Howspiffing
2015-01-28 05:41:21
Are Fnatic as strong as they seem?
Week 1 of the LCS threw us a few curveballs, the main one being the Fnatic lineup that so many condemned before the LCS had even started. The boys in Orange lost 80% of their starting lineup in the pre-season, to replace these veterans were 2 EU Challenger Series youngsters and 2 fairly unknown Koreans. The outlook was bleak for Fnatic as week 1 approached and a date with Elements was on the cards.
Talk about exceeding expectations! Rumours were floating around behind the scenes that Fnatic were stronger than many would anticipated, but even so their performance in week 1 was a shock. Huni, Febiven and Steelback looked like solid replacements and played as though they’d been in the LCS since its inception. Despite those solid performances, the real credit goes to Reignover and Yellowstar, who dominated the map and gave Fnatic an easy road to victory. This map dominance from the captain and jungler allowed Febiven, Steelback and Huni to demonstrate their mechanical prowess. Huni dominated Wickd, Febiven put on an MVP performance, and Steelback went the whole week without dying while playing aggressively the whole time.
In week 2, Fnatic will face tough tests in the form of ROCCAT and Gambit Gaming. ROCCAT have been hinted as potential LCS victors due to their success in the off-season. Gambit Gaming will be coming off of a weak start, however the team finally completed their move into a full-time gaming house, which should lead to improvement. If Fnatic can keep the ball rolling and take victories over 2 more strong teams, there’s no reason why they can’t be considered a serious contender. The only issue could be that teams wise up to Fnatic’s style of heavy roaming and pushing different areas of the map.
Bonus - Febiven has already beaten Froggen, can he do the same to Nukeduck?
Febiven proved he wasn't just a challenger player when he beat up Froggen in lane, now he faces off against another revered European mid laner. Nukeduck made his return last week and showed a solid but not magnificent performance, so it will be interesting to see if he can match up to Febiven if the Fnatic player performs like he did last week.
Can Elements pull it together?
These guys were definitely NOT in their element. A shambolic week 1 performance saw Elements lucky to take 1 victory over Unicorns of Love, the day after they received a very humbling beatdown from the new-look Fnatic lineup. This is not the performance you’d expect from the #1 team last season, immediately after picking up the #1 AD Carry from last season.
An arguement could be made that Fnatic just surprised Elements and threw them off their game, but quite like Yellowstar mentioned in the post game interview, Elements were predictable, and their playstyle allowed Fnatic to control the game right from the start. After a poor start, Elements were able to scrape out a victory over Unicorns of Love to bring their record to 1-1 for the week. While the score doesn’t reflect a disaster, the performance just might. Obviously it’s not too late for Elements, just last season they started 0-4 and ended up winning the entire thing, so perhaps we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from week 1.
In week 2, Elements will take on Copenhagen Wolves and ROCCAT. 1 of which should be a clean and easy victory while the other may provide some difficulty. Copenhagen Wolves aren’t looking fantastic but even they were able to take the victory over H2K Gaming after they went into the late game, something Elements loves doing. If they can’t find a victory over Copenhagen Wolves, they will definitely struggle to overcome ROCCAT, who have been looking slightly weaker than expected, but still should be considered one of the stronger teams in the league.
Bonus - Shook faces another tough test in the form of Jankos. If Wickd loses lane to Youngbuck, Elements fans across the world will cry.
Shook has been billed as one of the best junglers in Europe time and time again but thus far has failed to show why is a part of this lineup. Meanwhile, Jankos is on par with Svenskeren for the best in Europe. Wickd faces off against Youngbuck in the top lane, it probably comes down to picks and bans but if Wickd gets crushed here he may invoke a riot.
Gambit face a tough test to pull themselves off the bottom of the standings
The IEM champions were unable to replicate their performance in the LCS as they find themselves dead bottom of the standings. Dropping games to Unicorns of Love and ROCCAT ensured that Gambit would need to step it up if they were to challenge the top spots like they and their fans are hoping. The roster had a good showing at IEM Cologne, with P1noy and Edward particularly impressing, however this team is known for innovating, and you can’t do that every single week.
Gambit seem to be unable to go a few weeks in the LCS without having some problems, and during week 1 they were struck with 2. Their roster changes allow them to move into a gaming house, which wasn’t set up in time, and their brand new head coach ‘Leviathan’ (formerly Alliance) was unable to attend week 1. The lack of your head coach is now much more significant as it immediately gives the opposing team and advantage during champion select. The house issue is an obvious one and just means less practice, more travel. That being said, Gambit didn’t look like a team in crisis, just a team not quite in shape for the new season.
Fortunately for Gambit and LCS fans in general, both of those problems have been fixed. The team has moved into theit house in Berlin, and Leviathan hopped on a plane to be present for the week 2 picks and bans. Unfortunately for Gambit, they will be facing 2 of the best teams in the league: Fnatic and SK Gaming. Yikes. It won’t be impossible for Gambit to pick up a victory, but it will be damn hard. Fnatic seem to be heading in the right direction and assuming their week 1 performance wasn’t a fluke, they should take the win. SK on the other hand have been predicted to take 1st place since before the season even started, and their week 1 performance proved accuracy to those predictions.
Bonus - P1noy/Edward face off against Forg1ven/nRated. Diamond vs Svenskeren, the former best jungler in Europe against the current best jungler in Europe.
P1noy and Edward put up a very impressive showing at IEM Cologne, but now they're up against one of the best bot lane duos in Europe at the moment. Meanwhile in the jungle, Diamond used to be the king, but Svenskeren is sitting on the throne for now.