Royal Never Give Up were able to overcome early gold deficits in all three of their games against Fnatic on Friday to sweep the European champions in the first Mid-Season Invitational Semifinal. RNG were hefty -588 favorites at BetDSI to knock off Fnatic and make it to the MSI Final on Sunday.
In my preview, I was wrong about one thing and right about one thing. I called for Fnatic to win the series because of the price. Fnatic had not been thoroughly outclassed by RNG in their previous meetings, but had made mistakes that cost them. While Fnatic did lose in three games, they were able to keep it close and easily could have won the second and third games.
Fnatic were able to get a lead in the laning phase in all three games. However, RNG’s strategy was just to keep it close until they could win a big team fight and turn the tide. RNG were able to do that and were clearly superior in team fights throughout the series. Their positioning and enemy focus was better than that of Fnatic, and that proved to be the difference just like it was in their Group Stage meetings.
Give credit to Fnatic for continuing to try new strategies though. They knew that they could not beat RNG if they were even or close to them in the late game, so they came up with interesting drafts in order to throw a wrench into RNG’s plans. Caps’ Aurelion Sol selection in Game 2 and Bwipo’s Singed pick in Game 3 really gave RNG trouble. Unfortunately, they were not able to convert that into victory.
In a rather bittersweet moment, Rekkles picked up the first Pentakill of MSI 2018 in the final game of the series. RNG overextended when trying to close out the game, and he punished them for it on Ezreal. It nearly helped Fnatic turn the tide once more, but a few minutes later RNG was able to swing the game in their favor for good.
Royal Never Give Up will face the winner of the second semifinal between Kingzone DragonX and Flash Wolves in the MSI Final on Sunday.
