fnatic win close battle with Anexis

fnatic overcame Anexis in a back and forth match-up (16-9 on de_mirage_go, 6-16 on de_dust2_se and 16-12 on de_nuke_se) to advance to the semi-finals of Mad Catz Birmingham.

Two of the world's ten best teams according to our March ranking, Anexis (10th) and fnatic (6th), suffered surprising defeats in their opening matches at Mad Catz Birmingham, so they ended up meeting in the quarter-final of the tournament. Anexis were upset by k1ck, while fnatic lost to fm.TOXiC and then drew with Reason Gaming to finish 3rd in Group B.

Coming into the clash, neither team was a clear favorite so we were in for an exciting battle. The action started on de_mirage_go, fnatic's pick, and the Nordic squad took an early 2-0 lead on the Terrorist side.

However, they got surprised by Anexis who bought in the 3rd round and managed to defend the B bombsite even in a 3-on-5 situation, following that up with a 1-on-2 by James "Mx" Smale in the next round to even the score at 2-2.

Smale almost repeated that in round five, but Michael "Friis" Jørgensen fought him off in the end, making it a very expensive round for Anexis as they were then forced to go on a double eco.

That put fnatic into a powerful position of having the economic advantage, which they rode until the end of the half. Anexis reduced the deficit at 6-3 at 10-4, but fnatic replied each time and were on top 11-4 before the sides changed. Scoreboard leader at that point was Anexis' former member who didn't really shine for fnatic yesterday in the group stage, Lasse "stingeR" Midtstue with 17:5 score.

stingeR improved on his group stage performance

As the second half began, one of Anexis' group stage stars, Daniel "RE1EASE" Mullan took out three opponents with the glock in a 2-on-3 situation to secure the pistol round for his team, leading up to an 11-7 score.

Fnatic's Midtstue did exactly the same with his M4A4 in the first buy round of the second half to get his team back on track, after which Jørgensen opened up a couple of rounds with his AWP to secure a 14-7 lead. A few rounds were exchanged then, but the Danish side defended well to close out the map 16-9.

The second map was de_dust2_se, same one that Anexis took VeryGames down on two days ago. The Brits started strongly, taking a 7-0 lead as Terrorists with Mullan leading the way with 11 kills, including three in the first buy round and at least one kill in six of the first seven rounds.

Fnatic somewhat consolidated by the end of the half, as the remaining eight rounds were split between the teams for an 11-4 scoreline. However, Andreas "MODDII" Fridh's squad was unable to take the following pistol round, so the match was practically over at that point. They did take a couple of T-side rounds, but Anexis quickly brought it to an end with 16-6 and moved the match to a deciding 3rd map.

RE1EASE once again getting it done on dust2

The decider de_nuke_se commenced with Anexis going up 2-0 as Terrorists, but then the server crashed causing a 30 minute break until the situation was settled. The rules said that since the match didn't reach round 4 it had to be restarted, even though it could have been restored to the round before the crash thanks to CS:GO's backup feature.

Fnatic took full advantage of their second chance and this time they went up 2-0, but similarly to the first map they got caught off guard by Anexis' 3rd round buy. Martin "trace" Heldt bought a MAG7 in the next round and picked up two entry kills to help fnatic defend the lower bombsite, eventually putting the Brits on a double eco as their ecomony was reset.

In the next buy round Anexis' stand-in for this event Josh "mole" Rowley, clinched a 1vs2 situation, and the Brits won the next one too to make the score 5-3. But fnatic had saved up enough money to be able to muster another buy in round 9 which ended up being the turning point in the half.

The Danes took that round and brought the momentum back to their side, which they rode all the way until the end of the first half for a 12-3 lead, with Midtstue once again topping the scoreboard with 23 kills.

Under pressure British squad desperately needed the second pistol round, and they won it thanks to a pair of kills by both Sam "RattlesnK" Gawn and Brandon "weber" Weber.

After that Anexis established great defense in the coming rounds, getting first picks and successfully converting them into round wins all the way up to 12-11. It was only then that fnatic replied with two rounds, but Anexis' Mullan was the player who kept his composure best in a messy upper bombsite battle in round 26, winning a 1-on-2 to put the score at 14-12 in favor of fnatic.

In the probably deciding round 27, fnatic won an early exchange, forcing Anexis players to save. It turned out that Anexis simply didn't have an answer any more, as another upper attack worked for fnatic and they clinched the victory in this match-up with 16-12 on de_nuke_se.

Anexis have thus been knocked out in 5th-6th place, while fnatic will carry on in the tournament by meeting Western Wolves in the semi-final.