Fnatic is one of the blue bloods of League of Legends. They won the first ever recognized World Championship back in 2011 and made the semifinals in 2013 and 2015. They have made Worlds in six of its seven seasons, but missed out for the first time ever last year.
This year, the goal was to get back to Worlds. They looked great at the end of Spring Split and tore through the regular season in the Summer Split, going 11-2 and grabbing the No. 1 overall seed. However, disaster struck in the playoffs when PowerOfEvil led Misfits to a huge upset that made them have to qualify for Worlds through regionals.
That also meant they had to go through the Play-In Stage in order to get here. Fnatic played well enough to win its group and subsequently swept Hong Kong Attitude in the Play-In Knockout Stage. In spite of that, they are now considered favorites to advance after being drawn in the weakest group of Worlds.
Opening Betting Odds to Win 2017 League of Legends World Championship
Fnatic +3000
Top Lane
sOAZ is one of the oldest League of Legends around. He has been playing at the professional level since 2010 and has seen it all during his time in Europe.
Although he is able to carry if need be, Fnatic mostly asks him to just play a tank and not lose in the laning phase. At Worlds thus far, sOAZ has played Shen, Galio, and Maokai, all champions not known for their ability to pick up kills. He has at least 10 assists on each champion though and has been essential to this team’s success with his team fighting capabilities.
Jungle
Fnatic’s luck started to change in spring of this year, when they brought up Broxah from its academy team to start in place of Amazingx. Broxah took the challenge head on and after just a few weeks, it was announced that he would take over for Amazingx full time.
Much like sOAZ, his role hasn’t been to be aggressive and go after kills at Worlds. Although he did do just that in Europe during the Summer Split, putting up a 12 KDA on both Elise and Kha’Zix, he has played more team based champions lately. Broxah has been untouchable on Gragas and has played a lot of Sejuani too in recent weeks.
Mid Lane
This is the position that will make or break Fnatic this year. Caps was otherworldly late in the Spring Split and carried that over through most of the Summer Split too. During that time, he earned the nickname Baby Faker, but failed to live up to that lofty moniker in the playoffs.
Caps was simply outplayed by PowerOfEvil in the Summer Split Playoffs and that caused Fnatic to have to go through qualifying in order to get here. He struggled on anything other than Syndra during that time, something opposing teams have certainly picked up on.
He looked great once again during the Play-In Stage at Worlds, dominating lesser competition and posted a 7.6 KDA. However, there’s a reason this team made Special its one substitute for Worlds.
AD Carry
Although he has had dalliances with other teams, Rekkles has been the AD Carry for Fnatic for much of his career. He has held that position continuously since May 2015 and the team has slowly built another great team around him piece by piece.
Rekkles is one of the most talented AD Carries in the world, but his trademark aggressiveness can come back to bite him. He will chase kills or stay too far up in lane at times and that can put his team behind and hang his support out to dry. Yet there is no denying how great he is and he is one of the few players that can single-handedly take over a game.
Support
It takes a strong player to hang with Rekkles in the bottom lane, so Fnatic went out and grabbed Jesiz late last year. No one is going to call Jesiz amazing or a difference maker, but he has been solid as the starting support for Fnatic. He doesn’t make mistakes and has performed well in this meta. That’s about as much as you can ask for from most supports.
Prediction
A really great draw will help Fnatic make it to the Quarterfinals. This team has more individual talent than Immortals and should be able to handle the aggressiveness of GIGABYTE Marines. As long as the chemistry remains strong between these players, Fnatic should finish second in Group B behind Longzhu Gaming.
BookMaker is your one stop shop for all your eSports betting needs. We will have betting lines available on every match of the 2017 League of Legends World Championships. Open an account and get in on the action today!
