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Ranking all 24 teams at the League of Legends World Championship

By Josh Tyler

INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA - NOVEMBER 03: Team Invictus Gaming of China celebrates their winning Finals match of 2018 The League of Legends World Championship against Team Fnatic at Incheon Munhak Stadium on November 3, 2018 in Incheon, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA - NOVEMBER 03: Team Invictus Gaming of China celebrates their winning Finals match of 2018 The League of Legends World Championship against Team Fnatic at Incheon Munhak Stadium on November 3, 2018 in Incheon, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) /
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Fnatic, LEC, League of Legends.
League of Legends. Photo courtesy of Riot Games. /

4. Fnatic

Qualified via

LEC 2019 Regional Finals

Roster

Top – Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau
Jungle – Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen
Mid – Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek
ADC – Martin “Rekkles” Larsson
Support – Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov

How they got here

Much like Cloud9 in North America, Fnatic has been the perpetual bridesmaids of Europe. They’ve ended each split as the number two team in the regular-season standings and fallen to G2 in every playoff meeting. And, like Cloud9, in the spring they failed to make it to finals after faltering and falling to a team in the semifinals that didn’t make it to Worlds – with Origen taking the place of TSM.

In summer, though, Fnatic did make it to the LEC Finals and a date with G2. Unfortunately, they fell to G2 in the summer finals (after getting reverse swept by G2 in the second round and getting to replay G2 again in finals because the LEC playoffs are weird), but clinched thanks to their championship points. In the final showdown in the LEC Regional Finals, with two teams already locked into a trip to Worlds, Fnatic played only in the final round and blew through Splyce to earn Europe’s number two seed.

Player to watch

Nemesis, the rookie mid laner who has established himself as one of the rising European mid laners in a pool of already talented mids. Now, he’ll be further tested against international mids like Faker, Chovy, Showmaker, and Doinb.

Best case scenario

I genuinely think this team has the power and talent to go all the way and win the World Championship. It won’t be easy, but with a crew of carries that includes Nemesis, Bwipo, and Rekkles, it’s possible.

Worst case scenario

I really don’t think there’s any way that Fnatic doesn’t make it out of groups, but it’s entirely possible that they could slip up and lose in quarterfinals.

Prediction

In fact, I think that is what might happen. I think they’ll come out of groups strong, but they’ll face a tough opponent in the quarterfinals (like FunPlus Phoenix or SKT) and bow out early.

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