Worlds 2020: 3 Word Recaps and MVP of Fnatic vs. Top Esports

We break down today’s series between Top Esports and Fnatic.

Our third quarterfinal matchup of Worlds 2020 finally doesn’t feature a rematch of two teams from the same domestic league! We got a battle of EU versus China as the #1 seed (and most people’s pick to win Worlds) Top Esports faced Europe’s #2 seed Fnatic.

It was a battle of seasoned vets on the side of Fnatic taking on a group of rookies in their first elimination games at Worlds (save for jungler Karsa and ADC JackeyLove). Yet Top went in as the heavy favorites. Was Fnatic able to flip the script and take down the giants of the LPL?

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3 Word Recaps

*The winning team is in bold

Game 1: Top Esports vs. Fnatic – Coin toss win

Fnatic support Hylissang, known for his hot and cold play, was on point with his engages today on Rakan. He kicked off the game by hard winning bot lane for Fnatic, translating the lead to the rest of the map, and ending the game 1/0/10.

Game 2: Top Esports vs. Fnatic – Bench the Kench

It was another game of support diff here, with Hylissang ending the game 1/2/13 in Fnatic’s second win. While he played well (I think he blocked every stolen Ornn ult knight threw out), yuyanjia made his name in this game, and not in the good way. He ended the game 1/7/1 on Tahm Kench and was constantly caught out of position.

Game 3: Top Esports vs. Fnatic – What’s your point?

Remember that classic Reality Denial video where a top laner is constantly dying to a Malphite but he’s saying over and over “he doesn’t do anything”? Yeah, that was Bwipo in Game 3.

369 obliterated him on Sion including getting a solo kill (“this guy’s cocky as *bleep* he bought Sheen”). Sion ran over the game with the help of Karsa while Bwipo ended the game 0/4/3 on Ornn.

Game 4: Fnatic vs. Top Esports – Fear the wild

It was another solid Sion performance by 369 top lane, but Karsa really put TES on his back in this game on Nidalee. While his mid and bot lane were dying solo or to ganks, Karsa was able to heavily pressure and invade Selfmade’s Graves, getting ahead to the point that he could carry late game teamfights. He ended the game 10/1/7 with the second-most damage dealt in the game behind knight’s Jayce.

Game 5: Fnatic vs. Top Esports – Not like this

And with this loss, TES completed the reverse sweep of Fnatic, the first time there has ever been a reverse sweep in a series at Worlds. It was a full Murphy’s Law game for Fnatic, as every lane seemed to lose and Top Esports were able to counter their every play, closing the game out in 25 minutes.

MVP of the Series

Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan (Top Esports, Jungle)

His performance on Nidalee in Game 4 alone should have won him the MVP award, but honestly there was no other choice given how bad his bot lane played in Games 1 and 2, how underwhelming knight was generally, and how 369 only really looked strong in his two Ornn games.

In this series, Karsa went a combined 19/9/30 in the five game series (a 5.44 KDA). While his performances in Games 1 and 2 weren’t particularly impressive (his Game 2 on Jarvan was probably his worst game) I don’t think he really had a chance to impact the map based on his lanes. It wasn’t a dominant performance, but Karsa came through in the games that TES needed to win, securing them a berth in the semifinals.