The UKLC got off to an explosive start last week. Many expected Fnatic Rising to be the first official tower champions this split. However, there was an early dethroning as their challengers exceL UK, rose to the top of the mountain.
With the LEC sister team having to start from the bottom, all eyes will be on Fnatic and their ability to bounce back. One small slip up could cost them valuable points in the race to the play-offs. The team’s support, Prosfair, is confident that his side should still be considered one of the stronger organisations in the league, and that if it wasn’t for small mistakes against exceL, then they could have been the tower champion coming into week two.
He says: “I don’t know if I want to say we are the strongest side. I don’t think we are weaker than exceL either though. I feel like we know the reasons we lost the game, we made quite a lot of mistakes on plays we should have won. The bot lane fight at level 2/3 really made the game much harder than it should have been. If we didn’t get caught off by the draft I think we would have won. So I guess I would say I think whichever team gets the upper hand in the draft or throws a curveball at the enemy team should win in our future matchups. I don’t know if that particular loss will make us stronger as a team. But, I would rather be losing now and winning in playoffs than vice versa.”
One thing that isn’t talked about a lot is that Fnatic Rising isn’t the same squad as they were last split. With the addition of Nji to the roster, it ushers in a different style of play. So, as the weeks go on we may see an even more threatening Fnatic Rising than in the spring split.
“Apart from Dan, the team last split consisted of quite passive personalities. This meant he had quite a large influence on how we played the game, and our success and failure was mostly off the back of how well the team was communicating and working with Dan. Nji is similar to Dan in that he has very strong ideas about how he wants to play the game and is very vocal when people are not following them,” says the British player.
“They also both are very keen on pushing leads. I actually prefer playing Nji’s style and I’ve learned quite a lot in the last few weeks from him. It really seems like our team is set up to facilitate strong junglers so It’s promising that even though we lost a LEC level jungler in Dan, we gained another in Nji.”
The goal for most of these players in the line-up will be to follow in the footstep of Dan and be promoted to either Fnatic or another LEC side. With those expectations, the goals for Fnatic Rising are certainly high. Prosfair believes in his ability and at this level, you have to. This split the line-up want nothing more than to bring the EU Masters trophy to Britain.
“I think last split there was one major hurdle for the team which we couldn’t overcome which stopped us winning EU Masters. Maintaining the same core players and coach allows us to pick up where we left off. So, I’m fully expecting by the end of the split for us to be able to consistently scrim some of the lower / middle table LEC teams as equals,”
“In terms of results, I think everyone on the team thinks that anything less than a convincing first followed by a solid EU Masters win is a failure. Personally, I want to show, without a doubt, I’m the best Support outside of the LEC and that I can definitely take that next step.”
Fnatic will have their chance to regain their spot at the top of the tower if they come out victorious against three challengers and the tower champions exceL UK. On Wednesday the side faces newly promoted NVision Esports in what is surely a David vs Goliath match up. Prosfair’s team will hope to swiftly dispose of their new challengers. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean they will underestimate their opponents.
Still, as the tournament progresses, the support has his eye on two teams in particular.
“I think there were only two teams that could compete with us last split and I think it hasn’t changed much this split. As long as Only Angel (MnM Gaming’s new top laner) proves to be a good pickup MnM should be a very strong roster that can compete for the top spots. Barrage also have a had a major roster shakeup which looks set to propel them to a top 4 finish.“
Can Fantic regain momentum and reclaim their spot at the top of the tower? Or were people over hyping this side whilst also underestimating their opponents? It’s fair to say that not many expected Fnatic Rising to lose in week one. However, that’s what makes this competition exciting. Just like the last split, it seems the UKLC continues to be entertaining and unpredictable.
Don’t forget to tune into the UKLC this Wednesday at 6pm live on Twitch!
By Tom Daniels
Gromp News 