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MFN
BY RIOT MIRHI
As the sun sets on another great LCS season, it's hard not to recognize the absolute phenomenon known as Fnatic. Their victory in the playoffs serves as a capstone on yet another great season, a third feather in the hat of a team that refuses to lose. Through good and bad, Fnatic has stayed resolute in their drive to win—and it shows in their results.
With victory comes another shot at the international stage. At the Season 3 World Championships, they went 7-1 through groups, beat Cloud 9 and fell just short of advancing to the grand finals against SKT T1 K. At All-Star Paris, they'll have another shot at both those teams, and you can bet they'll aim to be the last team standing.
In the regular season, sOAZ looked incredibly stubborn, consistently picking AP top laners with poor results. In fact, it might even be argued that these decisions were responsible for their abysmal losing streak. But fast forward to the semifinals of the playoffs, and the reasoning becomes clear. His Soraka in the first game against Alliance was powerful enough to draw bans in the rest of the games—which freed sOAZ up to dominate with top lane Lulu.
SOAZ is a resilient player, and his thick skin is just what Fnatic needs in the top lane. His dedication to constantly staying on top of new strategies and champions is directly responsible for their three LCS first place finishes. And on a final note, he won the 2013 All-Stars Shanghai Top Lane Skills Competition, against fellow world-class top laners like Shy and PDD. He'll be firing on all cylinders as All-Star Paris revs up.
Cyanide brings a quiet presence to Fnatic; a solid jungler who makes up for his weaknesses with consistent play. He's been on Fnatic since 2011, and witnessed first-hand their dominance through the early seasons and onward. He's the team captain, and this past season, as Fnatic fought to climb back into the league, it was often on the back of Cyanide's solid play and excellent ganks.
Now, he looks forward to the All-Star event, where he gets to pit his skills against the world's best. At the World Championship playoffs last year, Cyanide played some of the best LoL in his entire career. No doubt he'll be aiming for an even better performance, especially with another rematch against Cloud 9 on the horizon.
XPeke is one of the founding members of Fnatic, and is definitely one of the most outgoing and recognizable players on the team. His play, which at times can more flashy than substantial, has set a very high bar for the European region, especially his excellence with high-skill champions like Nidalee.
It's once again time to prove his mettle against the best in the world; xPeke will be looking to push his team for even more wins. And you can bet if other teams allow him to play on flashy mid laners, that's exactly what he'll be doing.
While the rest of his team have been competing at the highest levels for a while now, the same cannot be said for Rekkles. Stepping onto the stage in Paris may be a shock to him, but Rekkles shines under changing circumstances.
Take, for example, his start in the LCS. It took opposing teams four games to kill him a single time—and three weeks to deal Fnatic their first loss. While Rekkles may be new, it also means that international teams haven't really had a chance to figure him out yet, and that might be even more dangerous now that he has a season of LCS under his belt.
Yellowstar's move to support is still relatively new in the tale of Fnatic, and with a brand new ADC to work with this season, all bets were off on how well the bottom lane of Fnatic would function. Three months later, however, and it's safe to say that all is well. Yellowstar and Rekkles have teamed up admirably, and both have made some outstanding plays this year. Playing in his home country for this All-Star weekend, you can bet that Yellowstar is going to bring the same determination into Paris that held Fnatic strong through the spring season.
Looking forward to Fnatic at Paris
The most famous of Fnatic's playstyles, is that of organized chaos. Their stars have no fear in outplaying opponents in team-fights and surprising enemies with teleports and backdoors. The roster is full of veterans willing to make risky calls and execute electrifying plays. They have plenty of international experience across the board and are coming off a dominant 3-1 series over Europe's top-seeded SK Gaming in the LCS playoffs. If you want to watch spectacular gameplay, look no further than one of League of Legends' most storied teams, Fnatic.