Fnatic Favored Over Splyce in Final Round of LEC Gauntlet Regional Finals
- Splyce advanced to Worlds 2019 with a dominant 3-0 win over FC Schalke 04
- Fnatic will take on Splyce in a final best of five to determine who will be the LEC’s second seed at Worlds
- Splyce are still massive underdogs despite their convincing win in Round 2
G2, Fnatic and Splyce are now the three teams going to Worlds as the LEC’s representatives. G2 is locked in as the number one seed but Fnatic and Splyce will face off in a best-of-five to try and lock up the second seed. The loser will be the third seed and will have to compete in the Worlds Play-in stage.
Betting Odds for Round 3 of the LEC Regional Finals
| Team | Odds to Win |
|---|---|
| Fnatic | -602 |
| Splyce | +350 |
Odds taken 09/14/19.
A Different Side of Splyce
In round one of the Regional Finals, Splyce barely survived against an underhanded Origen team. Splyce was unable to get anything going in the early game and constantly fell back on scaling team compositions. If Origen had been more aggressive and successful early on, then Splyce may not have even made it to round 2.
Instead, Splyce entered round 2 with a lot of questions. However, Splyce continues to do the opposite of what everyone expects of them. They were expected to beat Rogue in the LEC finals but didn’t. Now they looked to be in trouble entering their match against Schalke but instead they had absolutely no issues advancing to round 3.
In just one day, Splyce completely changed their playstyle and a lot of players stepped up. Their jungler Xerxe was practically a ghost in the series against Origen but against Schalke, he was very active and was a catalyst for a lot of Splyce’s early leads. It was an impressive turnaround considering their performance just a day before. Splyce looked like they did in the regular season and now they ride a lot of momentum and confidence into their match against Fnatic.
Fnatic Heavily Favored
Despite Splyce’s dominant showing, Fnatic has shown all season long that they’re on a seperate tier alongside G2 esports. Fnatic and Splyce split their season series one game a piece but Fnatic has seemingly improved as the season went on. Twice in the LEC playoffs, they were able to take G2 all the way to game 5.
We’ve seen them become a very proactive team that has mastered the ability to use global ultimates and map movement to get early leads. Fnatic has proven on multiple occasions that they can compete at the highest level in Europe, something that we haven’t seen from Splyce.
Fnatic deserve to be the heavy favorites in this one. Sure, Xerxe had a much better showing in round 2 but Fnatic’s Broxah has constantly been an early game threat who controls the pace of games. I expect him to make Xerxe much less effective and allow Fnatic to win this series in three or four games.
Pick: Fnatic (-602)
Growing up, Matthew was in love with sports. So, following his undergrad, it only made sense to dive head-first into the world of sports media. Rather than sticking to traditional sports, Matt found his way to eSports and gaming. He also produces, edits and serves as an analyst for SQUAD.
