The 2017 World Championship quarterfinals are just over halfway done, and so far we have had the tournament favorite upset by a fellow Korean team, and the defending world champions taken to the brink of elimination by an EU LCS underdog. Now, in the third series, China’s Royal Never Give Up will take on Europe’s Fnatic, in another instance of an underdog taking on one of the tournament’s top teams.
Royal Never Give Up were easily the second most impressive team coming out of Group Stages — the most impressive was Longzhu who were dismantled 3-0 earlier this week by RNG’s group, runners-up Samsung Galaxy — thanks to their dominant early game and strong shot calling when things got close late.
For Fnatic, the Group Stage was a little more complicated. After a horrendous 0-3 showing in the first week, Fnatic fought back, through two tiebreaker games, to escape the group with a 4-4 record after week two. Advancing to the Knockout Stage after losing their first three games was an impressive feat, and something no other team has ever done at Worlds before, but it doesn’t do much to help their case against one of the best teams at the tournament. But upsets are starting to feel more and more likely as this tournament progresses, so maybe Fnatic’s miracle run isn’t quite over yet.
The series will be a best of five and is scheduled to begin at 4:00 a.m. ET.