- Fnatic’s captain said the squad had prepared a lot against VP ahead of the match
- VP took the first map, Overpass, but fell on Vertigo and Ancient
In what was a very intense match with a nail-biting final half, fnatic secured an upper level bracket spot at the Maltese event.
Fnatic Beat VP
Malta is once again a center of high-level competitive Counter-Strike as the ESL Pro League S19 is currently ongoing. The event saw fnatic defeat Virtus.pro in the opening round and the Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro-led team now continues in the upper bracket. The European combine now moves on to face 3DMAX for a playoff spot.
In a post-match interview, fntic’s captain said that his team had done a lot of preparation against VP. “We’ve been playing them a lot recently, and we’ve been getting destroyed, so we just sent it until we made it,” he joked. “We based our game on countering them, and afro had a super nice game. A lot of our prep didn’t work out because VP is VP, and they plan one step ahead, but we adapted.”
Here’s How the Match Went
While fnatic eventually won the match, they did not start it on the right foot. The European team chose Overpass but struggled on the T-side, only posting four at the switch. It could have been even worse without an eco victory, however, as the Russian squad struggled massively in gun rounds.
But VP’s David “n0rb3r7” Danielyan stepped in at the right time and with a 1vs2 clutch in the pistol, which set his team off on an eight-round streak. Fnatic responded in the closing stages of the map, but they just didn’t have enough steam left, allowing VP to close out Overpass with a 13-11.
Vertigo was up next and VP were out for a vengeance. The tag-team duo of electroNic and FL1T played circles around fnatic, which allowed VP to secure a stable 8-4 lead by the end of the first half. However, things changed drastically when the sides switched as fnatic started to diminish the gap and soon found themselves leading the score. Before long, the European roster had won the map, letting their Russian counterparts score tale just one round during the second half.
With the score reading 1-1, it was all to play for as the teams entered Ancient. VP once again struggled on the T-side but the Russian squad recovered to go into the break 5-7 down. However, the second half arguably saw the most intense fighting over the entire match. Both teams traded rounds and the outcome of the match was uncertain until the very end. However, fnatic managed to find just enough energy to push things over with an A-rush, winning the map 13-11 and taking the match 2-1.
