Fnatic

Fnatic To Keep Wunder In The Lineup For LEC Finals Weekend

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With Óscar “Oscarinin” Muñoz still sidelined as he recovers from hand surgery, Fnatic has announced that Martin “Wunder” Hansen will remain in the lineup for the LEC Finals. “We’re not done yet – @wunderlol will continue substituting in the top lane as we take to the stage in Montpellier! 🇫🇷 @OscarininXD’s hand injury requires more time to heal, so we’ll make sure to fight our hardest for the LEC Trophy. Can’t wait to see you all in France!” the organization wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Oscarinin was ruled out Fnatic’s lower bracket semifinal against Team BDS on August 28. It was revealed that the Spanish top laner had undergone hand surgery. Furthermore, he would be ruled out for an undetermined amount of time. Wunder, who was benched by Fnatic in February, stepped back into the lineup and posted a 10/11/29 stat line in the team’s 3-2 series against Team BDS. While Worlds doesn’t begin until mid-October, it’s unclear at this time if Oscarinin will be ready to compete in the tournament. Teams are permitted to bring one substitute player with them to Worlds. Regardless of what occurs in Montpellier, it’s safe to assume that player will be Wunder for Fnatic.

Read More: LEC Summer tracker

Fnatic Aiming For Breakthrough Weekend

Fnatic will begin the weekend against MAD Lions in the lower bracket final. A place in the Grand Final against G2 is on the line. While they have already qualified for Worlds 2023, a higher seeding would help their longevity in the competition. Taking down MAD Lions would continue a Cinderella run for Fnatic. The team began the Summer split in 9th place in the LEC championship standings. They would need to absolutely crush their opposition during summer to stand a chance to qualifying for Worlds.

After a dominant regular season, they did everything they needed to do in the playoffs to make it to the LEC Finals. Now they sit one series away from contesting their first LEC title since Summer 2021. Fnatic were once regular contenders for the LEC title. However, they have not taken home the league’s top prize since Summer 2018. Follow along with championship weekend here at HotNewHipHop.

Read More: Worlds 2023 tracker

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Meet Noah, Fnatic’s Rookie Superstar

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Just a few weeks ago, Oh “Noah” Hyeon-taek was playing in the Ultaliga, Poland’s regional League of Legends competition. After turning pro in 2018, Noah spent a few years with Awe Star before signing with LCK outfit KT Rolster in 2020. However, after proving himself at the academy level, Noah struggled to maintain his spot in the LCK starting lineup. After spending the entirety of 2022 back in the LCK Challengers League, KT Rolster released him. But now, Noah is Fnatic’s latest superstar ADC.

Noah helped lead Zero Tenacity to their second consecutive Ultraliga title. However, they pulled the group of death at EMEA Masters and bowed out after a 1-5 performance. Despite this, Noah had impressed enough to earn an invite to the LEC.

Fnatic were looking to shake things up. After ninth and eighth-place finishes in the Winter and Spring splits of the 2023 LEC season, the perennial contenders needed a change. As a result, they revamped their bot lane, bringing in Noah alongside KOI support Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus. All Noah did was establish himself as a league superstar.

Related: FENNEL debuts first woman to play in Japan’s LJL

Noah Dominates Summer Split

After six games in his first LEC split, Noah has a KDA of 78. The next highest KDA in the league is held by Trymbi at 7. His KDA over the 19-game Ultraliga Season 9 split was 6.2. Simply put, Noah is a cheat code. He appears to understand the league, the meta, and the game like no one else in the league. His overall stat line is 36/1/42. Even in the single loss Fnatic has suffered so far, Noah still put up a KDA of 7.

Maybe this is all temporary. After all, Jeff Francoeur seemed to be a baseball god until teams figured out how to pitch to him. Noah has played three champions so far – Aphelios, Xayah, and Lucian. Maybe he struggles once he’s taken off comfort picks. But that’s the thing. Even if he reverted to his Ultraliga numbers, he’d still have the second-best KDA in the league.

But do we really want him to stop being great? Sure, if you’re one of the nine teams he doesn’t play for. But this is the sort of storyline esports fans live for. A kid who couldn’t stay in the Korean League, and gets a shot playing in the LEC after a standout split in one of Europe’s smaller leagues. It’s less a question of how can he last, and more of a question of how high can he go. And if he continues like he has, there might be no ceiling for Noah and Fnatic.

Related: These champions are basically pro play perma-bans right now

Excel Executes A Perfect Week

In other LEC success stories, Excel Esports shocked the league with their Week 2 performance. They entered the week on a ten-game losing streak, only to snap it with an upset win over Team Heretics. Then they turned around and secured an easy win over the ailing Team BDS. Just like that, they had equaled their win total from the Spring split. All that left for the week for MAD Lions, the defending champions on a 4-1 start.

They may have needed nearly 40 minutes to do it but Excel beat MAD to cap a shocking reversal of fortunes. The team that everyone had counted out, that everyone expected to blow up and rebuild after the season, had gone 3-0. Furthermore, thanks to results elsewhere, Excel found themselves in fifth place. After a disastrous year, Excel were suddenly playing for a playoff team.

Excel’s final week begins against current league leaders G2. However, we’ve already seen what Excel can do against teams atop the LEC. Furthermore, their other two games are much more crucial. First, there’s Astralis (2-4), a must-win game for Excel, not only to keep their playoff hopes alive but also to dash Astralis’. Then, they end the split against Vitality (1-5). While Vitality could already be eliminated by Monday night, the win might mean everything for Excel.

Related: LEC Summer split tracker

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