The last match of MSI 2018 Group Stage Day 2 was the big clash between EU and NA. Fnatic played against Team Liquid and was able to collect their second win in this competition.



The game started with a 5v5 invade phase and with excitement. As the commentators said, it was a crazy start with a mild result. Up until mid game, the game was pretty much balanced, but Fnatic started to pile up small benefits until the balance was finally broken. After in a fight near the river where Rekkles’ Sivir went shy of a penta-kill with one kill missing, Fnatic was able to close the game in their victory.



After the match, Rekkles was interviewed by Sjokz.



Related: FNC Caps: "A lot of teams had taken lead against Kingzone but wasn’t able to snowball.... But we were able to pull it off"

▲ Image from LoLEsports Filckr.



Q. After Fnatic going 2-0 for today, thinking of yesterday, this must have been a huge relief for you. How do you feel at the end of the day?

Yesterday I was really disappointed obviously. At an international tournament, you want to make your fans proud and that was like the last thing we did yesterday. Today I really wanted to show that we can compete with these teams and be a strong region as well; I wanted to show not just one European team can contest, but also show that the whole EU region can be good.

So I’m really happy with today’s performance because I think we were able to show that the things we do in EU, like the macro game we have, or the kind of champion style that we have, is just fine for winning against better regions.



Q. You said you wanted to play the champion style of your region, and Caps pulled out the Yasuo again. What is it like for you to see Caps step up on the international stage and what can you say about him at MSI so far?

I think so far it looks like Caps is the best mid laner there is in this tournament. So obviously it’s really good for me because he’s in my team. So it relieves a lot of pressure from me. (Laughs) As you said yourself, I’m used to have most of the responsibilities in terms of carrying. But I feel at this tournament, I didn’t have to carry a single game so far, which is really nice. I know when he really comes down to it, I can step up and be there for him, but so far he’s been so outstanding. I think we’ll be having a good time moving forward.



Q. Did you feel any added pressure because it was NA vs EU?

Hmm.. Not really. I felt more pressure playing against China and Korea because of how much stance they have as a region. It was very important for us to show that we can keep up with those kind of regions. I feel like we’ve already beaten NA in the past and they’ve already beaten us, so it’s not really that hype anymore. For me it was more about myself playing against Doublelift, but I think I did a pretty good job in the situation so I was really happy with the outcome.



Q. This morning, you beating PraY and GorillA, was that a very special moment for you personally?

Well, I died in lane against PraY and GorillA, so I was disappointed. (Laughs) But I still felt like I did my job after that. I think that was my only mistake in that game. And then in this game, I had another mistake where I contested a pink in the river, and Olaf was bot side when we had mid priority so I was a bit confused.

But I think other than that, I was playing much better today than yesterday, and I kind of want to make up for the failures I showed yesterday as well because I know how bad it looked for me from outside and I felt really bad playing that way too. So I wanted to show that I can be that consistent guy that I’m famous of being.



Q. You’re still 2-2 and there are still a lot of very good teams left in this tournament. What would be the key to keeping this going, this Fnatic that looks to be playing your own game finally?

So I think basically what you just said is the key to victory for us, because yesterday, we tried a lot of new stuff, since there’s been a lot of patches since the playoffs, so we tried to adapt. But I think actually maybe that was our mistake. And doing what we did so well in spring was a better approach as you could see today. We played much more comfortable champions, much more comfortable style of play, so I think it was a lot easier for us today to execute and have a good game.

Meanwhile, yesterday was chaos (shakes head) and we didn’t know what to do. So moving forward, just kind of sticking to what we know best, and if that’s not enough, then we’re going to need to work on our fundamentals for the summer split, but I think if we can beat the Koreans like today with the style we practiced for the spring split, we should have a pretty good chance of winning the whole thing.