Game of the Day: Alliance versus Fnatic

By Helmight

            Today’s match between Alliance and Fnatic was arguably one of the most anticipated games of the EU Super Week. Though Alliance had just dropped a game to the Copenhagen Wolves of all teams, they had been utterly dominant throughout the split. Meanwhile, Fnatic had just gotten over their midseason woes and had returned to top form with three consecutive victories. The game was worthy of the hype – after 55 minutes of back-and-forth action, Fnatic finally managed to take home the victory against Alliance’s arguably stronger composition.

            Alliance’s strategy was clear from the draft phase, as they picked up a standard “protect the Kog” comp. With Froggen on Orianna, Wickd on Lulu, and Nyph on Thresh, Tabzz would have all the shields and heals he needed to tear Fnatic apart. Fnatic’s strategy meanwhile was much harder to figure out – they had Syndra and Elise to stun out Alliance’s team from a distance, but had little else to follow the aggression up with. In addition, sOAZ picked up Yorick for his second stint in the LCS, adding further confusion to what Fnatic wanted to do.

            Once the game started, things became clearer. Lulu is typically a top lane bully, but even her arsenal of annoying spells was no match for the power of sOAZ’s Yorick. By harassing Wickd down and repeatedly forcing him to back, sOAZ managed to keep Wickd in check and delay his power spike. This also gave Cyanide the ability to gank the other lanes without worrying about top, which would eventually yield first blood for Fnatic after a gank in the midlane onto Froggen.

            However, mid ganks were few and far between. xPeke had just set the 300 CS record this week by smashing Froggen’s old one and Froggen seemed determined to get it back. Both midlaners turned into farming machines, even going and taking away their jungler’s wraiths and wolves for additional gold throughout the extended laning phase. Because of this, both junglers spent an awful lot of time in the bottom lane, trying to snowball their ADCs. Cyanide proved to be slightly more effective at this and allowed Fnatic’s bottom lane to come out ahead of Alliance’s by a slight margin. On top of this, Fnatic’s dragon control was absolute, affording them a good gold lead going into midgame.

            Despite this, Fnatic was forced to play cautiously after the laning phase ended. Without any hard initiation on their team, Fnatic had no way of diving and killing Tabzz through all of Alliance’s shields. However, they did hold the gold lead, which forced Alliance to be careful as well. To break the stalemate, both teams gathered around the Baron pit, each trying to get vision control and deny their opponent’s. It was a delicate dance that went on for almost fifteen minutes, with back-and-forth skirmishes deciding little.

            Eventually though, Alliance managed a good catch onto sOAZ and YellOwStaR, taking two kills and handing them a momentary advantage. They headed straight for Baron, securing it easily despite a gutsy steal attempt by Cyanide.  Buff in hand, Alliance took down Fnatic’s mid inner tower and sieged up on the inhibitors, using Kog’Maw’s long range effectively to harass down Fnatic. Up against a wall, Fnatic pulled another risky play by having xPeke Flash into range to ult Tabzz. Though xPeke fell, the strategy worked – Fnatic managed to take out three of Alliance’s members and pop Froggen’s Guardian Angel.

            It came down to two misplays by Alliance that allowed Fnatic take the victory. After an indecisive skirmish in the midlane, Alliance made their first mistake by carelessly pulling away towards the bottom half of the map to recall to base. With Baron unguarded, Fnatic was able to burn it down quickly before anyone on Alliance could respond. Their second mistake came when Alliance couldn’t decide if they wanted to fight the Baroned-up Fnatic or not. Their indecision led to them wasting shields and defensive spells on a caught-out Nyph with no success. With their support gone and most of their cooldowns exhausted, Alliance was then forced into a desperate retreat that couldn’t possibly prevail against the catching power of Elise and Syndra. With Tabzz and Froggen dead, Fnatic could easily tank up the remaining towers and take home the victory.

ALL bans: Ziggs, Lee Sin, Twitch

FNC bans: Kassadin, Twisted Fate, Kayle

Player	Champions	K/D/A	Minions Killed
Alliance
Wickd	Lulu	0/4/5	359
Shook	Evelynn	1/3/6	153
Froggen	Orianna	5/1/2	559
Tabzz	Kog’Maw	5/4/2	428
Nyph	Thresh	0/5/7	58
sOAZ	Yorick	2/2/11	320
Cyanide	Elise	3/1/11	124
xPeke	Syndra	3/3/5	563
Rekkles	Lucian	7/2/8	469
YellOwStaR	Nami	2/3/12	43

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