Misfits upsets Fnatic behind a powerful Akali performance from LIDER

With only three weeks left in the 2019 LEC Summer Split, Misfits Gaming has given its fans some hope by beating Fnatic on the back of a dominant performance by Adam “LIDER” Ilyasov on Akali.

Not a lot of people gave Misfits a chance to beat Fnatic—in fact, all Riot’s LEC analysts voted that Fnatic would take down Misfits with ease and for good reason. Misfits is rolling out a rookie team that only has a week of LEC experience under its belt. Meanwhile, Fnatic is a top-three team in the region and has only lost two games before today.

This young roster proved everyone wrong today, though. Through some great setup play from Aleksi “H1IVA” Kaikkonen’s and Thomas “Kirei” Yuen, Misfits was able to stay even with Fnatic throughout the early game. Combined with their decisive shotcalling and great rotations, the team was able to shift the game into their favor and snowball the lead in the form of an unstoppable Akali. LIDER ended the game with an impressive 12 kills and seven assists, while H11VA collected 13 assists as well.

On the other side of the Rift, Fnatic struggled without the pressure of Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen. The talented jungler was put on Karthus—a champion we rarely see him on—and the difference in-game was obvious. Without the ability to affect his lanes early, Misfits ran rampant and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Here’s some brighter news for Fnatic fans—after securing three kills in this game, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson now has 1,500 kills for his career. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to push Fnatic to victory today. His team will need to re-evaluate their strategies moving forward if they want to keep their status as a top-three team in Europe.