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We continue to follow what's happening at LEC Winter 2025. We're talking about the group stage, where we examine the matches of the second day of the first week.

One of the centrepieces of the second day of LEC Winter 2025 is the match between Fnatic and Vitality. The Vitality vs Fnatic match will take place on the 19th of January at 21:00 CET.

We are trying to figure out which team will be stronger and earn an important victory at the Longest match of the winter season.

Let's go.

Fnatic uniforms

Let's open the Fnatic vs Vitality match with an analysis of Fnatic's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.3.

Fnatic started their ascent to the LEC Regional Finals the season before last with an appearance at LEC Winter 2023. It wasn't a successful one, as the Orange finished the tourney in 9th place, not making it out of the group stage.

The following season, Fnatic gave one last chance to roster with Rekkles. They failed to use it, as FNC, after coming out of the group stage, lost in the first match against MAD Lions, thus ending the spring split on the top 8.

• Fnatic lineup: Oscarinin, Razork, Humanoid, Upset, Mikyx.

Two terrible splits resulted in major re-splits. ADC Rekkles and support Advienne left the band. In their place came Korean legionnaire Noah and experienced support Trymbi. The result was not long in coming.

Fnatic looked much better at the LEC summer split than at the two previous ones. The team managed to make it through the group stage and then made it to the top 3 of LEC Summer 2023, which allowed them to advance to the regional finals. Here's the truth, to the bottom set.

Fnatic played against Excel - the main opener of LEC Summer 2023 - in the match to advance to the Top 4 and won. They won 3-2 in a tense bo5.

In the match for the LEC Finals 2023 Small Final, Fnatic and BDS had a real fight (3-2), and Fnatic ended up here.

They also managed to beat MAD Lions, with whom they played for a place in the grand final. And again, the full-fledged bo5 with a score of 3-2 in favour of the Orange. But the grand final was not enough: G2 Esports beat Fnatic 3-1.

At Worlds 2023, Orange played to the best of their ability. The club lost the first match against LNG Esports, and then outplayed the Vietnamese from GAM Esports.

The last match on the way to a 1-2 set was a match against BLG, which Fnatic legitimately lost. Then FNC defeated C9 with a score of 2-1, and in the match for play-offs Ledge and WBG. The latter, by the way, became the vice-champion of the World Championship, so the result for the European club was excellent.

Fnatic will debut at LEC Winter 2024 with a match against Karmine Corp. Based on the experience of previous seasons, there is every chance to see the favourite (which is Fnatic) lose in that match. Next, they will face Vitality and this is where I would bet in favour of the Orange. That's pretty much how it turned out, except for the match against Karmine Corp: Fnatic closed two series, but lost in the match against SK Gaming.

Fnatic had a pretty good start to the regular season, but it got worse from there. Fnatic finished the regular season with a score of 5-4. The LEC Winter 2024 playoffs "Orange Longsong" with a very confident victory against MAD Lions. Next, Fnatic played against G2 Esports and looked good there, even managing to snatch the map, which no one has managed to do so far.

In the match for the quarter-finals Fnatic met with SK Gaming. The German club put up a fight, but Fnatic were stronger: 2-1 in favour of Humanoid and company guaranteed their passage to the top 4 of LEC Winter 2024.

In the next match, Fnatic were able to fight G2 Esports and take the map away from them, but they were unable to surpass the Samurai in the match. Fnatic also failed to get a grip on the tournament in the lower grid, where Fnatic lost to KOI with a score of 2-3. At the end of LEC Winter 2024, Fnatic finished in the top 4.

LEC Spring 2024 Fnatic finished the LEC Spring 2024 regular season in the top spot, something the team hasn't had since 2019. In the first round of the play-offs, Fnatic shut down GIANTX on a class. In the match to advance to the upper grid finals, LEC Spring 2024 faced G2 and lost 0-2 without a chance. In the lower grid, they also had difficulties, like in the game against Heretics, but in the end they were able to defeat their counterparts with a score of 2-1 and move on. In the match for the top 3, Fnatic met Vitality and confidently ran them over with a score of 3-1.

For the grand final of LEC Spring 2024 Fnatic fought against BDS and it was a real spectacle: the "orange" were 0-2 down, but on the character made a reverse sweep and closed the series in their favour. As a result, Fnatic will also go to MSI 2024. In the grand finals of LEC Spring 2024 Orange played against G2 Esports and lost that match.

Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2024 Fnatic started off with a 2-0 win over GAM Esports without any problems at all. In the top set match they met Top Esports and put up a good fight: they took the map, but eventually lost the series with a 1-2 score. In the MSI 2024 Fnatic again defeated GAM Esports 2-0 in the play-offs match. In the first Bracket Stage match, they lost to Gen.G with a score of 0-3, but they showed the game. But in the lower Bracket Stage match, Fnatic very unexpectedly lost to TL with a score of 1-3, thus leaving MSI 2024 at the Top 8 stage.

