After G2’s 3-1 runback with MAD Lions, the team who had pushed them to loser’s bracket, they were now set towards fighting one of Europe’s best teams in Fnatic. Two big-name European teams going head to head, with Fnatic holding 7 titles to G2’s 6 trophies, meant spectators worldwide expected an explosive spectacle to occur at the Grand Finals.

Much to the disappointment of fans, G2 swept Fnatic with 3-0. People were genuinely shocked at this. So, what were the events that led to G2’s utter dominance for this series?

Draft Picks

Compared to G2’s usual early-game focused draft, they instead picked up a scaling draft with a slower early-game tempo. Fnatic did the same, looking like they aimed to scale to the midgame and obtain Dragon Soul win conditions.

Some picks of note for G2 were Caps’ Kog’maw and Perkz’s Azir, a powerful carry with the tools to melt any target given proper items and time to scale. Mikyx, famous for his engage supports, took a twist and picked enchanters like Lulu for two games, then Janna for the winning match to secure Caps’ squishy and immobile picks. Their other scaling picks were Jankos’ Jarvan IV and Wunder’s Ornn.

For Fnatic, Bwipo’s Sylas was a wise choice when there was Ornn in G2’s draft. Nemesis also picked scaling midlaners like Veigar, Kassadin, and Azir. Selfmade picked proactive junglers such as Lee Sin and Gragas, with a Trundle counterpick for the tanky picks G2 would choose.

For two games, however, Fnatic did not have the best botlane duo to match G2’s. Rekkless, the well-recognized botlane pro of Europe, brought Aphelios coupled with Hylissang’s Tahm Kench. Thresh was banned, and considering how little the viable support pool is, this was not an optimized pick for them.

Snowballing Carries

Looking at the early game segment of the matches, Fnatic certainly made logical decisions. In game 1, Bwipo and Selfmade initiated a 2v2 toplane dive against a low-health Wunder and Jankos, much to Bwipo’s dismay. Even though he had stolen Ornn’s Forge of the Call God, Wunder outplayed him through tower aggro and negated the crowd control through Ornn’s Bellows Breath skill.

Later in about 7 minutes, Fnatic committed to a 5-man dive and were looking to eliminate Mikyx’s dying Lulu. G2 responded despite the 5v4 while Perkz rotated to the teamfight. The sheer crowd control Hylissang tanked was not enough to make room for the others, and eventually Fnatic got cornered in the tribrush for a double kill for Caps.

Even if there were some tradeoffs for G2’s advantage, they certainly knew what to do with their leads. Claiming dragons such as Mountain Drake and Cloud Drake certainly helped with objective pushing and their crucial cooldowns.

Perkz’s Azir and Caps’ Kog’Maw and Aphelios were powerful carries that snowballed out of control in the entire series against Fnatic. Given that they were supposed to scale, this also tied back to G2’s powerful draft picking against Fnatic for at least the first two games.

Game 3 Blunder

Fnatic were put in a position where they had to start reverse sweeping for that trophy, so they started to bring more agency to their draft with the likes of Gragas, Azir, and Braum. These champions have an engage and disengage, and were aimed to counter Wunder’s Ornn and Jankos’ Trundle.

G2 responded with Mikyx picking Janna, one of if not the best supports for discouraging proactive play from the enemy team. Jankos also picked Trundle to melt the tanky picks of Hylissang’s Braum and Bwipo’s Zac.

At the start of the game, Bwipo solo died twice to Wunder, which loosened up the toplane for Selfmade and shifted focus to other lanes. At a shocking turn of events, Selfmade and Nemesis were able to snag a triple kill. Further ganks led to another kill for Rekkles’ Miss Fortune, and things started to become promising for Fnatic.

Despite Fnatic’s slight takedown and drake advantages, they were still not at a gold disadvantage, at best being around even.

It was during the transition to lategame that Fnatic start to lose their grip on the match. At 25 minutes, they were driven away from the Baron after G2’s Caps secured a double kill. Two minutes later, another teamfight ensued, but despite the initial advantage made by Fnatic’s ultimates, Wunder was able to turn around the engagement while Mikyx sustained the team and the others pressed the attack against their midlane.

In the 28-minute Baron attempt by G2, Bwipo tried to secure some kills for the team and eventually tip the scales back to them. The collective crowd control from Mikyx’s Howling Gale and Aphelios’ damaging chakrams melted the tank down without any benefit for Fnatic. Fnatic took too long to back off, and G2 taking down Bwipo and Rekkles opened their path to the clean sweep.

Fnatic’s failing teamfights secured G2, in a 3v5 right after the midlane inhibitor takedown, and the final teamfight at the toplane inhibitor had settled all doubts: G2 was going to win 3-0.

Bwipo’s engages were constantly negated by Mikyx, Fnatic was zoned out of range, Wunder engaged back with the Call of the Forge God, and Mikyx sustained the entire team through Monsoon.

After all was said and done, G2 deleted the rest of Fnatic in their own base and finally taking down the Nexus. Mikyx was awarded MVP for this game, making G2 the team with most MVPs this split (Caps with two MVPs, and Mikyx with one).