Worlds 2017 Quarterfinal Review: Fnatic vs. Royal Never Give Up
After the nexus broke, so did Rekkles.
Royal Never Give Up eliminated Fnatic in Saturday’s Worlds 2017 quarterfinal, and instead of joining his team for a final bow, Rekkles laid his head on the console and cried. Nothing his teammates said helped; they eventually left the stage without him. Even the loud chants of “Ou Cheng” (Rekkles’ Chinese name) didn’t seem to reach. For Rekkles, long a steward of the Fnatic bot lane, the accumulation of missed opportunities in a series defined by mistakes finally took its toll.
As Rekkles lingered, Uzi completed his on-stage interview in front of thousands of Guangzhou faithful. For a quarterfinal billed as a showdown between veteran AD carries, there was no more definitive image than Rekkles bent in defeat while Uzi basked in the glow of victory. RNG’s AD carry made sure that Fnatic’s miracle run to the bracket stage would go no further, and in doing so propelled the only fully Chinese team into the semifinals.
Yet Uzi took a backseat in Game 1 to the unlikeliest of RNG heroes. LetMe, who had been mostly invisible throughout groups, suddenly morphed into an unkillable raid boss of a Cho’Gath that drew every Fnatic eye in team fights. This was by design; RNG actively allocated resources topside, snowballing LetMe with early attention from MLXG. That jungle presence, plus Feast kills on two early drakes, helped quickly transform LetMe into an irresistible frontliner that Fnatic couldn’t handle.
RNG needed their investment in LetMe to pay off, having elected to draw bot by drafting Soraka for Ming. This was RNG’s adaptation since the end of groups, an experimental answer to Janna that gave more draft flexibility. But while Soraka might out-sustain Janna in lane, she lacks the mobility to avoid a well-timed gank. Fnatic knew this, and repeatedly sent Broxah bot to punish the pick. Ming gave up First Blood and would die a second time during a four-man turret dive by Fnatic, but all of this attention bot played directly into RNG’s hands. Despite all of Fnatic botside pressure, they couldn’t out-race LetMe for First Turret, the Cho’Gath able to take top outer by himself.
Fnatic won the early game, but didn’t win it hard enough given the exploitable composition RNG selected. LetMe’s success had nullified any gains Fnatic got through bot, and with both teams even in gold through 20 minutes, any one-sided mid game fight would prove decisive.
LetMe’s kill on Rekkles was just that, a sudden Feast that opened Baron and a 4-2 fight win by RNG. Once Uzi’s Tristana had farmed enough, her damage behind Cho’Gath and Sejuani was more than enough to break Fnatic’s base. Ming’s Soraka kept the tanks healthy and buffed with her Ardent Censer, allowing RNG to out-sustain Sivir’s wave clear under turret. It took two more Barons, but eventually RNG broke the nexus for a Game 1 victory.
Game 2 seemed like a variation on Game 1’s theme. RNG drafted Soraka into Janna again despite Fnatic’s selection of Vayne, a champion whose tumbles would make Ming’s healbot life even more difficult. Soraka would struggle in lane for the second consecutive game, but Vayne was a counter to MLXG’s comfort Jarvan IV too. A well-timed Condemn would push J4 out of his own Cataclysm, effectively canceling RNG’s main source of initiation. FNC also denied LetMe his problematic Cho’Gath, drafting it for sOAZ instead.
Like an instant replay of Game 1, Broxah ganked bot lane for First Blood on Ming. Yet RNG were able to answer and eventually win the lane, getting First Turret bot after MLXG dove Jesiz for a kill. It was a massive setback for Fnatic; they’d drafted to win bot lane but failed to do so. One mistake in lane against Tristana usually means losing your outer turret, and Uzi was no exception.
Still, Fnatic battled back, the momentum turning when Caps made an incredible play top on Taliyah. In one fantastic sequence, he avoided the three-man dive by RNG while preserving his top outer turret and getting a kill on MLXG. Then, in an uncanny mirroring of the Game 1 mid game, sOAZ flanked Uzi with a Teleport and Feasted him to death, opening up vision for a Baron FNC would be able to take without contest. Fnatic demolished every external turret on the ensuing Baron Power Play, but couldn’t manage a push into the RNG base. They played it safe, willing to keep lanes pushed in and wait for a second Baron to end the game.
Up nearly 8k gold and with useful objective secure tools like Cho’Gath’s Feast and Taliyah’s Weaver’s Wall, Fnatic casually entered the pit assuming an easy second Baron. They were wrong. Against the run of play, MLXG simply dashed into the pit, out-smote Broxah and the Feast, then Flashed out, clean as you like. Fnatic ignored the control ward in the back of the pit placed during the take, granting MLXG full vision of Baron during the attempt.
MLXG’s steal completely turned the game around. What should have been a clean win for Fnatic (already up 7-2 in kills) became a drawn-out defeat. Uzi had his items, but RNG lacked map control; the Baron buff gave them that. RNG re-established mid priority while resisting an Elder-buffed advance from Fnatic, and eventually secured a third Baron to end the game. Fnatic’s gold lead—which they maintained even in defeat—didn’t matter. A combined 7-1-6 from Caps and Rekkles didn’t matter. Once Fnatic opened the door for a comeback, RNG wasted no time in stepping through.
