from their Play-In Stage, where they convincingly topped the group.
With this being the first of two EU versus NA matchups in the Worlds 2022 group stage, it's worth noting that Fnatic's win over C9 not only gives them but the overall region a boost as well. NA has never faired well against EU squads and it's starting to look like that's the case. Of course, EG did eliminate MAD Lions just a few days ago, but it's a different story during the group stages altogether.
While C9 did start the match well during the early game, they needed to take more control and snowball their small victories to secure objectives. Given their team composition, it was only a matter of time before Fnatic hit their timing windows to get up to fifth gear. With so much sustainability in the lineup, Fnatic could very easily retreat, reset, and restart the fight against C9 to gain the advantage.
To put things into further perspective, Fnatic is ranked the third-best team in the LEC at the moment while C9 are the top-rank in the LCS. To see the region's best team fall to Fnatic, which has had so many issues plaguing them before the world championship even began says a lot about the mentality within the NA camp at the moment.
Elias "Upset" Lipp was the only player from Fnatic who ended the game with zero deaths to go along with his five kills. Martin "Wunder" Nordahl Hansen was also putting in work, chipping in with six assists to go with a single death. Only Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov secured one assist more to go with his additional death.
Fnatic's next match will take place tomorrow against T1, another team that they have a decent record of. As for C9, they will be up against EDward Gaming, the current holders of the Summoner's Cup.
