Deserving the spot: ROCCAT's run and Fnatic's rightful place in playoffs

Don’t beat yourself up. Some things are just out of your control.

To most, this phrase is comforting. To others, a horrifying possibility.

For these others, it’s far more comforting to know there’s always something they could have done differently. They would rather take responsibility for a failure than believe that fate had conspired against them, and they were never good enough to have power over anything.

After Martin “Rekkles” Larsson caught Misfits support Lee “IgNar” Donggeun in the brush in the red buff area behind Baron and began Fnatic’s final push on the nexus, Team ROCCAT’s season ended. Their turnaround following their victory over Origen and 6-0 second half culminating in the takedown of G2 Esports slipped into the recesses of esports history.

It was out of their control.

A small string of perfect circumstances aligned prior to the final week of the EU LCS to give Team ROCCAT one last shot at the playoffs. Two of these circumstances came from Fnatic and Misfits’ respective stagnations.

Though it’s unlikely Head Coach Nicholas “NicothePico” Korsgaard caused all of Fnatic’s problems, his departure may have signaled a placebo reset. The roster shook off a feeling that nothing had changed and came to the last two weeks of the EU LCS feeling refreshed — even if most factors had stayed the same.

Nothing for Fnatic really has changed. They still have the same strengths and weaknesses they’ve had throughout the split. Fnatic lane swap at a high rate, sending their duo lane top to compensate for Teleport disadvantages or weak bottom lane matchups.

They have struggled execute 1-4 or 1-3-1 strategies in the mid-to-late game because of awkward lane assignments that put Rekkles on the wrong side of the map without Teleport or over-commit the jungler to getting a pick on the top laner. These ills nearly cost them against Giants last week.

But Fnatic’s recent success with Shen is a symptom of their ability to control tempo with a top lane push advantage. Fnatic trade sides for the top lane better than most teams in the EU LCS. This has been consistent of their play all season. If a less useful dragon like Cloud or Ocean spawns, they feel comfortable sending their duo lane top side when Paul “sOAZ” Boyer pushes out to get the first turret in a lane swap. This tempo advantage will usually spill into securing other objectives.

Part of this comes from keeping control of mid lane. If Rasmus “Caps” Winther can keep pressure on the mid lane, then Fnatic can guarantee that they trade top for bottom and maintain a mid advantage. When Caps plays well, and Fnatic lane swap, their opponents either have to move their mid laner or jungler to the bottom lane to compensate for initially falling behind in tempo.

This means the enemy will commit more resources to the trade and take disadvantages in other positions. As a result, even if it seems like teams are going even with Fnatic in side lanes, Fnatic will come out ahead overall.

Shen and Kennen allow Fnatic to trade well. Shen will split push, but also show up for teamfights easily rather than relying on just flat besting an opponent in a side lane. This aligns well with what sOAZ wants to do. Rekkles often sticks to side lanes better than sOAZ in the mid game, and Kennen gives him more dueling power to do so when he doesn’t need to group.

These champions compensate for some of Fnatic’s weaknesses and also allow them to make objective trades better at the same time. For Misfits’ own issues, this spells disaster.

Like Fnatic, Misfits have had a stagnating form for most of the split. While many quickly blamed draft for today’s losses, they should also stop to consider why champions like Shen and Kennen work so effectively for Fnatic and why Misfits had trouble countering them.

Misfits have a tendency to invest in taking an objective with the whole team. They like using top lane advantages to Teleport to the bottom lane and often seek to commit their jungler and mid laner to a Tier 1 turret take, giving up pressure in those positions as well. Misfits get a lead easily that way, but they have to then move their duo lane quickly to spread the investment and keep the momentum. They don’t always succeed.

Then, in mid and late game, Misfits look to set up Baron vision with their top laner and won’t match side lane turret trades effectively. This came through most clearly in Game 1 against Giants Gaming earlier this week. There were multiple instances where Giants keeping pressure in side lanes resulted in better objective trades across the map.

Both of these tendencies set them up to lose to Fnatic’s preferred method of play. So while one might want to blame draft, Misfits’ play in general and failure to make the most of their rotational trades are the main reason they didn’t play well against Fnatic.

If one focuses only on Misfits and Fnatic, it appears that, no matter what, ROCCAT were set up to fail in the final hour.

ROCCAT bested both Fnatic and Misfits in their second half by taking advantage of these teams’ inability to evolve, and these factors ultimately led to their undoing when Fnatic overcame Misfits.

But this narrative doesn’t do justice to ROCCAT’s final act.

While no one would call a team that works as hard as G2 complacent, lost might be a fitting descriptor. Seated at the top of Europe without challengers, flaws have persisted in G2’s play. Kim “Trick” Gangyun builds an individual advantage by playing off pressure created from winning lanes and uses this to win skirmishes and teamfights with G2.

G2 at times seem to only consider whether or not their jungler has more levels and items (the answer is usually yes), but may ignore other advantages opposing teams might apply. Against Fnatic, for example, Trick made a play on the bottom lane after spotting Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen’s location, but the team didn’t account for the combination of Shen ult and Kennen’s crowd control. Fnatic got bottom side control, pulled Ki “Expect” Daehan’s Teleport nearly for free and transitioned into top side pressure off this single play.

Trick will also invade without lane pressure if he has an advantage on the opposing jungler, not considering the opponent mid laner’s opportunity to approach. G2 don’t seem aware of how to consistently use Perkz’s leads until mid and late game. They also will leave Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen on the top side longer than many teams will with their duo lane, losing the ability to control mid lane.

These stylistic factors came out against both Fnatic and ROCCAT this week. ROCCAT identified them. Even if the Nasus pick didn’t work, Nasus’ theoretical ability to keep mid lane pushed out after his first back should have shut down a lot of G2’s power and opened more opportunities for the team to catch Trick. They had better luck in subsequent games and got a lot out of Ambrož “Phaxi” Hren’s success, but the Nasus pick signaled their ultimate game plan.

ROCCAT’s victory over G2 signaled they are good enough to be in control of their own destiny. Fnatic’s win only forced them to miss playoffs because ROCCAT didn’t start coming into form earlier. Though I partly credit a patch change, improvements in form and teamwork don’t come from a patch. ROCCAT were in control the whole time.

Fnatic had a better form for longer and poked nearly as many holes in G2 as ROCCAT did. They didn’t end as strong as ROCCAT, but they earned their spot, and ROCCAT could have done more.

Perhaps ROCCAT feel better thinking they deserved a spot, and the circumstances were out of their control, but a team that improves as drastically as they did this split doesn’t seem like a team that would be content to just blame other factors for their lot. I’d like to imagine ROCCAT would rather feel like they failed than that fate denied them.

I don’t believe ROCCAT deserved to make it to playoffs. Their rise was impressive, their G2 takedown noteworthy, but by saying they “deserved playoffs” and Misfits’ failure denied them, you say there’s nothing more ROCCAT could have done to make it.

When summer comes, ROCCAT will know the opportunity is always there for them. They can take responsibility for their own faults. This summer, they can unequivocally earn a top 6 finish.

There’s a great deal more comfort in that.

You can follow Kelsey Moser on Twitter @karonmoser.