With 1st place in the Europe League of Legends Championship Series 2018 Summer Season on the line on Sunday, the old guard of Fnatic take on a newcomer to the finals stage in FC Schalke 04.
Fnatic have been arguably the best team all season long, bar an early stumble due to the chaotic meta that identified the opening stages of the split.
Fnatic pulled off a daring move, benching star Bottom-laner Rekkles for a Top-lane sub in order to play the Mages and Bruisers that were so popular to start the split.
Not only did the move pay off in the short term, but it has done so in the long term as well as the team have now established themselves with a unique six-man roster in the league. With incredible flexibility and perhaps the most willingness in the entire region to play oddball selections, Fnatic are always catching opponents off guard, with the most recent case of this coming in the semi-final with an absolutely stunning Mid-lane Vayne.
Caps the key for Fnatic
Fnatic live and die by their incredible Mid-laner Caps, who is widely accepted as not only the best player in his role, but the region as a whole. Caps is an incredibly diverse player with the mechanical prowess to play a wide variety of champions.
While Fnatic’s champion selections tend to be unpredictable, multiple members of this team have established themselves as incredibly consistent players. The likes of Broxah and Hylissang bring engage and frontline in order for the likes of Caps to operate. Should Caps ever stumble, Rekkles has returned to his dominant form within the Bottom lane, re-establishing himself as a quality late-game threat.
Schalke struggled early
FC Schalke 04 have a similar top end, with their Mid-laner and Bottom-laner also being widely respected for their abilities.
Schalke struggled to find an identity within the Spring split, failing to live up to lofty expectations after early signs of life. Schalke opted for a single roster move during the break between splits, bringing in Amazing to be their Jungler. After struggles early in the campaign, Schalke became a different team with more and more practice, emerging as one of the best teams in the second half of the split.
Nukeduck a focus for Schalke
After being hyped up for so long, Nukeduck has finally emerged alongside Caps as one of the best Mid-laners in Europe, with an equally-vast champion pool and solid mechanics.
However, Schalke are now less reliant on Nukeduck, with Amazing pathing well in the Jungle and setting up the team for success.
This team was originally built around Bottom-laner Upset, who had been touted as one of the best young players in the region. While struggling mightily within the Spring split alongside the rest of Schalke, Upset has come into his own during the team’s late-season run. The question for Upset is whether or not he can continue to perform under the growing pressure, especially given his, at times, overly-aggressive plays on the likes of Kai’sa.
Solid support throughout the team
The final two players on this squad are two consistent members of the EU LCS with Vizicsacsi and VandeR. Viziscacsi is particularly known for his Poppy; a pick Vitality consistently looked to take away during their semi-final match-up.
However, the obvious point of contention to track will be the Mid lane, with each team looking to put heavy emphasis on that clash. Junglers and Supports will be looking to roam towards that area of the map in order to get their star players ahead.
A significant moment?
The presence of FC Schalke 04 in the final cannot be overstated. There is significant interest among European teams in regular sports about adding eSports to their overall portfolio with a number of clubs having already made the move.
For a well-known football club to break through in eSports could be a potentially huge moment and lead to a surge of further moves.
However, they will start as considerable underdogs. Dafabet have Schalke at 3.360 to win the contest with Fnatic 1.332 favourites.
