Fnatic vs SK Gaming

For our fourth match of the day, we have an incredibly exciting clash between Fnatic and SK Gaming. Now, both of these two teams fought on many occasions throughout 2019 and SK Gaming definitely have the upper hand in the overall win-loss tally. That said, whenever Fnatic had to step up and get the job done (when they played a game that mattered, in other words), they were always up to the task.

SK Gaming are a deceptively strong contender overall. They have multiple avenues towards success and certain aspects of their roster are prone to over-performing (their bottom lane and Selfmade, in particular). Even though they haven't been playing at an insanely high level over the last four and a half weeks, they're still a tough nut to crack and they never go down without a fight. Now, they lack the strength and cohesion in order to challenge the LEC upper echelon, but they're not far off either. When they have a good day, they have the capacity to upset anyone in the region. The problem is, they don't have good days that often. Not as often as they would like.

Right now, they're struggling to find and stick to an identity. They're not playing good League of Legends, and other than a couple of individual stand out moments, they're just not as good as a five-man unit. Sacre, how was coming in with a ton of hype and momentum, failed to leave much of a mark. Selfmade, the 2019 Spring Rookie of the Split recipient, has been rather meek and unimpactful any time he stepped foot on stage. They're just not in sync and they're still figuring out how they want to play the game which is a problem -- we've reached the halfway point of the split and they're no better.

Fortunately, they're aware of their mistakes and are working actively on fixing them. That doesn't meant they will succeed (or succeed in time, rather), but at least they're trying to fix their biggest problems and get back to their winning ways.

Across them, however, stands Fnatic. Now, they were considered as the second best team in the region for quite a long while, but they've lost quite a lot of momentum over the last week and a half. They dropped a game to Splyce last week and had to play without Rekkles yesterday against a resurging Rogue. They're on a two-game losing streak and it became evident that when Broxah cannot create a big enough lead in the early game, they simply don't have enough tools to win the game.

They're too reliant on him getting ahead (or getting his laners ahead) and that's a problem, especially at this level of play. Either way, they're currently playing without much hype and are exceptionally vulnerable. We're still giving them our benefit of the doubt seeing how they'll play with Rekkles in the line-up, but this will surely end up being an insanely close back and forth game that will be decided by the slimmest of margins. Either way, we should be entertained regardless of the final outcome.