In League of Legends yesterday, on Sunday, April 14th, the final took place in Europe. The two best teams of the LEC faced each other: G2 and Fnatic. Once again, one player made the difference in LoL: the Dane Caps.
What a match it was! It was the “Grand Final” of the LEC 2024 Spring Playoffs. The championship match in Europe during the Spring season:
- On one side was the reigning champion G2 with the German Broken Blade in the top lane and arguably the best player in Europe, the Dane Caps, in the mid lane.
- Their opponent was Fnatic, who after years of struggling had recovered. Compared to earlier – with Rekkles – Fnatic doesn’t have any big stars anymore, maybe the Czech Humanoid in the mid lane comes closest.
2 Penta-kills decide the duel between the kings of Europe
This is how the match went: Fnatic managed to score a surprise hit in Match 1. The underdogs surprised the favorites and decided the match in their favor with an aggressive start.
Broken Blade completely fell apart on Sion and played 1-8-8. Jungler Yike looked similarly weak on Rek’Sai with 1-5-6. At Fnatic, however, botlaner Noah excelled on Varus with 12-3-12. The supporter Jun dominated the game with 2 kills and an impressive 27 assists.
Match 2 was evenly matched, but went to G2 after 29 minutes with 19-18 kills, putting them once on the path to victory and they didn’t stray from it. A Baron steal by jungler Yike and a pentakill by Caps with Azir decided the game.
Hans Sama showcases opponents in Match 4: “Borders on cyberbullying”
G2 won Match 3 and Match 4 in 27 minutes and 34 minutes respectively. Here, midlaner Caps and botlaner Hans Sama really turned up.
Caps decided Match 3 with a backdoor play: that’s when a player removes themselves from team fights, secretly pushes a minion wave into the opponent’s base, and thus wins the match.
Hans Sama got a pentakill on Jinx in Match 4, playing 17-2-5.
How is this being discussed? At G2, they attribute the victory to reddit and two people. For many, Caps is the dominant player in Europe who has proven his class over the years.
The other strong man, however, is viewed with more skepticism, which is botlaner Hans Sama.
While he is credited with showcasing the opponent Noah at times so much that it looked like “cyberbullying,” there are doubts about whether he has the international class to compete against the Korean and Chinese superstars at the MSI.
The general consensus is: Fnatic did their best in the match, showed heart, and earned respect, but individually and in team fights, G2 is a few leagues better in this form.
What can be said about the game? G2 has now won the 4th title in Europe in a row. But in recent years, they have been far from the top internationally. Caps openly admits this and says he hopes that they can again make a stir internationally in 2024.
Since Caps joined G2, they have won 10 championships, Fnatic none
Why is the rivalry between the two something special? Fnatic and G2 have been the dominant teams in Europe for years:
- Until 2018, Fnatic was champion 7 times
- G2 won 4 championship titles.
However, in 2018 G2 convinced Caps to switch from Fnatic to G2, since then the duel has become relatively one-sided:
- Since 2019, G2 has been champion 10 times
- Fnatic not a single time
The actual season now starts for Caps and his boys with the MSI. The opponents waiting for G2 are a few levels bigger:
New viewer record at LoL – 2.6 million watch the final duel between Faker and the new star
