Flusha, Fnatic earn ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals spot

M Alzamora Published 18/11/2019

Fnatic defeated Team Vitality in the ESL Pro League Season 10 Europe Division

The 2-1 win guarantees Fnatic a top-two finish in Round 2’s group B, ensuring the team a spot in the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals. The achievement was made even more impressive by the absence of Fnatic’s Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson due to an illness.

Fnatic enlisted Budapest Five’s Rasmus “kreaz” Johansson to stand in for the veteran. Kreaz posted an impressive performance for the team, something Jesper “JW” Wecksell discussed during the post-match interview.

Kreaz performed well over the three maps and was rated the second-best Fnatic player by HLTV. The stand-in beat out JW, Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, and Maikil “Golden” Selim with a 1.21 rating while participating in 80% of Fnatic’s kills. Simply put, kreaz performed just as well as, if not better than, Krimz would have.

Fnatic flops on Nuke, bounces back on Mirage

Fnatic started the series inauspiciously, falling to Vitality on Nuke 16-9. They looked completely unprepared for the pick, posting a 6-9 score on the favored CT side before flopping after switching to offense.

Kreaz had the highlight play for Fnatic on Nuke, using a stolen Krieg to post a big quadruple kill round while defending the A bombsite.

“Oppressive” is the best word to describe Fnatic on Mirage, where game two was played.

Vitality rarely reached a bombsite without taking massive casualties while on offense, and did little to hold back Fnatic on defense. It was Fnatic’s map from the start, and how they won their rounds tells the complete story of just how great the team played.

Fnatic won by elimination in eight of its ten successful rounds on offense. They relied on the bomb for a round win only twice during their offensive half. In an odd mirroring of their time on offense, the team allowed only two bomb plants in ten rounds on the CT side, while also winning eight rounds by elimination.

This combined for a convincing 16-9 win for Fnatic. Tied at 1-1, the series headed to Inferno for the decider.

Fnatic takes ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals spot

Fnatic started well on Inferno, but weren’t nearly as dominant as they were on Mirage. The team lost the pistol round and gave up two retakes while on offense. Despite that, the team held together and started the second half with an 8-7 lead.

Fnatic ran wild on the CT side, however. The French squad only managed to win two rounds on the T side despite averaging over six over the last 100 days. When all was said and done, Fnatic took Inferno, the series, and the last European ESL Pro League Finals spot.

Vintage Flusha returns for a play, French CS is in a bad spot

A special mention has to be given to Robin “flusha” Rönnquist. The veteran Fnatic player went nuclear on Mirage with a 1.63 HLTV rating and closed the map by winning a one-on-two clutch. He also showed up on Inferno with one of the most flusha-esque, “just go for it” aces he’s had in some time.

Things looked grim tonight for Vitality. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut was the lone bright spot for a team that saw almost every member finish with a negative KDR. While Richard “shox” Papillion was adequate, the series showed that the recent woes of French CSGO likely can’t be remedied by simply shuffling the same set of players around.

Fnatic will officially finish its time in the Europe Division with a match against FaZe Clan on November 18, though both teams already have already secured a spot in the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals.

M Alzamora

About M Alzamora

There are few things that writer M Alzamora loves more in life than Pokemon. And there are even fewer things that she loves more than her favorite Pokemon, Eevee. But M’s appreciation for gaming isn’t just limited to Nintendo’s famous pocket monsters. She’s interested in every type of game across every genre of gaming, and she has the credentials to prove it. M’s work has also been seen on Working Classicists and gaming sites.

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