It was close enough to give EU fans more copium.
The League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational 2024 bracket stage is now in full swing and Fnatic vs Gen.G Esports was a close sweep, however contradictory that might sound. Check out what happened on, and after, the FNC vs GEN.G match in the LoL MSI 2024 here.
Fnatic faced Gen.G Esports in the first round of the bracket stage of MSI 2024. This was a best-of-five series that ended 3-0 in Gen.G's favor. Widely considered a super-team, Gen.G was fully expected to win this match - but they surely broke a sweat.
Fnatic dropped to the lower bracket and will face Team Liquid following this loss. Gen.G Esports will face Top Esports in the upper bracket.
FNC Noah: "I got mega-stomped."
Fnatic bot laner Oh "Noah" Hyeon-taek spoke to the media after the loss. Talking about the difference between playing against Eastern and Western teams, he pointed out the bot-lane 2v2 draft.
"I got mega-stomped," said Noah, talking about playing a scaling marksman and giving good bot-lane champions against LCK and LPL teams.
Noah praised the Eastern teams' capabilities to pilot their champions. "Their micro is so good - better than [ours], so we should improve," said Noah.
Looking ahead to their match against Team Liquid, Noah said, "I think Team Liquid played [well], but [against Top Esports], they got nervous." He's confident that Fnatic can easily win against TL in their upcoming matchup.
GEN Lehends: "We experimented on Fnatic"
Gen.G Esports support Son "Lehends" Si-woo pointed out that the training and competitive environment for the Eastern teams might be better, leading to their superior performances.
"I don't think this is an excuse for us, but we were trying and experimenting [versus Fnatic]."
Pertaining to their close games against Fnatic despite the 3-0 score, Lehends said, "I don't think this is an excuse for us, but we were trying and experimenting [versus Fnatic]. Because of that, we made a lot of mistakes, even more than we expected." This was evident in their weird Kha'Zix and Vayne picks in this series.
He praised Fnatic for their performance, but he said he wasn't surprised. "I always have a high respect for teams we play against. I believe all teams have a high potential."
MSI 2024 Bracket Stage: Fnatic (LEC #2) vs Gen.G Esports (LCK #1)
Fnatic | Role | Gen.G Esports |
Óscar "Oscarinin" Muñoz Jiménez | Top | Kim "Kiin" Gi-in |
Iván "Razork" Martín Díaz | Jungle | Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu |
Marek "Humanoid" Brázda | Mid | Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon |
Oh "Noah" Hyeon-taek | Bot | Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan |
Yoon "Jun" Se-jun | Support | Son "Lehends" Si-woo |
Fnatic vs. Gen.G Esports may have ended in 3-0, but it was close.
Game 1 was a 27-minute win with Gen.G's carry mid- and bot-laner taking over the rift on Corki and Kalista. Gen.G held the lead for most of the game. Despite this, Fnatic made it difficult for them to snowball and capitalize on this lead until the final minutes of the game.
In Game 2, Kha'Zix made an appearance as Gen.G locked it in for Canyon. This was a good answer to Razork's Xin Zhao in isolation, but the spotlight was on Peyz's Draven and Chovy's Aurelion Sol. This ended up being a 44-minute effort on Gen.G as their infinitely scaling mid-laner finally hit critical mass.
Canyon even evolved mid-fight, giving us some old Kha'Zix mid flashbacks.
The series was concluded with another exciting pick: Vayne top for Kiin to answer Oscarinin's Sion.
Game 3 told a very similar story to the past two games. In essence, this was an incredibly close game that was decided by Chovy's Aurelion Sol and Peyz' Lucian.
The LoL MSI 2024 bracket stage is underway, with the tournament concluding on May 19.