The Intel Extreme Masters San Jose took place for the first time last year. The total prize pool is $50,000 for the League of Legends tournament, with $25,000 available for the first-place team.
Cloud9 won last year’s championship as the Americans easily beat Unicorns of Love in the final and showed that their methodical gameplay can, in some cases, beat the more flare-based style of their main competitors.
The favorites this year are Fnatic, who are expected by Dafabet to follow in the footsteps of Cloud9 and win the trophy this time around. Let’s take a look at the European goliaths and assess who the key players are likely to be in California later this month.
First some background. Fnatic certainly have an imperious pedigree when it comes to professional eSports, particularly League of Legends. They entered the LoL scene in 2011 and stormed to the Season One Championship almost immediately.
Despite their initial success, Season Two was not so strong for them, but they did place first in the 2012 Winter DreamHack by beating Counter Logic Gaming Europe.
During the following year, Fnatic picked up in form, winning the LCS EU Season 3 Spring Playoffs, the LCS EU Season 3 Summer Playoffs and placing third-fourth in the Season 3 World Championship after losing 1-3 to Royal Club in the semi-finals.
In 2014, their success continued. They placed second in the IEM Season VIII – World Championship after being easily beaten in the final by KT Rolster Bullets. However, during the 2014 EU LCS Spring Playoffs, they showed their skill by beating SK Gaming in the final. They also performed strongly in the All-Star Paris tournament, getting through the Group Stage before losing in the semi-finals to the eventual winners of the tournament, SK Telecom T1 K.
Today, the Fnatic team are second in the world rankings, boosted by some recent strong performances. In the 2015 EU LCS Summer Playoffs, they placed first after their win against Origen, who happen to be the second favourites at this year’s IEM San Jose. Another match-up between the two is anticipated by Dafabet to be a likely final.
Fnatic also performed well in the 2015 World Championship, reaching the semi-finals, where they were beaten by KOO Tigers. During this match they demonstrated their key weakness – a lack of concentration which saw them make too many mistakes – and Origen will be hoping to force this should the final be between these two teams.
In addition to having a tightly-knit team, the individual players have also contributed to the success of Fnatic.
Huni, the Top Lane player, has been one of their leading lights. He started his career in January and showed his impressive skills from the off by leading his team to the semi-finals of the Spring Playoffs. His favourite LoL character is Rumble and with him, he has a win rate of 100%, claiming five victories out of five. Furthermore, he has 3.2% kills and 2.8% deaths overall. It was due to this record that Huni was awarded the most Outstanding Rookie of the 2015 Season at the EU LCS Spring Split.
The second most valuable player in the Fnatic team is Febiven. He plays in the Mid Line and was a former member of Cloud 9 Eclipse and H2k-Gaming. His impressive performances during the Spring Split with Xerath led Fnatic to the semi-finals of the Spring Playoffs. His favourite character is Viktor, but he has lost two and won five matches with him. Despite this, his overall win rate is 71.4%.
It’s fair to say that Fnatic’s success hinges on how well Huni and Febiven play as when they perform poorly, they tend to let the opposition in. Origen are arguably their main rivals in San Jose and they were unlucky to go down 2-3 to Fnatic in the 2015 EU LCS Summer Playoffs. Should Fnatic let Origen control the game then an upset could be on the cards.
The Intel Extreme Masters San Jose is an event which tends to show from the very beginning who is going to boss the tournament. Fnatic have already beaten the second strongest team in the competition, Origen, and their constant, merciless, smart and tough performances at this year’s events should lead them to success. However, they should not underestimate Origen and the other competitors as they have pushed Fnatic close in recent times.
Dafabet will be providing odds on The Intel Extreme Masters San Jose here.
