Mysterious Monkeys put up a fight, but still remain winless in the European League of Legends Championship Series after being swept by Fnatic on Saturday to open Day 3 of Week 4 in Berlin.
Despite making it a focus to pinch the champion pool of Fnatic (5-1, 11-3 match record), Mysterious Monkey's own draft was marred by the surprise Aatrox in the top lane for Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek. The pick simply fell flat on its face, essentially leaving Mysterious (0-5, 0-10 match record) in a 4-vs-5. Early in the contest, however, the disadvantage wasn't prevalent as Mysterious Monkeys secured first tower to take an early lead. But thanks to Fnatic's teamfighting composition, it would take just a handful of kills before the snowball was on. Fnatic used great vision over the entire map to pick up kills with relative ease. Between the impeccable positioning and initiations from support Jesse "Jesiz" Le's Thresh and the damage from mid laner Rasmus "Caps" Winther's Taliyah, Fnatic easily controlled every aspect of the mid game. Monkeys' only hope came in the form of a sneaky Baron play, but jungler Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider was spotted, allowing Fnatic to come and take the buff itself. The end was all but an inevitable from that point forward, as Fnatic easily wrapped up the 36-minute win soon after.
For the first time since Week 1 of the Summer Split, Fnatic AD carry Martin "Rekkles" Larsson wasn't on Kennen, but it didn't matter one bit in the end. Mysterious Monkeys started off hot with a first blood in the bottom lane, which was the first time Fnatic's bottom lane had given up first blood in 47 straight games. Monkeys followed up the first blood with strong rotations across the map, pushing its lead up to 2,000 by the 20-minute mark. Despite the rough start, Fnatic swiftly took the lead back in a matter of seconds with two kills in the mid lane at 22 minutes. From here on, Mysterious tried to find a way back into the game, but was shut down at every turn. It even picked up two Barons, but ended up going minus-2,400 in gold despite having the buffs. Fnatic was just too strong in teamfights, with jungler Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen developing into the main initiator in the fights and finishing with a 6/1/13 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) in the 43-minute win.
Mysterious Monkeys will be back next Thursday at 11 a.m. ET to take on Ninjas in Pyjamas, while Fnatic will face Splyce the same day at 2 p.m. ET.