The headline of EU LCS Week 2 was Fnatic (1-1) vs. Unicorns of Love (2-0). The defending Champions dropped a game in the opening week, which surprised many given their opening victory against rivals Origen; meanwhile, the Unicorns were consistent enough to take two wins from opponents they were expected to beat (Splyce and Giants Gaming). Though the match didn’t turn out to be a thriller, it featured a very impressive AD Carry performance — and, surprisingly, it wasn’t Rekkles. Steelback was the source of worry for Fnatic, finishing with 11 Kills, 0 Deaths, and 4 assists (15 of 16 Kill Participation) as Kalista. Steelback was such a force in this match that no other UoL player finished with more Kills than Deaths. Kalista has been a very dominant pick on Patch 6.1: she was picked in 9 matches out of 10 in EU Week 2 and finished with a 7.3 KDA across all players.
This victory was slow and methodical for UoL, who chose to play it safe for 50 minutes. A 4v2 tower dive earned First Blood for Steelback, and Unicorns of Love took one small advantage after another until 49:30. The climactic moment was Febiven being caught by Hylissang’s Death Sentence, forcing the game-ending teamfight at Fnatic’s Nexus turrets. The video below shows the final fight.
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Fnatic played defensively for the majority of the match, anticipating UoL would make a mistake to shift the momentum. Fnatic’s team composition was both early-game oriented, and safe for the late game despite allowing Unicorns of Love to first-pick Ryze and Kalista. Fnatic was packed with waveclear by picking Graves, Ahri, and Corki; which was enough damage to clear waves of Super Minions in front of UoL when they attempted to siege turrets. UoL played responsibly with their gold lead, and never overstepped the boundary of the moment. Fnatic were never able to find the moment they were stalling for.
Fox, Mid Laner of UoL, picked Zed and struggled to assassinate targets yet again. Fox did have one important usage of the Death Mark which helped UoL stall long enough to secure Baron Nashor. Zed was the last pick of the match, which is very curious given the mobility and tankiness of Fnatic’s Champion picks. Picking Zed is good for gaining advantages against immobile carries, but Fox’s Zed pick against Fnatic was not very useful overall.
Looking ahead to Week 3, both teams play against G2 Esports. G2 features two players that debuted well in Week 1, and continued in Week 2; G2 is currently in a 5-way tie for first place in Europe with a record of 3-1. G2 could drop both games next week and only fall to the middle of the standings; I wouldn’t count them out of either match-up. Rookie Jungler, Trick, has been able to take control of most of G2’s matches despite commonly dying for First Blood. He’s a risk taker that understands how to play well from behind.
