For all of the chaos that took place during the second Gfinity Spring Masters event, one thing was clear: Fnatic is the dominant force in Counter-Strike.
Fnatic added another title to their growing collection Sunday with a sweep of Virtus Pro in the finals of Gfinity’s invitational event in London. And while the series was competitive, the outcome was never in doubt.
Fnatic were powered by the usual strong play from Olof “Olofmeister” Kajbjer and Jesper “JW” Wecksell, guided by Markus “Pronax” Wallsten’s steady hand. Virtus Pro’s veteran players Wiktor “Taz” Wojtas and Filip “Neo” Kubski struggled to keep up, and the Polish team that has looked to be better form recently was unable to take a single game.
The victory is more of the same for Fnatic, who have established themselves as the premier squad in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Their dominance in 2015 has scarcely been challenged. Earlier in the year, Team EnvyUs were able to stand up to the Swedes, but Envy has since run into their own struggles and failed to emerge from the group stage in London. Team SoloMid has more recently acted as the occasional kryptonite to Fnatic’s power, but SoloMid were not in attendance at Gfinity.
Fnatic’s finish at the top was an island of consistency at what was otherwise a chaotic event.
Australian side Vox Eminor built on their increasing success at ESL Katowice and the associated qualifier by winning games against both Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Team Liquid found similar spots of success, recovering from a slow start to take games from Fnatic and Natus Vincere.
Envy and Ninjas in Pyjamas, widely considered to be two of the world’s top three teams prior to the unexpected ascendance of Team SoloMid, both failed to advance to the playoff bracket. And Cloud9’s international debut with their new roster impressed early with a dominant win over Team Immunity, but failed to carry that success forward as the team lost each of their next three series played.
The flurry of mixed results made two things clear: Different regions are coming closer together, and the battle at the top level of Counter-Strike is only getting tighter and more packed. At least, for everyone besides Fnatic.
Image via Fnatic
