In a close 3-2 victory, EXCEL Esports defeated Fnatic in the first round of the 2022 LEC Summer Playoffs. Fnatic will move onto the second round of the post-season lower bracket and will play next against Misfits Gaming — who previously fell to G2 Esports 1-3. XL's playoff aspirations, as well as their hopes of competing at the 2022 League of Legends World Championship, are now over. 

The teams proved to be very even in the first game. Both rosters attained leads throughout the match, but it was through the heroics of Patrik "Patrik" Jírů and XL's overall more polished team fighting that allowed them to win the game. XL didn't overperform in the next game of the series, but it was rather Fnatic's poor composition choices that led to a fairly one-sided game for XL to bring the series to a 2-0 lead. 

What looked to be a certain sweep for XL turned into a strong comeback for Fnatic in the third game. Although the former maintained an early lead throughout most of the game, Fnatic managed to claw their way back to victory. Though the fourth game was once again close, Fnatic once again showed better late-game decision-making and evened the series to a deciding Game 5. The final match was close throughout the early and mid game, but Fnatic took advantage of their momentum and took the game to win the series.

Though it was a disappointing end for XL, the organization still had the best year in its history as an LEC team. After years of failing to make the playoffs, they did so twice in a row and put up a strong fight in their playoff matches. Fnatic is the longest-tenured organization in the LEC, and has been a staple European representative at Worlds.

After several years of failing to make the playoffs, XL is the closest they've ever been to qualifying for Worlds. In an interesting turn of events, the two rosters considered "superteams" at the beginning of the year — Team Vitality and Fnatic — both failed to make a significant impact on the European scene. Although Fnatic showed promise in the Spring Split's regular season, and were considered by many to be potentially the best team in Europe, the organization failed to make the finals of the playoffs, and began to have many issues during the Summer Split.