FNATIC Seal EPL Playoff Berth After Beating Apeks In CS:GO

After defeating Apeks by a score of 2-1 in the lower bracket championship, fnatic became the third team from Group C to be granted a spot in the ESL Pro League Season 18 playoffs. The Christopher “dexter” Nong-led team got off to a bad start with a 5-16 thrashing on Vertigo, but recovered with easy wins of 16-10 on Inferno and 16-13 on Ancient to complete the reversal.

Even though fnatic ultimately prevailed in the series, it was notable for their underwhelming showing. The two players that topped their team’s charts, Fredrik “roeJ” Jrgensen and William “mezii,” only received ratings of 1.00, while the other three fnatic players received ratings that were far lower. Contrarily, Apeks had three players finish the series with strong scores: Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad (1.40), Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski (1.25), and Tim “nawwk” Jonasson (1.23), even if the BLAST Paris Major semi-finalists ultimately gave up the match.

Now that Apeks is in the Last Chance Stage in Malta, they must win both of their games on Sunday, the first one against 9z at 16:00, in order to join fnatic in the playoffs.

Inferno, a map that the European lineup has a 60% victory percentage on over the last three months, was the one that fnatic chose to open the series. Whatever the case, Apeks made a strong start, a strong team effort led by jkaem propelling the team to a comfortable 10-5 lead by the end of their CT-side effort. From there, Apeks stepped it up and produced a spotless six-round T-side, locking up a massive 16-5 victory and sending the series to Inferno in the process. Apeks was motivated to punish fnatic for their veto pick and deny any chance of a comeback.

Even in the face of an outstanding performance by jkaem, fnatic proved to be a harder nut to crack once Inferno arrived. The Norwegian finished the CT-side campaign for his team with 20 kills, which was the most in the server, but Apeks were only able to lead going into the break by one round. The international team built a strong defensive wall, holding Apeks to only two rounds in the second session, allowing them to grab Inferno, 16-10, and force the Ancient decider. This tenuous lead collapsed once fnatic switched to the defensive side of things.

The odds had completely turned in fnatic’s favor by this point. On the T-side, the black and orange quickly built an 8-1 advantage by shoving their way onto the two bombsites and planting the C4 during each of those nine rounds. The only reason Apeks were able to cut their initial deficit down to a more manageable 6-9 scoreline at the side swap was because of a breakthrough, 15-kill effort by CacaNito. As the second half progressed, Apeks did continue to rebound, but fnatic remained resilient and went on to win the map, 16-13, to secure a position in the Pro League playoffs.