The upper bracket finals between Fnatic and Evil Geniuses earlier today did not disappoint the spectators at VCT Masters Tokyo, and the last-second heroics from the reigning LOCK//IN MVP could very well secure his second straight individual trophy if Fnatic are able to finish the job.
The match between the red-hot EG and the consistently excellent Fnatic more than met expectations, with both teams taking care of business on their own map picks and duking it out in a back-and-forth map three on Split. Fnatic ran over EG on Lotus, but EG recovered with yet another win on their go-to map in Fracture, sending the series to the map that has provided so many excellent, close matches over the years.
The game on Split was highlighted by numerous instances of individual heroics coming at the tail end of impressive playcalling, but it was yet again the heroics of Fnatic’s Leo Jannesson that proved to be the ultimate difference maker. In a two-vs-two with time running out, EG’s Ethan made the heroic push to deny the spike from being planted. And against anyone else except Leo, this would have won the round and sent the map to overtime.
But Leo is a reigning MVP for a reason and solidified his frontrunner status for that award at VCT Masters Tokyo with this clutch. Leo got not one but two unreal kills through Omen smokes, and with less than two seconds left before the round ended, he managed to spray through the smoke again to take down Ethan. This was even more impressive considering he was using the Vandal instead of the more spray-oriented Phantom as well.
As impressive as this was from Leo, it’s to the point now where these kinds of overall performances and clutches are expected from the superstar Swede. He currently maintains a 1.58 K/D across the playoffs with an 82 percent kill-assist-survive-trade rating, while offering the least first deaths per round among all players, according to stats site VLR.
Related: Fnatic shows perfect strategy for blending enemies at VCT Masters Tokyo
The most astounding part of Fnatic’s run, though, is how dominant the entire trio of Leo, Alfajer, and Chronicle has been. All three are decisively leading the pack in player rating and K/D rating, so if anyone is going to take the MVP trophy from Leo, it’s probably going to be one of his own teammates.
