- The Russian team took revenge for the IEM Katowice 2023 loss to Fnatic earlier this year
- The game was intense with both maps finishing with small differences between the teams
- Fnatic are now sent to face Eternal Fire in the lower bracket
Outsiders continue their winning streak at the ESL Pro League by defeating Fnatic and securing a spot in the playoffs.
Outsiders Defeat Fnatic 2-0
Being some of the best CS:GO teams out there, any confrontation between Outsiders and Fnatic promises many thrills for viewers. The two teams already clashed against each other in IEM Katowice 2023 with the latter defeating the former. Now, Outsiders managed to take revenge on Fnatic, defeating them 2-0 to secure a berth in the ESL Pro League’s playoffs.
With this victory, Outsiders continue their winning streak, having already defeated Mongolian team IHC 2-0, and qualify for the upper bracket final. It will begin on Saturday with Outsiders facing the winner of the clash between G2 and Cloud9. Outsiders will then have the opportunity to advance straight to the quarter-finals of the Maltese event.
It Was a Close Game
The clash began on Inferno with Outsiders securing a pistol round thanks to a triple kill by Dzhami “Jame” Ali. The Russian squad took this momentum to gain a 6-1 advantage over Fnatic. The European team found some success in the middle of the first half, but that also quickly went away as Outsiders retook the initiative and ended the half with a massive 11-4 advantage. With five opening kills and 113 ADR, Outsiders’ Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev was key to the team’s success.
Having dropped back so much Fnatic woke up and won the second pistol round which enabled the European roster to reduce the deficit to just three rounds. A back-and-forth ensued, with the two teams remaining incredibly close as the map reached the final round of regulation, However, after a chaotic B site skirmish, Outsiders barely managed to inch forward, closing out Inferno with a score of 16-14.
The series continued on Vertigo, a map Outsiders notoriously is weak on. This allowed Fnatic to run away with the opening exchanges, finding themselves 6-0 up in time after Outsiders ran out of time for the defuse twice in a row. Fnatic’s winning streak was finally broken by Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin with a 1v1 clutch, but that still wasn’t enough to turn the tide and Outsiders soon found themselves falling 2-9. But Fnatic started running out of steam, allowing their opponents to string four rounds in a row.
The final half of the match started with forcebuy wars and it was Outsiders that came out on top. Finally equalizing the score to 1010, both teams traded a few rounds until a crucial 2v1 clutch by Outsiders’ Petr “fame” Bolyshev. This finally broke Fnatic’s eco, allowing Outsiders to close out the map 16-12.
With this victory, Outsiders book their spot in the EPL Season 17 playoffs, while sending Fnatic to the lower bracket where the European roster will face off against Eternal Fire.
