Unicorns of Love vs Fnatic: By the Numbers

It's never over until the Unicorns say it's over.

Remember Team Liquid vs Team SoloMid back in Week 5, when TSM managed to beat back TL a few times, but then crumbled at a baron attempt?  The Unicorns did what TSM aspired to do.

Granted, TSM did face tougher odds.  Not that TL was a better team than Fnatic--TL would be comparable--but TSM had no more remaining towers in their base defense.  UOL, though, were coming back after losing 4 in a team fight, and barely saved their base with less than half it's health remaining.

Twice.

UOL has proven that neither gold nor kills secures a victory.  Fnatic spent 75% of the game with a 2k average gold lead over UOL.  They also maintained a significant kill lead over UOL the whole match.

UOL started the game with a little lead through the laning phase, but promptly lost it with three deaths and a tower.  Things started to look good for Fnatic; even though they lost the outer rim of turrets to UOL, they took down the Unicorn's mid tier 2 and kept finding UOL out of position.

The Unicorns carried on unabated, though, and pushed hard up the mid lane, exchanging for Fnatic's tier 2.  Fnatic was able to catch out PowerOfEvil (on Cassiopeia), but Vizicsacsi (on Yorick) had different plans.  Casting Omen of War on PowerOfEvil at the last second gave him enough time to deal massive damage to Fnatic.  4 fell in the ensuing battle, allowing the Unicorns to take a dragon and push the lanes up enough that the minions could take down another tower.  Fnatic was quick to respond, though, and took out three members of UOL before they could do much to respond.

After catching out a few of the Unicorns, Fnatic decided to start a baron attempt.  The Unicorns met them outside of the baron pit, and successfully beat them back--and secured the baron for themselves.  Fnatic was quick to punish them, and managed to secure two more kills.

With the baron buff, the Unicorns were able to crack into the base, and managed to bring down an inhibitor and a base turret.  Low HP bars, though, sent them on the retreat so they could regroup and get a dragon.

Fnatic, meanwhile, got the baron for themselves, and started to push hard up the mid lane.  It turned into quite a disadvantage for UOL in a team fight, and Fnatic was able to secure a 4 - 1 in the mid lane.  With the benefit of baron and a strong push, they were able to beat their way through the mid inhibitor turret, the middle inhibitor, both nexus towers, and over 90% of the Nexus health.

That is, until UOL respawned and as a last ditch effort managed to kill all members of Fnatic in their base.  For the time being, they had repelled the attack.  Since super minions were coming up the mid lane, UOL pushed back up the mid lane and took the fight back to Fnatic, taking down their middle inhibitor again.  They managed to bring down Fnatic one at a time, but not without casualties--so UOL backed off.  Realizing, though, that they had an opening, Fnatic pushed up the mid lane and brought the fight back to UOL's Nexus, this time taking it down to with an auto attack.

And Huni decided to auto Vardags.  This in turn cost him his life, and the trio of Vizicsacsi, Vardags, and Kikis pushed Fnatic back out of their base.  Again, the Unicorns pushed up the mid, and caught Fnatic just inside the base.

The fight didn't go particularly smooth for either side, both losing three.  UOL kept up the pressure, though, and managed to take down the Nexus turret and start auto-attacking the Nexus.  Steeelback and Huni did their best to repel the three remaining members of UOL, even bringing down Hylissang and taking huge chunks out of PowerOfEvil and Vardags.  Huni used Glacial Path to come in and catch both carries for massive damage, and PowerOfEvil unleashed on him, managing to bring down the Lissandra.  Now, everything rested on Steeelback--could he (with nearly full health) push off two carries with under half?  Vardags zoned his way around the Nexus, trying to keep himself away from any damage that Steeelback could dish out.  PowerOfEvil responded by unloading everything on Steeelback in the final moments, and finally took down the resilient AD carry while Vardags (with less than 100 health) brought down the Nexus.

Vardags finishes off the Fnatic Nexus.

Without a doubt, the most exciting game for the EU LCS all Spring Split.  Fnatic looked absolutely crushed as we watched the Nexus explode.  It should also be noted that Fnatic has never beaten UOL so far in the Spring Split.  Despite their awkward losses, the Unicorns have an odd way of keeping themselves always relevant.  Let's look at why this game turned out the way it did.

Huni falls behind on CS in the early game.

1.  Deny Huni farm.  Huni has proven to be the tide turner for Fnatic--while each player of Fnatic is solid, Huni's efforts seem to turn the tide in every game that Fnatic has won.  However, especially in the early game, Huni was marginalized and wasn't able to get rolling until the later game.  This offset allowed the Unicorns to take advantage of situations instead of playing tentatively around a fed Lissandra.

UOL gets collapsed upon in the top lane--but notice PowerOfEvil pushing up the mid.

2.  The Unicorns aren't afraid to play from behind.  This is not the only time we've seen the Unicorns win the game despite being behind in gold, kills, or both.  What makes them such an interesting team to watch is how every game is a learning experience.  They are not afraid to try something new and run with it even if looks like the odds are stacked against them.  Compare this to WE's performance in the finals at IEM--TSM only truly destroyed WE's Nexus twice.  Granted, the odds did look stacked against them, but most of this game the Unicorns looked like it was only a matter of time before Fnatic would win.

The Unicorns defend off a second base rush with precision.

3.  Communication.  The Unicorn's base defense shows an almost perfect execution of team coordination.  As Fnatic quickly pounded on the base, UOL didn't have time to make mistakes.  Instead, effective communication reigned.  With quick efficiency, the Unicorns dispatched high damage targets, zoned out potential threats, and demolished Fnatic.  Likewise, in their counter push, UOL was left with their carries alone with fairly low HP.  They were able to do what Fnatic could not--while Vardags pushed the Nexus, PowerOfEvil was able to peel for him and eliminate threats.  Their communication was a large part of the Unicorn's victory.

Cassiopeia comes back from the dead to help secure 4 kills.

4.  The Yorick and Cassiopeia combination shouldn't be underestimated.  We really only got to see its full effectiveness once, but when we did it was devastating.  What looked like a potential misplay by UOL was quickly turned around to a 4 for 2 trade, along with a tower and an inhibitor.  Although we're probably unlikely to see the combination again, it makes the Unicorns even more difficult to ban against.  They have so many successful pocket picks and strategies.  What can you ban? Vizicsacsi has such a diverse champion pool that a top lane ban is about as effective as using a fly swatter to drive off a bear.  Kikis can Jungle with just about anything.  We've seen PowerOfEvil effective on a wide swath of champions, and there's no truly effective way to ban out a bot lane that the Unicorns can't capitalize on.

Fnatic's base rush #1 ends with less than 200 Nexus HP.

5.  Never give up.  There have been dozens of games where a team has had as many members back at base, able to orchestrate the same sort of comeback that the Unicorns made--however, that sort of thing just doesn't seem to happen.  When Fnatic came charging into base the first time, with baron buff, and only Kikis to stall them, things looked pretty hopeless.  That wasn't enough to stop UOL, though.  Pulling off the defense was enough to give them the hope that they could do it again.  And that they did, to the same result.

Other interesting statistics:

• Vardags had a 1877 crit somewhere in that game.  His damage, though, was far behind PowerOfEvil's, who had 40k total damage to champions.

• Kikis actually placed more wards than Hylissang this match--41 to 36.  YellOwStaR had the most wards at 54.

• Despite being behind in gold the whole game, the Unicorns kept securing objectives about every two minutes.  Fnatic, on the other hand, secured their objectives in two frenzies--a 7 minute window between 9 and 16 minutes, and a 4 minute window between 29 and 33 minutes.