Fnatic’s Counter-Strike lineup has cemented their spot as the most successful team of the year with yet another tournament victory, this time in the ESL ESEA Pro League Finals.
Fnatic have now won both iterations of the Pro League, defeating Cloud9 in Cologne back in July, and now beating Na’Vi in Burbank, California. Netting the side $200,000 in prize money overall and a continuing run off offline success.
The team finished with a 17-5 record in the online portion of the league, putting them through to the offline final in second place, behind the ex-Team SoloMid players (now known simply as “?”). The seeding meant they would face off against French powerhouse EnvyUs in the group stage, along with Team Liquid and Conquest from North America. The French side came out on top during the group stage, however thanks to wins over Team Liquid and Conquest, Fnatic set up a semifinal matchup against long time rivals ex-TSM.
Two intense maps later and Fnatic were through to the final. Just four rounds separated the teams on Inferno, while Mirage was an even closer affair, finishing 16-14 in favor of Fnatic. An outstanding individual performance from ex-TSM’s Nicolai “Device” Reedtz was cancelled out through a strong team effort from Fnatic.
Their opponents in the grand finals had been on a tear throughout the tournament. Na’Vi’s Egor “Flamie” Vasilyev was having the tournament of his life, while the ever-explosive Ladislav “Guardian” Kovács launched the team into another grand final.
It was one of the most intense best-of-five series of the year. Three of the five maps came down to the very last round, with Fnatic claiming two 16-14 victories, including a huge comeback in map one. Things looked tense after Na’Vi came back from 2-0 down in the series to tie it up at 2-2. Big performances from Olof “Olofmeister” kajbjer and newcomer Dennis “Dennis” Edman, however, secured the victory on map five.
The victory marks the end of an outstanding year for Fnatic. With no competitions left this year, all the teams will have some rare time off before what could be the biggest year in Counter-Strike history.
Photo by Sebastien Ekman via DreamHack/Flickr
