Danish esports organisation Tricked Esport made history this evening after making a huge comeback against Fnatic Rising in the NLC Summer 2021 grand final.
They reverse swept Fnatic’s academy team 3-2 after being 2-0 down to take home the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) title, making them the best team in the UK and Nordics.
This means Tricked progress to the European Masters Main Event, while Fnatic Rising will head to the Play-In stage.
Fnatic comfortably took the first two games, but Tricked came back into the series, and annihilated Fnatic in game four, before being part of a very tense fifth and final game. Credit to Fnatic Rising also, who made Tricked fight for their victory and could have taken the series themselves.
Tricked ADC DenVoksne was instrumental in Tricked’s comeback in the series, and was arguably the difference in game five’s final teamfight by the dragon.
He said on the NLC broadcast after winning: “You learn every split and get better every split, and now we’re here. I’m happy and satisfied, it’s just awesome man!
“I’m not afraid [of going up against other top teams in the EU Masters]. Lots of teams are really good, but it’s not like they’re so much better that you can’t win. It’s about adapting to the draft and understanding the game to a fundamental level to play around what they’re good at, whether it’s early game, scaling, top-lane or whatever. Hopefully we can make the Nordic region proud.”
The NLC has two LEC academy teams: Fnatic Rising and BT Excel.
Last season, Excel Esports academy team BT Excel ended Fnatic Rising’s UK/Nordics reign, after beating them in the Spring 2021 NLC final.
Excel will be disappointed not to have reached the NLC final or EU Masters this time around, not to mention missing out on the LEC playoffs again with their first team.
“I’m happy and satisfied, it’s just awesome man! I’m not afraid of other teams in the EU Masters. Hopefully we can make the Nordic region proud.”
DenVoksne, Tricked Esport
The rosters today were:
- Fnatic Rising: PRIDE (top), MAXI (jungle), Dajor (mid), BEAN (ADC) and Rhuckz (support)
- Tricked: Madly (top), Taxer (jungle), Poulsen (mid), DenVoksne (ADC) and Lucky (support)
The broadcast line-up included casters Hiprain and Aux, with Excoundrel, Trouble and Guldborg on the hosting and analyst desk.
Elsewhere, in the UK League of Legends tiers below the NLC, LDN UTD won the Summer 2021 UKEL, while London Esports won the Summer 2021 UKLC to reach the Telia Masters along with runners-up MNM Gaming. However, both teams didn’t manage to progress from the Telia Masters group stage for a shot to reach the NLC next season.
At the higher tier of European League of Legends, the Summer 2021 LEC playoffs start on August 13th.
The EU Masters, in which Fnatic Rising and Tricked will play, will get underway on August 16th 2021 with the play-in stage, and the group stage starts on August 30th. There’s more EU Masters Summer 2021 scheduling info on the LoL Esports website.
The NLC relegation matches will take place later this month, and the next full season will be Spring 2022.
Elsewhere, the Fnatic Rising CSGO team have reached the WePlay Academy League Season 1 playoffs, which start on August 27th at the WePlay Esports Arena Kyiv.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