Prior to the Esports World Cup 2024 Long Convergence, Fnatic confidently advanced to the LEC Summer 2024 play-offs. As a result of EWC 2024 Fnatic finished in the top-8. On the home stage, they finished top-2 at LEC Summer 2024 and LEC Finals 2024. However, one of Fnatic's most important achievements is reaching Worlds 2024, where the Orange managed to finish in the top 14.

At LEC Winter 2025, Fnatic will debut with a passing match against KOI.

Fnatic's most popular champions

Jax (3 matches, 33% wins), Gwen (2 matches, 50% wins), Gangplank (2 matches, 50% wins), Jayce (2 games, 50% wins) take the top line.

In the woods, Maokai (7 matches, 42% wins), Sejuani (4 games, 25% wins), Vi (3 games, 66% wins) were permanent.

The centre line was most often occupied by Sylas (5 matches, 40% wins), Ryze (3 games, 100% wins), Akali (2 games, 0 wins).

Zeri and Sivir peaked equally often on the shooter position. Both heroes appeared 4 times, but the former won all his games, and the latter - none.

Ashe appeared most often amongst the Spurrots. Archer was chosen 5 times and won 2 matches. Yuumi (4 matches, 75% wins), Heimerdinger (4 matches, 25% wins) were also frequently played.

Vitality Form

We continue the Vitality vs Fnatic match with the analysis of Vitality's form. In this match they will play as an outsider with odds to win around 2.8.

Vitality started last season by participating in LEC Winter 2023. In the regular season, Vitality went over the heads of their opponents: they played it 7-2 and then went to play the group stage, where they had much less luck. So much so that Vitality failed to get out of their basket, Ledgeiv SK Gaming and KOI. As a result, the top 5.

Next up was an appearance at LEC Spring 2024. This was Vitality's best split where they managed to make it to the top 3. However, that was enough for exactly nothing: just Top 3.

The last tournament last season for Vitality was LEC Summer 2023. And it was a total fiasco: Vitality had their worst performance of the year, going 1-8 in the regular season and finishing the split in the top 10.

• Vitality lineup: Naak Nako, Lyncas, Czajek, Carzyy, Hylissang.

The team has a pretty strong lineup, but the realisation is Vitality's kryptonite.

In the first match of LEC Winter 2024, Team Vitality will play against GIANTX, where I see problems for the Bees. I think EXCEL's peppy core will give Vitality a boost. And so it happened. And two more defeats later, against Fnatic and Team BDS.

Vitality were actually pleasantly surprised. After Long Sogpeg 0-3, the "bees" managed to comeback on a score of 4-5, thus making it to the next stage of the tournament.

In the first round of the LEC Winter 2024 play-offs Vitality played against SK Gaming. Surprisingly, the French were very convincing and closed the series with a score of 2-0. However, things were not so rosy after that, as Vitality played a derby against BDS, which ended with a super confident victory of the latter. The next match was the last one for Vitality in LEC Winter 2024. They played it against MAD Lions KOI and lost with a score of 0-2.

At the end of LEC Winter 2024 Vitality were ranked in the top 6. In the spring split Vitality performed much better and made it to the top 4. In the summer 2024 Vitality clearly failed to do well, finishing in the top 9 and thus failing to make it to Worlds 2024.

The first test for Vitality at LEC Winter 2025 will be a match against BDS.

Vitality's most popular champions

The most frequent guest on the top line is Jax (2 matches, 100% wins). Also picked were KSante, Gnar, Gwen and Ornn, Renekton and Gragas. Ornn and Renekton lost their matches, not quite hitting the season 13 meta.

Bo predominantly played as Vi. One of the most meta characters of the season appeared in spades 4 times and won all his games. There was also Sejuani and Maokai (2 games and 1 win each).

On the centre line, Azir was the favourite character (3 games, 100% wins). The Croatian also played Ryze, Syndra, Cassiopeia, Tristana, LeBlanc and Taliyah. Only Tristana and LeBlanc lost.

Of the shooters, Zeri (3 games, 66% wins), Ezreal (2 matches, 100% wins), Varus (2 games, 100% wins) appeared most often. Caitlyn and Sivir peaked once each: the former won her game and the latter lost.

Of the supporting characters, Yummi (3 games, 33% wins), Ashe (2 games, 100% wins) played three times. Leona, Braum, Nami and Lux won once each.

History of head-to-head meetings between Vitality and Fnatic

In the season 2024 the teams played each other 4 times and each time Fnatic won.

Predicted result of Fnatic vs Vitality at LEC Winter 2025

In this match my bet is on Fnatic. After the roster changes during the 2025 offseason, they look just as good, if not better in terms of performers. As for Vitality, I don't see any reinforcements, so it will be very difficult for them to beat a team of Fnatic's level.

Bottom line: Fnatic wins.