Fnatic vs BDS Prediction: Fnatic Has a Point to Prove

• Teams are seeded into their tournament based on their rankings across the Winter, Spring, and Summer splits of 2023. 
• All matches follow a best-of-five format, and the top three teams will qualify for the 2023 World Championship. The fourth-placed team will gain direct entry into the Worlds Qualifying Series. 
• BDS is getting a second crack at the tournament after losing out to G2, while Fnatic won their first match against XL Esports. 

Fnatic vs BDS Pick

• Our Pick: BDS to win. 

Fnatic vs BDS Prediction 

There’s not much separating Fnatic and BDS at this stage of the tournament. The oddsmakers have listed both teams closely, giving the slight edge to Fnatic, while listing BDS as two-to-one underdogs. Going by their most recent performances, Fnatic has a slight edge. 2023 has been a good year for the European team: they consistently improved over the season to reach the finals of the LEC. They took 9th place in LEC Winter 2023, 8th place in LEC Spring 2023, and jumped all the way to third place in the most recent Summer split.  

On the other hand, BDS has also fared decently well over the last year, having finished the LEC Winter Split in 7th place, the Spring Split in 2nd place, and the Summer Split in 5th place. BDS could also make a good wildcard pick. Since they are a new team, their performances this year were completely unexpected. They went from being a mid-table team in 2022 to surging to the top of the rankings in 2023. Could 2023 be the year that BDS shocks the world? We can’t wait to find out, but they will have to get past Fnatic first.  

It’s important to note that the oddsmakers will have their own reasons for picking Fnatic, like the fact that they have been a top-tier team for almost as long as competitive esports has existed. We recommend not completely writing BDS off based on their last performances against their upcoming rivals.  

BDS and Fnatic have faced each other thrice in 2023 so far. From their three meetings, BDS has emerged victorious twice, while Fnatic only managed a single victory during the LEC Summer Split of 2023. Fnatic fared much better during the 2022 season, where they denied BDS a single win over the year. However, BDS hired a brand new roster in December 2022, and things are really coming together for the Swiss team. It’ll be interesting to see what Fnatic can do differently to get past them in this upcoming match.  

BDS on the Path to a Breakthrough Season

The current BDS squad consists of Adam, Sheo, Cownshot, GotoOne, Menq, Labrov, Arces, Clement, and Striker. This roster has remained steady throughout the 2023 season, and this set of players is definitely finding some good working chemistry, as their results have been at a high level throughout the season.  

A quick look at BDS’ tournament stats reveals that they have won four games and lost three so far, for a win rate of 57%. Over the course of these games, they dealt 2159 damage per minute and drew first blood in 57.1% of all maps. BDS scored 13.3 kills and 14.3 deaths per game for a kill/death ratio of 1.7, backed up by 2.5 assists per kill.  

Team BDS also performed decently on the economy front, acquiring 1833 Gold Per Minute. Despite this, their average gold differential at 15 minutes stood at -486. BDS won 66.7% of their games when ahead at 15 minutes and destroyed the first tower in 42.9% of their games.  

These stats are a slight improvement over the Summer Split, where they dealt an average of 1836 damage per minute and drew first blood in 44.4% of their games. In the split, they scored 10.7 kills and 12.9 deaths per game for a kill/death ratio of 1.6, with 2.2 assists per kill on average. Their economic stats remain similar, with an average of 1787 gold acquired per minute. Notably, they won 100% of their games when ahead at 15 minutes.  

Fnatic Has a Point to Prove

If Fnatic puts in a solid performance in the upcoming match, it will do well to protect its legacy against a relatively new team in BDS. Fnatic has only played five games in the tournament so far, and they won three and lost two, with an average game duration of 28 minutes and 39 seconds. Their DPM stat is slightly higher than Team BDS, with 2411 Damage Per Minute.  

Fnatic are strong starters, having drawn first blood in 60% of their games, with 13 kills and 12.6 deaths per game. Over the course of the LEC Season Finals so far, their K/D ratio stands at 1.9, with 2.7 assists per kill. Fnatic is much stronger on the economic side of things than Team BDS, though it remains to see whether BDS can turn this against them. 

They acquired an average of 1902 Gold Per Minute, and their gold differential at 15 minutes stood at +42 on average, putting them ahead of the curve on this stat. They won 66.7% of their games when ahead at 15 minutes and destroyed the first tower in 40% of their games. 

We’re particularly excited about this match because, on paper, Fnatic is the stronger team, and yet, they have not been able to beat BDS even once this year. 

How to Watch Fnatic vs BDS

• Teams: Fnatic vs BDS
• Location: Europe
• Time: Saturday, September 2, 2023
• How to Watch: Twitch