When gauging current western teams power level against others throughout history one team that has become the benchmark in recent years: Fnatic 2015. The 18 -0 regular season summer split team that consisted of Huni Top, Reignover Jungle, Febiven Mid, Rekkles AD, and Yellowstar Support were only together for one year. Not since season 2 had a team convinced western fans they had a team strong enough to challenge for the summoner’s cup. With Worlds group stage about to begin and rumors plenty of behind the scenes rumors people are asking the question: Is Fnatic 2018 better than Fnatic 2015?
Fnatic have been the unquestionable best team in Europe all year long. The squad went 14–4 In the spring regular season and 3–0 in the finals against G2, only dropping one game to Vitality in the semi-finals. Then in the summer split Fnaitc went 13–5 in the regular season (where the meta shift saw their star AD carry Rekkles on the bench) and dropped one game each to Misfits and Shalcke in the playoffs.
20–5 in spring and 19–7 in summer for a combined 39–12, or 76.4% winrate, in game score throughout the year cemented Fnatic as a tier above every other team in Europe. With such domestic dominance could this Fnatic be better than 2015?
Despite not having as dominant a domestic showing as their 2015 counter parts, none of this year’s lineup are rookies. Huni, Febiven, and Reignover (to a degree), were rookies in 2015. Apart from that year’s MSI they had no international experience. Four of the five Fnatic players this year played together on last year’s squad. Hylissang is the only member of the team who has not attended Worlds before. However, he has been playing in Europe for Unicorns of Love all the way back in 2014 and has participated in a plethora international events. This year Fnatic’s players have a wealth of both talent and experience behind with. The fact the team has little to no glaring weaknesses have a lot of people hopeful this team can attempt a deep run. Analysts and fans alike are asking themselves ‘Are Fnatic 2018 better than Fnatic 2015?’
Perhaps this is the wrong way to frame the question. What people might want to ask instead is ‘Can Fnatic 2018 perform better Worlds?’ Because as we all know not all Worlds are created equal. The level of the opposition varies year to year. Though the region could tank like they did in 2015, China appears to be far stronger than they were in 2015. Whether Korean teams are as strong as they were in 2015 is not entirely clear. At worst: slightly worse, and at best: slightly better. I personally don’t believe any of the Korean representatives this year are stronger than that particular SKT line-up in 2015.
North America appears to be in a similarly doomed position as they were in 2015 when for the first time ever the region failed to have a single team advance to the round of eight. LMS teams are hard to gauge as a whole, but this iteration of Flash Wolves looks like a top team after a similarly dominant year in their native Taiwan.
In terms of who they are up against in the group stage Fnatic have a comparable group to that of 2015, albeit one that is more difficult to top. IG have immense individual talent but are prone to dropping the ball. 100 Thieves have one of the best understandings of the macro game in NA, but the bottom lane remains a sore spot of the team. G-Rex looked like the second-best team in the play-in stage and are possibly stronger than the LMS’s second seed MAD.
Even if they do not exit the group as the first seed it would be hard to imagine Fnatic do not advance to the round of eight. My “In Depth Analysis” would have Fnatic topping the group. Caps and Rookie are the two best mids in the tournament, but Jackylove’s tendency to kill himself makes me doubt IG’s ability to come in first in the best of one setting. Fnatic can almost match IG in terms of talent and aren’t prone to throwing games as their Chinese opponents are.
The number one seed from Europe have talented players across the board. Caps is especially notable. With the lack of mid lane talent at Worlds this year Caps might be the best mid in the tournament. He has been the star of the team in 2018, whereas in 2015 Febiven was the beneficiary of his teammate’s performances. Another thing to remember is Febiven was a rookie in 2015, Caps has already played at Worlds last year and participated in this year’s Mid-Season Invitational.
Huni was the only player who could be considered one of the best in his role at that World championship. A large sect of people tried to make the case why Yellowstar was the best in his role. Granted 2015 Yellowstar appeared to improve mechanically from previous years, but he was so valuable for his shotcalling and leadership role on the team, not his mechanics. We all saw the world of difference between not just Huni and other Korean top laners in the semi-finals, but the difference between each member of the team and truly world class level players.
There is a rather large question floating around whether Europe as a region was weaker in 2018 than in 2015. There is no doubt a vast amount of talent has left the region in the three years between the two line-ups. Four of the five players on that 2015 team don’t even play in EU anymore. Top players from that time like Forgiven, Zven, Mithy, Svenskeren, Ryu, PowerofEvil and others have all left the region.
However, in the last three years Europe has seen a vast amount of rookie talent such as Perkz, Alfari, Wunder, and many others, take the region by storm. Rookies in 2015 have matured following the reign of Fnatic. Players like Vander, Odoame, Maxlore, and Jankos to name a few.
The Fnatic 2018 line-up have arguably a top two player in the region in each position. One could make the case EU in 2018 was developing rookie talent, rather than hardening seasoned veterans. Fnatic might have just inherited their position at the top of region because their primary competition disappeared in the offseason.
The three-time consecutive EU LCS championship “Kings of Europe” G2 line-up (Spring 2016 isn’t the same team in my view) disbanded in the offseason. Misfits and H2K who were challenging G2 alongside Fnatic for the regional title saw massive roster moves in the offseason with both teams becoming significantly worse overall. Despite having to adapt to an outrageous meta in the beginning of summer, one could argue Fnatic have not been sufficiently challenged in Europe in 2018.
There is also the question of whether Fnatic 2015 were properly challenged at the world championship in 2015. That line-up already established themselves as the best team in Europe and North America sent three incredibly flawed teams to that world championship. Then the Chinese teams showed up far weaker than everyone was expecting. Some due to internal issues, others do to stylistic mismatches.
Fnatic 2015 also had a rough week 1 going 1–2 with AHQ and Invictus Gaming. They eventually cleaned up their play by week 2 going 3–0 and topping the group. However, people seem to forget how flawed that line-up actually were. This is amplified by the fact that apart from Korea and Europe every other major region had their worst showing at this world championship. Fnatic 2015 looked so good because it was the easiest Worlds for a non-Chinese team to be considered top four.
All things considered the Fnatic lineup at this world championship is probably better than the one in 2015. While it is more difficult for this Fnatic line-up to make top four (bracket draw matter immensely) if they were able to make it they will have accomplished more than their 2015 counterparts.
Coming top four in a tournament with the KT, Afreeca, Gen G. (formerly Samsung), IG, RNG, and FW would solidify their superiority.
Twitter: twitter.com/_Oddoman
