Team Vitality defeated Fnatic during the fourth match of the week, tying both teams in third place on the 2022 LEC Summer Split regular season standings. Vitality took down Fnatic in 30 minutes of fights to the death, but they rose from 6th place to the podium in the end.
Despite the same desire to win, both teams implemented different strategies. Fnatic’s draft relied on scaling and late game fights, while Vitality’s was designed to be proactive with engages and ganks. Yet both teams jumped on the chance to attack and fight whenever the opportunity presented itself to them, scoring a total of eight kills in under six minutes.
But thanks to an overwhelming presence of Labrov’s Lulu on the map, it was Vitality who got the upper hand in most of the early game, thus gaining a significant advantage, especially in the side lanes. Alphari’s Gankplank made a notable difference during teamfights, dealing tons of damage and splitting the enemy team with his ultimate, allowing Perkz and Haru to jump in the enemy’s backline multiple times.
Thanks to this “divide et impera” technique, Vitality kept gaining advantages and taking control of the map one lane at a time. Despite Fnatic finding successful engage and kills with their high-damage composition, Vitality remained in the lead in gold, kills, and neutral objectives. Once obtained the Baron buff, Vitality started to siege Fnatic’s base. The first attack was fended off by Fnatic’s team damage, which by the minute 25 grew significantly.
Vitality reset their movements, approaching some neutral objectives, like the cloud drake, before making another attempt at Fnatic’s Nexus. After the Baron respawned, however, the top side of the river became fighting terrain since the neutral objective was crucial to both teams. Since Vitality had control of the vision around the pit, Fnatic had to walk in oblivious to where their opponents were, which made it perfect for a surprise attack. In a matter of seconds, Perkz stole Renata Glasc’s ultimate ability with his Sylas and used it on Fnatic’s team, forcing them to delete each other. The whole Vitality team followed and took down the remaining members of Fnatic and then moved towards their base to take down Fnatic’s Nexus.
The second attack on Fnatic’s base determined Vitality’s win and closed the first round of matches of the LEC Summer Split regular season. Next week team Vitality will have to face MAD Lions for a shot at second place on the regular standings, while Fnatic will have to take on the regular season kings and current first-placed Rogue.
