LEC Summer Split 2020: Top Reasons Why Fnatic is Struggling

LEC Summer Split 2020 is in full swing and one of the most stellar and fan-favorite teams of Europe, Fnatic is struggling. Fnatic fans have once again set their expectations high with the team, as always, specially after its hat-trick in the super week of Summer Split 2020. The team won its first three games against Vitality, Misfits and Excel respectively. But then it all turned upside down when the team lost its win streak in a Fnatic vs. Origen and kept losing till the next three games. Was it overconfidence or what that turned Fnatic’s win streak into a major lose streak?

Here’s an analysis on the team’s performance over the last few games, and everything that’s wrong with Fnatic.

LEC Summer Split 2020: The Neglected Midlane

Midlane in League is the most pivotal lane that predicts whether you are going to win or lose the late game. A snowballing midlaner can turn the tables around and win lost games. Fnatic’s midlaner, Nemesis has a great potential for snowballing but he is usually ignored in all games by his entire team.

Nemesis basically NEVER gets ganked, as compared to botlane which is ganked by both, the jungler, Selfmade and the toplaner, Bwipo. This is probably because Fnatic’s botlaners, Rekkles and Hylissang have always been in the limelight. Maybe if the team realized this and the midlane received as much attention as it really deserves, Fnatic would have fully utilized Nemesis’s potential and won more games.

Major Focus on the Botlane

Fnatic’s botlaners, Rekkless and Hylissang have always been in the spotlight. Their ADC, Rekkles has been a favorite and known to carry games. He is one of the most experienced and consistent players which is the reason why the entire team focuses on him and helps him get fed in order to carry the game.

While this strategy has worked for them in winning games sometimes, it jeopardizes the potential of rest of the lanes the other times. For example, midlane, that is the most crucial lane in the game is often neglected.

Hylissang’s Reckless Decision Making

Seriously, what’s up with Hylissang? His poor decision making always costs botlane too much. His fight initiation and aggressive playstyle has always backfired, causing him to die a lot and resulting in Rekkles being exposed.

We got to see his quite reckless decision making recently in Fnatic vs. Schalke 04 when as a Nautilus support, Hylissang dived into the enemy botlane turret and got taken down by Dreams immediately, as expected.

Unorthodox Picks in Botlane

We have all seen some really odd picks in League, specially in LEC. Fnatic has been drafting some really off-meta champions and undoubtedly it has worked in their favor at times, such as that far-fetched Garen and Yuumi duo in botlane pulled off by Rekkles and Hylissang in LEC Summer Split 2019. Garen and Yuumi proved to be a relatively strong duo, because of their ability to survive long enough, without the help of much resources. The undefeatable duo in a game against Vitality played a major role in their 32-minute win, after which, Garen + Yuumi had a 100% win rate.

While Garen + Yuumi duo worked for the team last year, luckily, it does not guarantee Fnatic’s win with every odd champion they draft.

We got to witness this recently in Fnatic vs. MAD Lions when the team once again tried to pick some really odd champions for Rekkles this year in LEC Summer. Rekkles was handed Soraka in their week 2 game against MAD Lions. Thanks to Fnatic’s unusual champ selection, MAD Lions played incredibly well and won the game, springing into first place.

Another champion selection tragedy happened in the week 4 of Summer Split 2020. In a game against SK Gaming, Rekkles was handed Syndra in the botlane. While Fnatic won this game, luckily, Rekkles should have played with tank-shredding champions as their competition was with strong tanks like Sion and Braum. Perhaps a champ with a lot of true damage could wreck these invincible tanks.

Bwipo on the Enemy’s Radar

Fnatic’s poor performance in the first few games of League Summer, accompanied by questionable judgmental calls by some of the super players has sparked some major drama and criticism in the League community. Fans are outraged at Fnatic’s performance, specially by some particular players.  

I know many of you are wondering what’s up with Bwipo this season. His performance in this Split has been really bad. In week 5 Fnatic vs. Misfits, we got to see a confused Bwipo who basically killed himself trying to initiate an uncalled-for team gank.

In this video below, take a glimpse at how Bwipo is muddled, trying to decide whether to go in or stay safe. And then he finally dives in at a wrong time with Cho’gath’s Rupture, into a recalling Misfits team who now HAVE to take him down. Like come on Bwipo! Didn’t anybody tell you not to poke the bear?!

We also get to see how there is absolutely no coordination between Fnatic’s team, as opposed to Misfits who pulled off an incredible gank, taking down Rekkles and Bwipo.

We found Bwipo admitting to his below-par performance in a recent interview with LVP.

“I’ve noticed that some of the freedom and pressure I bring from toplane is what helps my teammates play much more freely so they can do their thing, and I feel like I haven’t been playing my lane very well, so as a result of that I am putting more burden on my teammates”.

Another reason why Bwipo is struggling in toplane is because he’s being too focused on by his enemy toplaners and junglers. He finds himself getting ganked every now and then, and Fnatic can’t seem to cope up with the counterganks, which results in Bwipo getting crushed by the enemies.

Maybe if Fnatic had more coordinated team fights, made better judgment calls and had an equal focus on top and mid lanes for ganks, they would make it to the top in LEC this year, maybe even to the finals.