G2 Survive New-Look Fnatic in Scrappy EU LCS Opening Day Win

The return of the EU LCS saw two giants of the region face off in the match of the week: Defending champions G2 Esports took on a new Fnatic built around longtime star AD carry Rekkles.

Coming out of the first game draft, both teams' strategies were quite clear. After Fnatic prioritized a late-game composition built around Ryze, G2 favored a whole host of global ultimates in Shen, Rek'Sai, Ashe and Taliyah (with a Zyra to allow sufficient setup and kite potential) to counter Fnatic's ticking bomb in the mid lane.

After an early gank onto Fnatic's mid laner Caps, G2 started rolling. Under constant pressure from the pick and counter-gank potential of global ultimates, Fnatic were forced to concede nearly every early game objective as G2 quickly destroyed all of their opponent's outer turrets.

With a 4,000 gold lead around 20 minutes, G2 were able to use their lead to take an easy Baron. And with their first Baron-empowered push, G2's team composition began to prove even more punishing. A standard 1-3-1 split-push assisted by some well-placed Taliyah ultimates continued G2's relentless crippling of Fnatic.

Despite finding some success with some late-game skirmishes as G2 tried to find their second Baron, it was never enough for Fnatic to trim the sizable lead from the champions' methodical, systematic play. When G2 eventually secured the buff, they sealed the victory.

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Game 2 would be a different story in the early going, though.

It seemed Caps only needed one-game to warm up in his debut, as the Danish mid laner exploded after solo-killing Perkz and outplaying G2's mid-jungle duo with the help of his own jungler, Amazing. With a small gold lead, Fnatic were in a better place to attempt to scale into the late game when their comp would spike.

G2 responded by capitalizing well on any picks they made to secure objectives—a move that saw them recover control of the game as well as even out the gold. Small lapses in G2's decision-making, though, allowed Fnatic to open up G2's base and eventually enough map control to secure Baron.

But the champions refused to fall over, as excellent base defenses saw Fnatic get little out of the Baron power play. Weathering the storm until the next Baron respawned, G2 were able to secure the buff for themselves and a resulting bottom-lane inhibitor turret as Fnatic questionably favored the Elder Dragon.

With the two teams locked in a stalemate, it was an inspired decision by Fnatic—honoring the tradition of the organization—to outmaneuver G2 with a brilliant Ryze ultimate to backdoor the defending champions and force a third and final game.

With both teams opting for surprising picks (even in this new 10-ban meta) in Rekkles' Kennen and Trick's Ivern, Fnatic and G2 traded blows early, as neither side created a large enough gold lead to take control of the game. 

However, after picking off Caps' Orianna, G2 saw an opportunity to win any potential team fight and forced Fnatic's hand at Baron. Fnatic decided to concede the buff, which resulted in G2 finally gaining control of the map with the mid-lane inhibitor.

With that sliver of control, G2's macro play allowed them to snowball their lead—downing their inhibitors, taking a second Baron and even getting an Elder Dragon to force Fnatic into a do-or-die base defense. Fnatic certainly attempted it, but G2's veteran status as a roster eventually was enough for the team to take its first series of the season.