Fnatic Come Back to Beat Excel After Getting Stomped Early
By Wyatt Fossett ·
In the final day of Week 3 for the LEC, not many thought Fnatic would get crushed by the lowly Excel Esports, but it almost happened.
It was a wild Saturday in Berlin for the folks of Fnatic. On the day after absolutely destroying the perceived best team in Europe, it looked like Fnatic might just give Excel Esports their first win after getting walked all over on the Rift. It was, however, not Excel’s day, as Fnatic managed to pull out one of the strongest comebacks in recent memory to protect their unbeaten record.
The entire game was all Excel Esports through the first 20-minutes of play. With a 12-to-2 lead in kills, and thousands of dollars worth of gold ahead of Fnatic, it was definitely a hard one to watch for those Fnatic die-hards.
One too many times the members of Fnatic were pushing too far in their lanes, unprepared for ganks, or just straight-up getting caught not paying attention. For a team notorious for their early-game domination, it was a grim start to a game that Fnatic (on paper) should have easily won.
Unfortunately for Excel fans, Fnatic isn’t strangers of being behind, and you don’t become one of the best teams in European League of Legends history without the ability and composure to come from behind and win a game.
Beginning in the top-lane where Fnatic’s Bwipo managed to snag himself a 1v1 pick off of Excel, the reverse steamroll kicked over its engine and there was no stopping it. There was, for a brief moment, what looked like a tiny window for Excel to retake momentum and head into the Fnatic base around the 30-minute mark, but they couldn’t stack the kills, and Fnatic would once again hold their ground in the face of ultimate danger.
Fnatic, on the other hand, was more than able to get the picks they needed to take the Baron at just under 31 minutes, and the rest is a messy slaughter as the only undefeated team in the LEC pushed into the Excel Esports base, where they would eventually destroy their Nexus.
With the win, Fnatic holds on to their spot as the first seed in the League of Legends European Championship. Yesterday, they took it to the MSI 2019 Champions, and today they proved once again that the pressure and the deficits are never going to be enough to count them out.
Next up for the EU teams is a bit of a weird week, where the top three teams (G2 Esports, Origen, and Fnatic) will be heading stateside to take part in the traditional Rift Rivals tournament, before heading back to Europe for Week 4 of the LEC Summer Split.