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Pitting Fnatic against Cloud9, the opening match of the League of Legends World Championship group stage turned the heat up on the regional rivalry between Europe and North America. The opening match of groups was highly anticipated for numerous reasons, including the long-lasting rivalry between the two teams. Fnatic and C9 have faced off against each other 12 times over the years, counting tonight’s match, with the total score being in favor of the LEC representatives. But Fnatic’s path towards the Group Stage was as tumultuous as their victory against C9.
The very first kill of the Group Stage went to Zven, who burned Hylissang to the ground after an unsuccessful engagement initiated by the latter support. Fnatic kicked off the game with proactive plays, but their damage was not enough to take down their opponents who escaped on low health multiple times. Still, this was all part of Fnatic’s plan towards victory.
From the drafting phase it was clear that Fnatic’s strategy was a long-term one. From top to bottom, they picked scaling champions who needed time before fully unlocking their potential, like Ornn and Aphelios. While waiting for their time to come, Fnatic controlled the map with their extensive vision control in the lower side of the map, and kept on targeting the dragons to further strengthen their late-game power.
C9 didn’t just watch their opponents grow; they constantly searched for skirmishes across the map, trying to fight in the side lanes to open the map with the Heralds they conquered. But despite the kill lead, the towers, and the plates conquered by C9, the two teams were equal in gold, with the European representatives keeping up with CS advantage in all their lanes.
The turning point in the game was a teamfight initiated by Fnatic just before the 20 minute mark. In a perfectly coordinated sequence of ultimate abilities, Fnatic pinned down C9 and shredded the opposing team to pieces. Their teamfighting prowess shone from that moment on through the rest of the game, with C9 occasionally succeeding in splitting Fnatic apart just to take a few kills for themselves, but at that point it was already too late. Fnatic’s strength kept on growing, while C9 struggled to find the right angles to hit their opponents.
Fnatic claimed the first Baron of the game without C9 even being able to get close for fear of being blocked by Maokai’s roots. With the powerful team buff, Fnatic tore down C9’s first line of defense, also claiming the first inhibitor for themselves. With the Abron buff still affecting them, the European team moved to claim the fourth drake of the game that would have granted them the mountain soul. C9 had to stop them if they wanted a chance at victory, but once again Fnatic’s teamfighting skills put the LCS champions in the corner, taking them down one by one.
With the drake’s soul and Baron buff empowering them, Fnatic moved to close the first game of the League World Championship group stage in their favor. The competition in Group A has only just begun, but fans can expect every match to be as contested as the first one. C9 can look for a chance at redemption in their match against Edward Gaming tomorrow, while Fnatic will move to fight one the most legendary teams of the League scene: T1.
