League of Legends Worlds 2018: Breakdown of Invictus Gamings’ Victory
| Tags: League of Legends
| Author Alex Mcalpine
With their victory over Fnatic, Invictus has completed the LPLs’ sweep of international tournaments in 2018. All respects to Fnatic for making it to the finals, a feat which any other EULCS team has yet to accomplish in recent years, however they were absolutely dismantled in this 3-0 sweep. And other than just being outmatched by IG, several crucial mistakes were made by Fnatic that led to their downfall, let’s take a look at those.
Game One
This draft phase started out looking good for Fnatic, securing themselves strong solo lane picks Irelia and Viktor, and banning away the nuisances of Jayce, Leblanc, Aatrox and Lucian. However Invictus showed their versatility by drafting up a standard front to back comp with a good frontline including Theshy on Sion, and rounding out the comp by putting JackeyLove on Kai’sa.
Here is one of the first crucial mistakes, in the second round of picks Fnatic decided to take a Jhin into a team with the aforementioned Sion, Alistar, and a Lissandra running aftershock. Jhin while a good source of damage in lane and against squishier targets, falters in the face of tanks stacking armor. Which by the way IG was doing because the Fnatic composition was entirely physical damage. These mistakes coupled with IGs’ knack for running away with a game once a lead is established resulted in Fnatic dropping game one.
Game Two
Fnatic managed to get more offense off in this game, but Invictus was just playing on another level entirely. Throughout this tournament the solo laners and to a lesser extent got all the praise for IG, But Ning decided this was his time to shine. With an Irelia in the top lane for Theshy, Ning went about camping Bwipo, effectively shutting down the Urgot before he even got started. If the first game was a demonstration that Invictus could run a traditional team comp, then this game was a lesson in what happens when each lane can get playmaking champions.
IG was running on all cylinders in this game. Every Alistar combo landed, every Syndra stun was on point, Lucian was ice skating through fights picking his shots, and Gragas and Irelia were rolling snowballs of death. Fnatic never really never really had a chance to win this game.
Game Three
Invictus knows when they have the momentum lead, and they do not let up on the relentless pressure once it is achieved. This games team composition was an example of that. Rakan, Camille, Aatrox, Kai’sa, and Galio. These champions enable every member to dive onto you and dive they did. And once again all due respect to Fnatic because they fought tooth and nail to the bitter end, including a clutch baron steal by broxah, but to no avail. Theshy went positive on Aatrox over the Urgot, played by a subbed-in sOAZ, with help from another MVP worthy performance from Ning. Caps constantly had to deal with potent ganks in the for of the lockdown combo from Camille and Galio, or a roaming Rakan, never quite getting his feet under him. And with all of this going on JackeyLove was freed up to ult in and auto attack with impunity.
Invictus Gaming are our 2018 League of Legends champions, and they looked like champions closing out this series with quick, brutal efficiency. If this team is still together and playing on this same level next year, we might be looking at the beginning of a dynasty.
Alex graduated from UWO with a degree in journalism. He is a Battle Royale and FPS guru. He often reads 'Winner Winner Chicken Dinner' as he is ranked in the top 100 on the PUBG leaderboards. Alex is also an Overwatch and CoD expert. You can learn more about Alex via our About page.