Prediction: NGL One first place

22-2-2008 11:36

HLTV.org predicts the team to place first at the NGL One Season 4 finals this weekend.

fnatic

Harley "dsn" Orwall
Oscar "Archi" Torgersen
Patrick "f0rest" Lindberg
Oskar "ins" Holm
Patrick "cArn" Sattermon

The Swedes finished off 2007 with going out way early in brackets at DreamHack Winter, a devastating loss against country-men and big time rivals SK Gaming. The team took a long and deserved break, as the last few matches in Extreme Masters was to be played in the early days of 2008. The team had their trouble winning against Danish up-comers from Spirit of Amiga, but in the end set the record straight. What should be the last match before the finals in Extreme Masters turned out to be the opportsite. The team looked really weak in their match versus Russian Virtus.pro. Not to underestimate Virtus.pro, whom have become quite good on the net lately. fnatic lost the 3-mapper, and should be tossed into a relegation match versus Danish wooSai. fnatic once again got stuck by problems, both with their play, but also with ins, who had ISP issues and kept disconnecting. fnatic turned the match over and came back with full strength and secured their spot at the Extreme Masters finals.

Currently ranked as the best Counter-Strike team in the world, fnatic sure have to be pulling some strings in order to perform at highest during NGL One finals.

Strengths

It is not without reason that this team is being ranked as the best Counter-Strike team in the world. The team’s one-man army f0rest proves over and over again that he’s if not the best, then one of the best players worldwide. Carrying any weapon, he takes several players down before he bites the dust. He’s a wonder taking those clutch rounds home, even in 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 and so on. A f0rest playing his best, is almost a secure win for fnatic.

The brain on the team, captain cArn, has an astonishing skill to read his opponents next move. The great mind-reader has led the team to victory a dozing amount of times already and just has to prove the critics wrong that this team is in bad shape.

The AWP’er on the team, wonder boy dsn has to some the best AWPs in the world. He’s a key for the team when playing inferno. Rotating him between the two bomb spots makes it difficult for almost any team to enter them with success.

Weaknesses

fnatic started having problems with dust2 at WCG 2007 in Seattle. The team lost to both mibr and e-STRO on the map, and officially stated that they had to redo their play on the map. Should the game not work on dust2, it can be a breaking point for their opponents to turn the match into their favor. Lately the team showed awful play on nuke. The map to be CT dominated turned out not to be for fnatic versus Virtus.pro. The team however pulled it off as T, with amazing play. A CT side on nuke should by now be a piece of cake for fnatic. If everything collapses on the CT side once again, fnatic really have to show their pull out their A-game to win the match.

NGL One Season 4 results - 6 wins - 0 tie - 3 lost

vs. woosai - de_inferno 16:12
vs. mTw - de_dust2 6:16
vs. Gravitas - de_inferno 16:3
vs. Alternate - de_train 13:16
vs. Excello - de_nuke 16:0 (default win)
vs. mouz - de_train 16:3
vs. SK Gaming - de_dust2 16:9
vs. roccat - de_nuke 16:9
vs. MYM - de_inferno 13:16

So why have I predicted fnatic to bring home the gold at NGL One Season 4 finals?

Even though I might criticise fnatic more than the most, I truly have a great deal of respect for this team. fnatic have might not been performing well at the big and most important tournaments last year. Most notable would be not making it to the playoffs at WCG 2007. The team did however gather an amazing record of wins during 2007 and nothing but deserve being ranked as the best team in the world. fnatic will win the finals simply because they have what it takes to bring down three other top teams. I pointed out that fnatic do have a few weaknesses, but I just do not see fnatic making the same mistakes once again. They have learned by their mistakes and will bring home this trophy, with or without the luck of ins’ red hat.

Tune in at 15:00CET to follow fnatic at NGL One Season 4 finals. All their matches will be broadcasted here on HLTV.org. Drop by our event coverage to stay fully updated.