After an offseason of change, Fnatic fans waited eagerly, and somewhat apprehensively, to see what their revamped roster would look like on the LCS stage. The team’s first two games revealed signs of strength and signs of weakness, impressive highs and disappointing lows, and some telltale signs of coach Deilor’s continuing influence.
One day into the EU LCS Spring season, it looked like Fnatic hadn’t missed a beat: despite coming in with three new players, they handed their European rivals, Origen, a pretty clean defeat. The next day Fnatic faced Vitality, drafted the exact same five champions, and tried to do it all over again, but they went home with a disheartening loss.
Which team is the real Fnatic? Are they the Origen-beating juggernauts we saw on Thursday, or the much less potent, somewhat faltering version we saw on Friday?
Before we try to answer that question, we need to recognize that Fnatic’s play was not a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. While the outcomes of the games looked very different, it wasn’t because Fnatic themselves played differently in each game. This was not a case of “inconsistency”, that overused pejorative that has been applied in the past to high-highs, low-lows players like Huni and, accurately or not, Gamsu. In fact, I would argue that Fnatic was quite consistent in how they played both of their games in week 1. The difference in the results said more about Fnatic’s chosen style of play than it did about how well they performed.
