Any sports or esports has its own share of rivalries and while some have long died, the G2 Esports versus Fnatic is a rivalry that is still very much alive, albeit it has become very one-sided as of late.
Fnatic and G2 Esports are arguably still two of the strongest European LoL teams and while the rivalry has been heavily in favour of the latter for the past couple of years, we can be sure these two European juggernauts will produce a spectacle that no esports fan should miss.
It’s fair to say that G2 Esports are heavy favorites heading into this match considering they’re 9-0 against Fnatic in their last nine meetings. It seems like Fnatic just don’t have the right recipe to defeat G2 no matter how they approach their games and even when they came close to finally breaking the spell (LEC 2019 Summer finals), G2 Esports found a way to leave Fnatic in tears.
Both teams have been struggling throughout the regular season this year, which could suggest this match can turn out to be much closer than expected, but then again, we once more saw completely different versions of G2 Esports and Fnatic in the playoffs, where they played exponentially better.
It would be fair to give Fnatic some praise for their commanding win over Rogue (3-0), but it remains to be seen how much of that will translate to this match and on top of that, how well will their strategy from their previous match be usable against G2. Shutting down the mid lane could still work, but only in theory.
G2 Esports are much more proactive team all around the map and while Fnatic could look to establish dominance in the mid lane, that seems very unlikely since G2 has… well Rasmus “Caps” Winther. If Fnatic decide for a more lane-dominant mid laner such as Lucian (as in their game against Rogue), then there is a problem where G2 can easily respond by sending both Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski and Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle to mid lane, effectively meaning Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek would have to put a lot of focus in keeping his mid laner ahead, while leaving other lands to fend for themselves.
All in all, defeating G2 is not nearly as easy as any other team since they don’t have any clear weaknesses. For Fnatic to win, they will have to outperform G2 on a macro scale, which is again a lot to ask for, but then again it’s not entirely impossible.
A lot will come down to individual performances and while G2 are still the rightful favorites, Fnatic could potentially force a five-map series, if their Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek and Selfmade both show up as they did against Rogue and Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov avoids running it down as he did numerous times before.
Prediction: Over 3.5 maps – 1.41 at Pinnacle
