Fnatic will stand tall in Group C, but Kaos Latin Gamers should put up a good fight

If any team in Group C wants to stand out, they’ll have to get past Fnatic to do it.

While the EU LCS third seed’s playoff run may have been cut short thanks to Misfits’ incredible games, they are still the team that most people thought would be the strongest coming out of Europe’s Summer Split. Their late season woes might only have made them a little more eager to prove their strengths early on at the World Championship.

Looking to prove themselves against the EU contender are Kaos Latin Gamers, from Latin America South, and Young Generation, from Vietnam’s GPL. While Kaos Latin Gamers will look to finally show what their region can do on the Worlds stage, Young Generation will likely be more concerned with living up to the strong performance fellow GPL team and Worlds participant GIGABYTE Marines had at the Mid-Season Invitational.

Who will win the group: Fnatic

It’s not often a team that spent three months as the favorite to win their league ends up in third place, but that’s exactly the road that Fnatic has traveled. Early on this split it seemed like the EU LCS would be a two horse race between Fnatic and G2, but as the summer progressed, it became clear that Fnatic would sit alone at the top with the region’s best record. But once playoffs came around, the entire region, Fnatic included, were shocked by Misfits who blew by the EU favorites 3-1.

Thankfully for Fnatic, the things that made them favorites during the season were on full display in the Play-in Gauntlet and they reminded everyone why people thoughts so highly of them. While the roster may still face a few questions about whether or not they are world class, they should be more than capable of taking care of business in this Play-in group thanks in large part to the carry talents of mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Winther and AD Carry Martin “Rekkles” Larson.

Who to watch out for: Kaos Latin Gamers

You may not know this team the minute you hear their name, but they are one of the most popular teams in all of South American League of Legends. While they haven’t quite managed to qualify for Worlds in the past, never quite able to make it through the qualification tournaments, now that they are here they’ll have their sites set on making it out of groups, and maybe even pulling off an upset against Fnatic and taking first.

While that may be a little ambitious, the team has looked strong in the second half of the year. Thanks to standout performances from top laner, Juan “Mantarraya” Ignacio Abdon and mid laner Joaquin “Plugo” Perez, the team rolled through their regional competition taking first place and winning their playoff gauntlet finals 3-1. While the Latin American teams have never quite made a splash on an international stage, Kaos Latin Gamers should at least make for some of the most fun match ups in Group C.