Artanis’s Wukong Drives Frites’ Opening EMEA Masters Win

TL;DR: Artanis’s Wukong anchored Frites Esports Club’s chaotic 23-12 win over Gamespace Mediterranean College Esports, contributing an 8/2/9 line and the match’s defining skirmish pressure. Frites converted that momentum into two Barons, four dragons, and a 77.3k-69.6k gold finish, showing why the pre-game draft favorite did not prevail.

Key Takeaways

• Artanis finished 8/2/9 on Wukong, turning repeated skirmishes into the engine behind Frites’ victory.
• Frites Esports Club won the kill race 23-12 and claimed 2 Barons to 0, turning map control into a decisive closing advantage.
• FlickeR posted a 13.00 KDA on Yunara, anchoring the back line with 41.5% of his team’s damage despite starting 327 gold behind at 15 minutes.

Early Game

The opening game of this EMEA Masters 2026 Main Event began with a draft that appeared to favor Gamespace. The live model gave Gamespace M.C. a 63% edge, citing a coordinated engage-and-burst combination: Skarner and Syndra had a modeled synergy rate of 62.96% across a sample of 18.47 games. That was a meaningful pre-game signal, but it was not a result in itself.

Frites’ route through the matchup depended on Wukong and Akali finding effective flanks, breaking through Milio’s protection, and buying time for Yunara to scale. Gamespace had tools to disrupt that plan, and the early gold-difference figures show Frites’ carries did not all begin ahead: FlickeR was 327 gold behind at 15 minutes, while Artanis led his jungle matchup by 429 gold and Wolorz held a 523-gold edge in mid. Those contrasting starts set up a game that would be decided by how well each side fought together, rather than by the draft forecast alone.

The Turning Point

As the contest grew into a series of skirmishes, Artanis became the force Frites needed. His 8/2/9 Wukong line captures more than personal kills: he repeatedly contributed to fights, ending with a reported 73% kill participation. That presence helped Frites turn favorable engagements into objectives instead of letting Gamespace’s pick-and-burst composition dictate the pace.

Wolorz added the sharpest finishing threat. His 9/2/6 Akali gave Frites a dangerous flank, while FlickeR’s Yunara supplied sustained damage once the fight reached the back line. Yunara finished 5/1/8 with a 13.00 KDA, and her 41.5% share of Frites’ damage shows how thoroughly the team’s skirmishes created room for her to contribute.

The model’s 63% preference for Gamespace did not materialize in-game. Its predicted draft edge was a hypothesis about composition and synergy; Frites’ execution, particularly its Wukong-Akali access and protection for Yunara, proved more consequential.

Closing Out

Frites eventually made its fights count across the map. The team secured 4 dragons to Gamespace’s 2, took 12 towers to just 2, and claimed both Barons while its opponents got none. That objective gap explains how Frites could finish on 77.3k gold against 69.6k even as the game ran for 37:13 and Gamespace remained capable of threatening in fights.

Gamespace’s Syndra still contributed 7/6/3, but the team could not turn that damage into enough durable map control. Frites’ steadier conversion left little room for a late reversal. The final 23-12 kill count and the Baron 2-0 margin tell the story of an opening game in which the draft favorite lost its theoretical edge to a team that found the better fights and secured the bigger prizes.

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