On Sunday, the playoffs of the League of Legends featured the two most prestigious teams in Europe: G2 Esports and Fnatic have been competing for the championship for years. At its peak, 843,000 people wanted to watch the matches. For years, G2 dominated this matchup, but everything was different in 2021.
What a match it was! It was an elimination match in the LoL playoffs of the European league LEC. The number 2 of the regular season, G2 Esports, faced off against number 5, Fnatic:
- The winner of the match advanced to the semifinals of the LEC, securing a place at the LoL Worlds 2021.
- The loser of the match would see their season come to an end and would not go to the World Championship.
It was a “Best-of-5” series, one team had to win 3 matches to advance to the semifinals.
Why is this match so special? The history of the LEC was dominated by G2 Esports and Fnatic from 2013 to 2020. Fnatic won 7 championships, G2 Esports even 8 championships. These have been the dominant forces in Europe for years, and they traditionally deliver the most important duels of the year:
- Actually, G2 Esports had been in control since 2019, having recruited Caps and Rekkles, two of the best players from Fnatic. The team already dominated Europe and wanted to improve even further to compete for the world championship title internationally.
- Fnatic had pulled themselves out of the crisis in 2021 with risky changes: Fnatic moved the actual top laner Bwipo to the jungle to make way for exceptional rookie Adam in the top lane. Additionally, the young German Upset shone in the bot lane.
Record viewership numbers in 2021 – Only Faker was better
So many people watched the match: Fnatic and G2 Esports are the most well-known and largest LoL organizations in Europe by far, which is reflected in the viewership numbers.
The 5 games between Fnatic and G2 Esports peaked at a viewership number of 843,000, a record value for 2021 (via Twitter). Only the match between the Korean giants T1 and Gen G was watched by more people – T1 won by the way.
Aggressive Fnatic overcomes the feared opponent.
How the match went: The two teams went the full distance of 5 matches in an exciting contest. The victories switched in the first 4 games.
It was noticeable that Fnatic was able to consistently dominate the early game. With aggressive plays from jungler Bwipo and supporter Hyklissang, Fnatic was able to make repeated impacts. However, they often overextended, and G2 Esports was able to punish that aggressive play, especially in matches 1 and 3, which G2 Esports won.
In match 5, it was rookie Adam who destroyed his opponent Wunder in the top lane within the first 10 minutes of the match. In the end, Adam stood on Darius with a score of 7-2-7, while Wunder managed only 2-3-0.
Fnatic was able to finish match 5 in 27 minutes and advanced to the semifinals.
The “Pillar-Play” from Bwipo is already considered a new classic:
G2 Esports stood on the brink of the World Championship title in 2019, fails to make it to the Worlds in 2021
This means for G2 Esports: For G2 Esports, an era is coming to an end. The core of the team had set out to become world champions:
- In 2019, they were also very close, reaching the finals and having to face the Chinese FunPlus Pheonix with super-carry Doinb.
- In 2020, they were eliminated in the semifinals by the eventual world champion, DAMWON Gaming.
- In 2021, they will not be able to attend the World Championship.
This is a bitter disappointment for G2 Esports. An era is ending unsatisfactorily.
Other young teams like MAD Lions and Rogue have recently surpassed G2, and even Fnatic has managed to now overtake them with risky transfers. G2 will likely consider initiating a generational change.
This is how the match is discussed: On Reddit, the clear winners of the match are seen as the French rookie Adam and the veteran Bwipo. Additionally, it is pointed out that the German Upset is going to the World Championship for the first time in 5 years.
Overall, it is believed that Fnatic clearly deserved the win – even G2 fans concede that they prefer to see Fnatic at the Worlds rather than their own team.
On the other side, some are taking aim at Wunder: he was seen as a major weakness. Adam made the veteran look like a rookie. Some suspect that a change is imminent.
LoL pro is so upset about the loss that he takes his job seriously and finally deletes WoW
