FunPlus Phoenix have found their way through a tough group stage at VCT Masters Copenhagen, securing the second seed out of Group B following their victory over Northeption today. They will take on Fnatic in the opening round of the playoffs, with Dmitry “SUYGETSU” Ilyushin set to join the rest of his team for that match.
Starting out on Fracture, FPX found success on the attack side thanks to ardiis lurking beneath B site and Shao delivering a couple of remarkable clutches. But Northeption countered with aggressive early utility that disrupted FPX’s executes before they began, while staggering their ultimates that could boost their retake success chances. FPX held a narrow 7-5 lead before heading into Northeption’s formidable attack side.
Northeption’s attack strength came from their utility stack of Neon, Breach, and Raze, but FPX had the answer. On defense, FPX knew just where to sit and wait, avoiding Northeption’s utility and catching the attacking players off guard. The FPX lead reached 12-7 before Northeption finally put an attack round on the board, but a well-timed ANGE1 Omen teleport and an ardiis Operator triple halted the comeback attempt quickly, resulting in a 13-9 FPX win on Fracture.
FPX looked even more comfortable on the attack side of their pick of Ascent with another dominant dual performance coming from ardiis and Shao, who put together 30 kills combined in the first half, leading to a 9-3 lead, despite some unreal heroics from xnfri.
Northeption won a must-needed pistol round on their attack side, capitalizing on some sloppy peeks and pushes by FPX to reduce the lead to 9-7. FPX’s first round win was immediately met by a loss, but they still managed to halt the Japanese comeback with a stunning anti-eco round win. An ANGE1 triple effectively shut the door on Northeption, who had no money to keep their comeback alive, falling to FPX 13-9 on Ascent to bring their Masters run to an end.
The travel woes that kept FPX from competing at Masters Reykjavik returned for this event, with SUYGETSU unable to acquire a visa in time for the group stage. Both Shao and ANGE1 nearly missed out on attending Masters Copenhagen as well. Mathias “SEIDER” Seider has stood in admirably for FPX during the group stage, providing consistent play at the controller role in FPX’s victories.
FPX will meet a familiar foe in the first round of the playoffs since they’ve drawn a match versus EMEA rivals Fnatic, who coincidentally played with two subs at Masters Reykjavík. The two full-strength teams will meet on July 15, starting at 10am CT.