Game 3 should have been the end of this series. In yet another instance of mirroring between these two evenly-match teams, RNG held a massive mid-game gold lead, established in part by their outstanding draft. Forced to ban both Lulu and Janna themselves, Fnatic gave away Galio, J4 and Kog’Maw to a Chinese team, three champions that probably a list titled “Don’t Give to Chinese Teams.” LetMe even got his Cho’Gath too, and with Morgana for Ming, RNG created a devastating single-damage composition. Fnatic would need to get to Uzi to win fights, but with triple tanks and a Black Shield protecting him, their chances were slim.
Cut to 28 minutes later as RNG stormed the Fnatic base, easily breaking mid inhibitor on their way to the nexus turrets. Rekkles and Jesiz were dead, killed in the mid lane defense. Caps had been chunked down and needed to heal in the fountain. sOAZ was zoned out of his own base, and Broxah could do little more than stand under turret. Everyone on RNG was alive and relatively healthy. The game was effectively over, and RNG had their foot in the semifinals.
Then, Uzi lost his damn mind. At 7-0-1 and almost 50 CS over Rekkles, Uzi had utterly dominated proceedings and was incredibly fed. So it seemed natural that with the protection he had enjoyed up to that point, small things like turret damage wouldn’t deter him. With Barrier and Black Shield applied, Uzi began free-hitting a nexus turret while tanking turret shots. However, turret damage is physical, and Morgana’s Black Shield only absorbs magical damage. So while Uzi’s shield remained at 100%, his health dropped low enough that when the Black Shield expired, sOAZ one-shot him from behind.
The moment to end was lost. RNG took another successful team fight, but it cost them MLXG’s Guardian Angel and LetMe’s life, leaving them shorthanded to attempt a second Baron. Instead, it was Fnatic who secured Baron, and after a 4v5 fight that ended 2-2, they were able to break bot inhibitor and a nexus turret. Rekkles got his revenge on Uzi in that fight, a smooth Flash-forward to secure the crucial kill.
It was here that Caps’ Malzahar began to take its toll on RNG. Malzahar’s slows, silence, and suppression kept turning team fights or kiting Fnatic out of bad ones, preventing RNG from focusing Rekkles on their engages (Jesiz’s Karma certainly helped with the speed-up from her Mantra Inspire). Plus, no one on RNG but Uzi bought a Quicksilver Sash, giving Caps the freedom to Nether Grasp anyone who dared engage.
Granted the Tristana he had been denied in the previous two games, Rekkles recovered from an 0-3-1 first 30 minutes to a 4-6-5 final scoreline, outplaying Uzi down the stretch despite his Chinese counterpart finishing with 19 kills, a Worlds 2017 record. Tristana’s rapid building demolition was on fully display again, shattering inhibitors as such a rate that even when Fnatic lost a late game team fight, RNG couldn’t afford to leave their naked base.
Once Fnatic gained map control, and the farm needed to get to Uzi in fights by penetrating/suppressing the frontline, RNG slowly bled out, forcing a Game 4.
While Uzi had been the centerpiece of RNG’s strategy thus far, Game 4 belonged to mid laner xiaohu. Given the Corki he had lost with only once in ten tries this year, xiaohu was asked to keep RNG in the game while Uzi’s Twitch quietly farmed items. Fnatic had no intention of allowing the Soraka/Twitch bot lane to have a safe early game, repeatedly diving bot as four or five, hunting for kills. But on one such roam from mid lane, xiaohu caught Caps’ Galio at low health and killed him, relieving bot pressure while establishing pressure mid, effectively stalling out Fnatic in a game they desperately wanted to accelerate.
xiaohu did his job across the map, keeping Fnatic from grouping to kill Uzi by keeping lanes pushed with his Teleport threat and Trinity Force sieging speed. A 1-3-1 composition with Shen is a delicate thing; fumble a rotation or fight and everything can come undone. RNG didn’t wilt under Fnatic’s early pressure, responding to a four-man gank of MLXG botside with a Package dive by xiaohu as LetMe channeled Stand United. xiaohu secured three kills before his death, job done.
Fnatic’s lead never grew over 3k, due in large part to RNG’s seemingly global map pressure. They eventually killed the first Baron (as per the requirement of their win condition against Twitch), but at 37 minutes it was far too late. Caps’ death during the Baron fight opened Elder for RNG, which they secured without a steal attempt.
Minutes later, RNG found the fight they had been looking for, boxing Fnatic into a choke point near Broxah’s raptors while Elder-buffed. sOAZ’s ultimate actually forced a dashing MLXG closer to the Fnatic backline, allowing LetMe to taunt nearly everyone after a completed Stand United. From there, Uzi unloaded on a grouped Fnatic, getting a Double Kill as RNG won the fight 4-0. A pushing mid wave and Fnatic’s long death timers allowed RNG to end the game (and the series) soon after.
Rekkles eventually got to his feet and made a solitary bow to the crowd, who saluted him nearly as loudly as they had Uzi. It’s unjust to lay the blame for Fnatic’s defeat entirely at their AD carry's feet. Two mediocre performances from Caps in Games 1 and 4 created far too many mistakes in a series weighed by the accumulation of errors. sOAZ was inconsistent, and Broxah never looked as good as his Rek'Sai (which RNG never banned). Fnatic had their chances, but at various key moments couldn’t push their advantage far enough to take control of games. The team takes the blame for this loss, as they always should.