G2 Esports vs Fnatic

What an absolute treat to close out the week! G2 Esports vs. Fnatic is the kind of match-up that always delivers, regardless of who's playing, what the meta is like, and whether it's a regular season game or a grand finals Best of 5 — these two teams always fight their hearts out, so if you've got the time, make sure to tune in!

There's a lot on the line this time around, as is so often the case whenever these two perennial giants step foot on stage to compete. For the first time in what feels like an eternity, neither one of them is atop the LCS. Instead, they're clawing their way back towards the throne — a most surprising sight, no doubt. Right now, at the time of this writing, both teams have a shot at leaving a mark, but they're also surprisingly inconsistent, and have fairly distinct weaknesses.

Fnatic, of course, have looked a lot better thus far, but they haven't faced the toughest of opponents, so take their 4W-2L record with a grain of salt. Other than Rogue, their wins over Vitality, EXCEL, and Astralis don't carry much weight. Now sure, the fashion in which they had won was certainly impressive, but we still need a bigger sample size before drawing any concrete conclusion.

Still, if we take their success at face value, it's fair to say that they've been playing a lot better than G2 Esports. The former "Kings of Europe" don't have much hype behind their backs right now, and were even dismantled and outclassed by Vitality yesterday. No one's really standing out other than LEC veteran Martin "Rekkles" Larsson, and that's a problem. For G2 to truly shine and reclaim their throne, the entire line-up needs to step up and deliver. Whether that'll happen or not still remains to be seen, but it's hard not to be worried for their chances going forward. They have shown signs of promise, but they were few and far between. They still tend to "int" in the pick and ban phase, and their individual play leaves a bit to be desired as well. All in all, we're not impressed, but there's still a lot of time for them to correct course and eventually leave a mark in the grand scheme of things.

In the end, we'll have to side with Fnatic on this one. They have a lot more momentum and could, by all means, pull off an upset tonight!