Denying the Emperor's Wrath: XL vs FNC Loser's Bracket Recap

EXCEL vs Fnatic showcased a thrilling series in Round 1 of the Loser's Bracket of the LEC 2023 Regional Finals! Here is how XL vs FNC performed in their fight for Semifinals.

Game 1: PENTAKILL!!!

FNC kicked off the series with a 1-0 lead over XL. FNC played incredibly as they maintained control over the entire game. XL had their moments of picks and advantages here and there. However, they lost a 5v4 while Oh "Noah" Hyeon-Taek was split pushing on the other side of the map leading to an overall domination by FNC.

Draft also came into play as Ivern was the key pick. It synergizes well with Gwen and peels for Jayce and Kai'Sa for poke. In the final moments of the match, Óscar "Oscarinin" Muñoz Jiménez secured himself a pentakill! FNC destroyed XL's Nexus with a gold lead of 11.3k at a game time of 29:38 minutes.

Game 2: GNAR!

XL tied the series 1-1 as they dominate game 2 versus FNC. Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu performed exceptionally with his Gnar pick. He found a four member GNAR! and secured a major team fight win and advantage for his team. Patrik "Patrik" Jiru used this lead to get himself even more ahead as he found pick after pick in team fights. He almost got a pentakill too, but played it safe as he obtained a quadrakill. From these major leads, XL dominated the rest of match 2. XL ended the game with a gold lead of 12.2k at a game time of 25:29 minutes.

Game 3: Abbedagge, The Emperor of the Sands

XL gain a 2-1 lead after a thrilling match 3 against FNC. Felix "Abbedagge" Braun makes headway as he found amazing backline Emperor's Divide multiple times. This combo was incredibly impactful as Noah and Marek "Humanoid" Brázda were placed in the middle of the team fight instead of outside. Patrik followed up amazingly and spaced very well which allowed him to stay safe and deal lots of damage. FNC tried to stall the game as much as they could but XL dominated the final team fight. XL closed out game 3 with a gold lead of 9.3k at a game time of 27:27 minutes.

Game 4: Denying the Emperor's Wrath

FNC tied back the series 2-2 as they rejected XL a perfect comeback. FNC played exceptionally, notably Noah, Humanoid, and Oscarinin. Oscarinin and Humanoid in particular prevented Abbedagge from being attacked with the Emperor's Divide combo. Humanoid used Buster Shot and Oscarinin used Steadfast Presence during Abbedagge's Shurima Shuffle. This in turn denied a lot of damage coming from XL as well as winning a team fight.

FNC took their second Baron and pressured XL into fighting them. They destroyed XL with their major lead from dominating early game team fights. FNC destroyed XL's Nexus with a gold lead of 10.4k at a game time of 29:23 minutes.

Game 5: "We Scale Better"

FNC closed out the series with a 3-2 victory over XL. FNC struggled to win this early on as XL caught them multiple times in bad positions. However, FNC let themselves scale. With Noah's aggressive pick, they started winning fights again and obtaining shutdowns. Humanoid also played very aggressively knowing the rest of his team can follow up.

With items, these two players killed the frontline effortlessly and completely dominated team fights. In a final team fight for Baron, FNC cleanly aced XL and ran down their base. FNC closed out the series with a gold lead of 10.7k at a game time of 31:31.

Moving Forward

Congratulations to FNC as they officially qualify for the 2023 World Championship! They also advance to the Loser's Bracket Semifinals against Team BDS. Unfortunately for XL, they are eliminated from the tournament and out of contention for Worlds.

Noah and Adrian "Trymbi" Trybus played phenomenally in this series. Their synergy of engage and damage dealing went far as they contributed a lot with their team. Humanoid had some errors and found poor positions sometimes. However, he made up for it with his Tristana Mid Lane pick in game 3 and 4. Iván "Razork" Martín Díaz showed he has mastered Ivern which has become a strong pick in recent games. His utilization of Bushes and Daisy can be at least obnoxious for enemy teams. Oscarinin performed very well with his tank top laners. Look out for FNC in the Semifinals on September 2nd at 9AM PST/12PM EST.

Featured Image Source: Riot Games