fnatic upset WW in Birmingham

fnatic has upset Western Wolves 2-1 (10-16 de_train_se, 16-11 de_dust2_se, 16-4 de_nuke_se) to advance to the grand final of Mad Catz Birmingham.

Western Wolves had a strong start on de_train_se as they quickly jumped out to a 6-0 lead as terrorists on the map. fnatic replied with two flawless rounds of their own, but WW kept the pressure on until the end.

Led by Jacob "Pimp" Winneche's 20 kills that half, the young Danes were able to put up an impressive 10-5 half on the significantly harder side of the map against fnatic.

The team donning black and orange quickly rushed the outer site on their terrorist pistol, and Martin "trace" Heldt knifed the defuser inside of a smoke to give his teame an easy 3-0 lead in the second half.

fnatic's inner hit gave them round four a well, but the Wolves managed to grab a save round win right after, cutting their lead to three. It looked as if fnatic was going to break their money back, but lost a key five-on-three on the inner site, which made it 2-4 in their favor.

WW then shut fnatic's outside rush down for a 13-9 lead, and after one more stop and a save from the terrorists WW had map point. A win on an outside ruhs gave fnatic hope, but it quickly came crashing down as WW clinched the map with a 16-10 score.

WW have to settle for watching the final 

With their backs against the wall, fnatic attacked the B bombsite on de_dust2_se's pistol round with Lasse "stingeR" Midstrue and Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth combined for five kills.

Their celebration was cut short though, as Winneche's two pistol kills won WW another save round to tie the game. fnatic were forced to save, but a two-on-five by Andreas "MODDII" Fridh and Michael "Friis" Jørgensen tied the game at two.

WW then opted to save twice, allowing fnatic to go up 4-2. The Wolves won seventh round without trouble, but fnatic's B attacks kept working and they ran themselves up to a 7-3 lead.

Lukas "gla1ve" Russander's squad then mounted a massive comeback, winning five straight rounds on the harder side of the map thanks to strong play by Winneche, who wound up finishing with a 19/11 score with some clutch kills.

Second half looked to be WW's as well, but Jørgensen managed to defuse through a massive smoke in a on-on-two, and fnatic got rolling once again. After winning against a third round buy, they were up 11-8, and all of the momentum was on their side.

MODDII led his team to two straight map wins 

Biggest round in the game was probably a two-on-three for WW which Winneche's two AK47 headshots brought down to a two-on-one. However, Højsleth took down both WW players and defused, giving fnatic a 14-8 lead.

That was followed up by Fridh's three M4A4 kills on an A bombsite retake to give them game point, but although WW fought back to win three straight weapon rounds, fnatic's A defense ultimately got them a sixteenth round to tie the series at one, 16-11.

The series came down to de_nuke_se where fnatic quickly stopped WW's ramp push, and then eliminated their third round buy without any problems to grab an early 4-0 lead as counter-terrorists.

Fifth round was the first full buy for WW, but despite Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen's AWP pick on Midstue, fnatic still came out on top. fnatic won round six as well, but WW finally got onboard on the following round.

Trailing 1-6, WW went for a quick upper push, and won the round easily. fnatic couldn't stop the Wolves' next attack either, and after a save round found themselves only up by two rounds.

trace's defuse was key to fnatic's win on de_nuke_se 

fnatic looked bound to be on the losing side of the next round as well, but Heldt scored another one-on-two defuse where the Western Wolves players couldn't locate him inside of the smoke.

That defuse shifted momentum in fnatic's direction once again, as they wound up winning five rounds in a row, with a double kill from both Midstue and Heldt on the final round to make it 11-4.

fnatic continued their winning streak with a ramp rush as terrorists, and two saves by the Wolves allowed them to go up 14-4 before the first gun round of the second half took place.

Unable to come back from the devastating one-on-two by Heldt, Western Wolves lost two straight gun rounds, the first thanks to two kills from Heldt, and were knocked out to the third place decider 1-2.

Western Wolves	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating1.0
Jacob 'Pimp' WinnechePimp	65 - 52	+13	-	-	1.26
Nicolaj 'Nico' JensenNico	45 - 48	-3	-	-	0.90
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	42 - 58	-16	-	-	0.82
Nichlas 'Nille' BuskNille	42 - 54	-12	-	-	0.78
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	32 - 52	-20	-	-	0.67

fnatic will go on to face VeryGames in the grand final starting soon, while Western Wolves will hope to end the weekend on a good note as they take on fm.TOXiC in the third place decider simultaneously.