After being on the losing end of a 19-1 rout in Game 1, two-time defending EU LCS champions G2 Esports rattled off three straight wins against Fnatic in the semifinals Saturday, winning the series and clinching its spot in the finals in Hamburg. It’s the third finals appearance for G2 in three EU LCS splits.

Fnatic caught G2 off-guard early in the series with aggressive roaming and early lane swaps, but G2 adjusted and was able to come out on top with superior play. G2 will now face the winner of Sunday’s other semifinal between Unicorns of Love and Misfits.

Fnatic limped into the playoffs after a disappointing Spring Split, but looked like a different team in playoffs. The five-time European champions swept heavily favored H2K in the semifinal round, and have to count the top four performance as encouraging.

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2:37 p.m. ET: We’re 20 minutes in, and this game is close. Fnatic has a 7-5 kill lead, but G2 is slightly up on gold. Both teams have taken three towers, and Fnatic has taken the game’s only Dragon.

Perkz and Trick each have two kills for G2, while Broxah and Rekkles each have three for Fnatic.

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2:15 p.m. ET: We’re headed to Game 4, and Fnatic has brought out another surprise: Kayle mid (locked in during the second rotation) with a Camille support. Coupled with Shen and Lee Sin, it’s an unconventional protect-the-AD-Carry composition.

Meanwhile, G2 is returning to its roots with comfort champs all around (especially up top, with Expect on his old GP).

Fnatic: Shen, Lee Sin, Kayle, Tristana, Camille

G2: Gangplank, Elise, Cassiopeia, Ashe, Thresh

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1:58 p.m. ET: G2 suffocates Fnatic’s rotations and wins Game 3 12-3 in 42 minutes. It’s now 2-1 G2 heading into Game 4, now a game away from a chance at their third consecutive EU LCS title.

Perkz’s Ekko dominated his matchup against Caps’s Syndra, as with the exception of Broxah’s Baron steal, G2 closed this one out pretty cleanly.

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1:47 p.m. ET: Broxah hides behind Baron for more than a minute before popping out and stealing it from G2, preventing the snowball and opening a path back into the game for Fnatic.

G2 is still up 9k gold at 32 minutes, but it’s a nice play from Broxah.

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1:32 p.m. ET: Three games into the series, and G2 is definitely used to Fnatic’s lane swap shenanigans. G2 has opened up a 4k gold lead at 17 minutes, with four kills on Perkz’s Ekko in what’s been a very impressive game so far.

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1:13 p.m. ET: We’re headed to Game 3, and now we’ve got some changes in the pick and ban:

FNC: Shen, Kha’Zix, Syndra, Tristana, Thresh

G2: Kennen, Elise, Ekko, Ezreal, Lulu

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12:56 p.m. ET: G2 has fought back with a Game 2 victory, surviving Fnatic’s frantic roaming to get to the late game and start winning team fights. G2 finally closes this one out 16-9 in 46 minutes, and the turning moment was likely this Baron fight.

Trick’s Graves ended up with nearly half of his team kills, while Fnatic’s risky bottom lane ended up dying ten times. The series is now tied 1-1 heading to Game 3.

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12:31 p.m. ET: G2 has found its way back into the game by grouping and catching the Twitch out, earning a three kills for Trick so far.

Fnatic still has a slight gold lead, but it’s 6-5 G2 21 minutes in.

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12:23 p.m. ET: Fnatic has taken an early lead once again, up 4-1 at 12 minutes.

It all started with some Fnatic level one cheese in the top lane with Rekkles and Jesiz, earning First Blood for Twitch.

Trick earned a kill back by taking down Soaz in his jungle, but Fnatic’s heavily roaming-focused style is keeping G2 off-kilter. FNC even brought back the once-deceased lane swap to make sure Twitch’s early laning problems couldn’t be exploited.

