Fnatic vs Weibo Gaming Recap – Worlds Swiss Stage Day 8

Last year’s runner-ups battle one of Europe’s best teams, Fnatic vs Weibo Gaming will end in either a legendary upset or another LEC elimination.

Fnatic’s return to the top of their region has been a struggle since G2 rose to prominence. That said, the black-and-orange contenders have been nothing but tenacious. Led by their midlaner Marek “Humanoid” Brázda, these LEC bets exhaust all options to get early kills and win big.

While Fnatic forces plays that end badly for them, we’ve seen improvements to their game domestically, where they take more precise skirmishes. So we think the team’s toplaner has got to set the pace and pick their engagements properly here, especially against a team like Weibo.

The Chinese roster has mostly gone unchanged since it’s deep semifinal run last Worlds. The LPL operates on a different level, so Xiaohu and co. are heavily expected to win here. But if Fnatic can learn from G2’s success last week, they can rise above too.

Fnatic vs Weibo Gaming Recap
Fnatic vs Weibo Gaming Game 1 Recap

Fnatic won on the draft due to having better laning phase potential and objective set-up, so a fed WBG Tarzan/Xiaohu was less likely.

Things were at a standstill as Fnatic attempted a lane swap to stunt WBG Breathe’s early game farm. But that only meant that Weibo’s jungler had to work harder, which paid off with a midlane win that put WBG two kills ahead!

Fnatic tried to stop the bleeding with a pick on a Summoners-less Light, but they were hard-pressed to close the gap. FNC Jun found great engages with his Rell, but his team was either too far away or didn’t have the damage to capitalize.

A four-kill advantage gave WBG free reign on objectives while Fnatic’s best kept getting caught off-guard. But just before Weibo crashed into Fnatic’s botlane turret, a Counterstrike teleport by Oscarinin split Weibo’s forces in half for his team to pick them off one by one, balancing the score in epic fashion.

From there, Fnatic enjoyed a two-kill lead. With neither team willing to start Baron, the EU reps were happy with just racking up their kill advantage. And thanks to FNC Razork, they did.

Fnatic took the first Nashor of the game and took out Weibo’s turrets for more gold in their pockets. With Sundered Sky and Triforce, Oscarinin’s Jax was the biggest threat in Game 1. And WBG could not find an answer.

Quick Stats:

Teams: FNC vs WBG
First Blood: WBG
Game Time: 35:56
Gold: 67.9k – 62.0k
Kills: 18 – 9
Turrets: 7 – 5
Dragons: 3 – 2
Barons: 1 – 0

Fnatic vs Weibo Gaming Game 2 Recap

Aggressive comps are usually a double-edged sword for Fnatic, but the last match gave them some breathing room for the series ahead of them.

FNC Razork successfully got Xiaohu to spend his flash three minutes into the fight to make Humanoid’s laning phase more bearable. But after a few minutes, WBG found success in a bot jungle invade thanks to Tarzan’s well-timed entrance. But with the amount of Summoner spells blown, things looked fairly even.

The LPL team went for a proper lane swap to keep their momentum going. But Crisp was caught out on another skirmish up top. Fnatic was fighting cautiously to keep their 1k gold difference, and it led to an Ocean Drake. But Tarzan’s set-up caught LEC’s #2 seed off-guard and gave Weibo two kills.

FNC vs WBG game 2 stayed extremely close into the lategame, with both ADCs struggling for dominance. Shortly after, FNC caught Crisp and scored a kill, but not before Tarzan flanked them and made himself a threat in the EU team’s backline. Breathe’s Jax jumped into the fray with a Counterstrike with little luck. But it was all part of Weibo’s plan to give Light an Ezreal quadra kill.

From there, it was a slow crawl towards Fnatic’s base as Weibo decimated each succeeding fight and took their first nexus in the BO3.

Quick Stats:

Teams: WBG vs FNC
First Blood: WBG
Game Time: 29:27
Gold: 60.5k – 47.0k
Kills: 22-7
Turrets: 11-1
Dragons: 1-3
Barons: 1-0

Fnatic vs Weibo Gaming Game 3 Recap

Fnatic was locked and loaded for short-ranged teamfights, prompting Umanoid to lock in Swain for an LEC-brand smackdown.

A stylish (but scrappy) bot lane dive by Razork gave First Blood to EU, so Tarzan answered with a lane gank of his own. The kill score eventually equalized, but Weibo Gaming had much more map control than their opponents by the 15-minute mark.

Another scuffle for the third dragon put Fnatic one kill ahead, and their second drake closed the gold gap even further. But WBG answered with a Rift Herald and all six Void Grubs, which let them destroy five Fnatic turrets 20 minutes in.

What followed was an extremely slow slugfest that slowly drifted towards the Chinese team’s favor. After a failed bid for Baron, Fnatic was sent back to spawn and the series was closed. 2-1 to WBG.

Quick Stats:

Teams: WBG vs FNC
First Blood: FNC
Game Time: 26:26
Gold: 54.1k – 41.9k
Kills: 12-5
Turrets: 10-1
Dragons: 2-2
Barons: 1-0

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Paul started writing game guides and match predictions for ESTNN’s editorial team in 2022. Since then, he’s covered big-ticket esports events and the latest news on tech and AI.