In just under a couple hours Fnatic Rising and exceL UK will square off in the first UKLC playoff match-up. Many expected these two sides to be in the final. However, the dream for one of the LEC sister teams is about to end.
Fnatic Rising’s jungler Dan has been one of the stand-out performers throughout this split. The player has been given the unsung hero award on multiple occasions, a sign that many viewers recognise him as a star player in the line-up. Many consider Fnatic Rising to be one of the favourites to win the title and according to the former Wind And Rain jungler, winning the title is exactly what they want to do.
“I think we have a strong chance to win playoffs. A lot of our losses in the regular season were due to us making stupid mistakes while having control of the games. I don’t really think it matters to us who we play against, I think it matters more about how focused we are so that we don’t get caught out in key situations,” Says the Englishman.
“We considered ourselves favourites coming into the split, and while the opposition has seemed stronger than we initially expected I still think that its reasonable to suggest we’re favourites. If you were to look statistically at how the top four teams have matched up this split we are the only team with a winning record.”
Still, the journey wasn’t smooth sailing for the men in orange, the side failed to pick up any points in two of the seven towers. Nevertheless, their fortunes turned around in the last tower tournament a couple days ago, winning the final tower and securing second place. According to Dan this confidence boost was exactly what Fnatic Rising needed as his side faces exceL UK today.
“After the last few weeks our confidence was relatively low and scrims this week also hadn’t gone as well as previous weeks, so winning this week was great for us to regain confidence just in time for playoffs,“
“I think that claiming the final tower was extremely important for us. I believe this will have a large impact for playoffs also due to the fact that we managed to beat all the other teams that are in playoffs back to back to back. This will give us confidence and the mental advantage over our opponents for playoffs and since playoffs are so close to the final tower I think other teams will lack time to adapt.”
Due to Diabolus finishing at the top of the regular season, Fnatic Rising must win the UKLC or hope they face Diabolus in the final if they wish to make it to EU Masters. Even though Fnatic are expecting at least a finals spot, they still have to beat one of the top sides in the UK Scene to get there. We also do not know how each side adapts to the best of three format and so a shock exit could be on the cards.
As four of the best UK organisations do battle. There will only be one first ever UKLC champion and Fnatic will certainly want to rise above everybody else.
Don’t forget to tune into the UKLC playoffs today at 10am live on Twitch!
By Tom Daniels
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Gromp News 