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12:09 p.m. ET: G2 has decided the problem was in their play, rather than the draft, and has picked the exact same composition. But the big story is Jesiz bringing out Annie at support, with Zyra banned by Fnatic. Jesiz has played weird things like Fiddlesticks support in the past, but Annie is a true blast from the past.

G2: Camille, Graves, Orianna, Ezreal, Karma

Fnatic: Gragas, Elise, Aurelion Sol, Twitch, Annie

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11:55 a.m. ET: That’s done with. A 31-minute triple kill for Rekkles seals the deal for Fnatic after a terrific mid game, winning Game 1 19-1.

After a slight early misstep by Broxah resulted in a G2 First Blood, Fnatic played a perfect game from then on, enforcing their frenetic pace on G2 and getting Caps and Rekkles significantly ahead of their lane opponents.

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11:49 a.m. ET: Fnatic has squeezed the life out of G2. A few kills mid led to an early Baron, which led to a broken inhibitor at 26 minutes, and it’s now 14-1 at 30 minutes, with a 12.5k gold lead for the underdogs Fnatic.

Here’s Caps hunting down poor Zven in a side lane, which about sums how this mid game has gone for G2.

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11:39 a.m. ET: Forget G2’s early lead -- Fnatic has taken control heading into the mid game. It started when Caps outplayed a Trick gank mid, earning his team’s first kill, but Fnatic has taken full advantage of its composition’s mobility, roaming to G2’s bottom lane for kills.

FNC has taken a 5-1 kill lead and a 2k gold lead at 20 minutes. Caps is leading the way at 2/0/0, but Broxah has landed some terrific cocoons to make up for his early game mistake.

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11:29 a.m. ET: G2 takes an early lead due to strong vision on the bottom side of the map. At three minutes, Broxah goes for a typical jungle invade, but G2 spots him and collapses, earning Zven First Blood. It’s a 1k lead for G2 at 10 minutes, and it’s entirely in Zven’s inventory.

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11:18 a.m. ET: The comps are in:

G2: Camille, Graves, Orianna, Ezreal, Karma

FNC: Gragas, Elise, Aurelion Sol, Twitch, Zyra

Fnatic is once again pulling out the Twitch — Rekkles found success with it against H2K, and the team has an early game jungler, a roaming mid laner and an excellent fight starter/ender in the top lane.

G2 Has a very typical Season 7 no-tank composition, with a whole lot of damage and team-fighting capabilities.

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The semifinal round of the 2017 EU LCS Spring Split Playoffs kicks off Saturday, when tournament favorites G2 Esports take on Fnatic. G2 has never lost a playoff series in EU LCS history, but Fnatic is the winningest team in EU LCS play. The winner will advance to the finals in Hamburg.

For all the information about the schedule, bracket and results from all of the EU LCS Playoffs, check out our post here.

After winning promotion from the Challenger Series before the start of the 2016 season, G2 quickly cemented itself as the top team in the region, finishing in first place in both 2016 regular season splits and winning both playoffs. In 2017, G2 has picked up where it left off, finishing with a 12-1 Spring regular season record to clinch the No. 1 seed from Group A.

Five-time European champions Fnatic limped into the playoffs as the third seed from Group A after a disappointing 6-7 regular season record. But then the Playoff Fnatic buff kicked in, and the team upset the tournament’s expectations by sweeping 10-3 H2K in a convincing quarterfinal victory.

The best-of-five series will start at 11 a.m. ET.

Lineups

G2 Esports

• Top: Ki “Expect” Dae-han
• Jungle: Kim “Trick” Gang-yun
• Mid: Luka “Perkz” Perković
• ADC: Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen
• Support: Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodríguez

Fnatic

• Top: Paul “sOAZ” Boyer
• Jungle: Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen
• Mid: Rasmus “Caps” Winther
• ADC: Martin “Rekkles” Larsson
• Support: Jesse “Jesiz” Le

Series info and how to watch

The series can be watched on Lolesports, as well as on the EULCS1 Twitch channel. The first match will likely kick off at about 11:15 a.m. ET.