Fnatic players crushed as TES wins first-ever reverse sweep at Worlds

Fnatic fell to the first reverse sweep in League of Legends Worlds history, as Top Esports came back from the dead to win their quarterfinal series 3-2.

The world was stunned after Fnatic took the first two games, given Top’s status as the tournament favorite, but Europe’s sweethearts couldn’t finish the job.

Fnatic took the first two games emphatically. Despite TES taking minor early gold leads in both games, Fnatic ultimately had the upper hand in teamfights, with Rekkles and Hylissang the standout performers in both of their wins.

But from game three, from the brink of elimination, Top dominated. They took Karsa off Jarvan and gave him Lee Sin and Nidalee: two high-mobility, early-game orientated junglers.

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The impact was evident as Fnatic started losing early skirmishes, with Karsa putting down a combined 17/2/22 KDA across the final three games.

Fnatic has fallen at the quarterfinal hurdle for the second consecutive year after last year’s loss to eventual champions FunPlus Phoenix. TES will be hoping to follow FPX’s footsteps in next week’s semifinal against LPL third seed Suning.

Post-series reactions to FNC vs TES

Fnatic’s devastated top laner Bwipo tweeted after the series, to take blame on his shoulders. “A better top lane could have taken care of at least one more win.”

Jungler Selfmade simply wrote “such a shame.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be League of Legends without someone reveling in Fnatic’s disappointment. LEC rivals G2 Esports tweeted Ocelote’s stunning presidential speech:

G2 now remains the West’s only hope ahead of their series against LCK third seed Gen.G tomorrow.

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And while Fnatic may have lost, LoL Esports definitely didn’t. The series brought in some incredible ratings:

Given nobody even expected them to take one game from Top, let alone two, Fnatic bows out of this tournament with their reputation enhanced.