Titan to G3 final over fnatic

fnatic barely made it through their quarter-final match against mousesports earlier today, coming out with an overtime third-map win. It was never going to get easier at the next step, where they were about to meet Titan who previously knocked out iBUYPOWER 2-0.

First big challenge for fnatic's new lineup

To start off the first semi-final we saw de_mirage, Titan's pick. The French-Belgian side started convincingly as CTs, taking the pistol round and then after losing the first buy round, resetting fnatic's money in the next one, courtesy of Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux's 1-on-2 clutch for 4-1.

They rode the money control up to 8-1, with SmithZz at 14:4, when Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell's 4 AWP kills at the A site brought the Swedes their second round.

They managed to string two rounds together and force Titan on an eco, but Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom and Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub scored 2 kills each to break fnatic's money again, and more importantly steal any hint of momentum change. The half ended 12-3 and kennyS was topping the scoreboard with 19:6, many of which were important AWP kills.

kennyS was on point with his AWP on de_mirage

JW won another round for fnatic practically by himself, scoring five P2000 headshots in the second pistol round, but his team once again succumbed to CZ75s for 13-4, which eventually led to Titan running away with the map 16-4.

Heading into de_inferno, Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans' team carried their momentum through and went up 3-0 once again, this time on T side. The scores looked like a copy of map one after they reset fnatic's money at 4-1, but this time the Swedes didn't break and they quickly evened up the score at 4-4.

They stringed eight rounds together, including a 1vs2 clutch by Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist that saw him come out on top with 1HP and defuse the bomb, before Titan took the last two rounds of the half – 9-6 in favor of fnatic.

The second pistol round went to Markus "⁠pronax⁠" Wallsten's team thanks to his 3 kills, two of which came in a 2-on-2. After that flusha and Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer together fought off a scary second round buy which put their team in the driver's seat for the second half.

Fnatic won the first buy round for 13-6, and even though they lost the next two rounds, they managed to close de_inferno with 16-8, taking the semi-final to map three.

olofmeister didn't have a great day, but he showed up on de_inferno

With momentum now on their side, fnatic took the pistol round, but they were quickly interrupted by Titan's trademark second round scout and Deagle buy that made the score 1-1.

It was only after round eight when ScreaM won a 1-on-2 for 7-1 that fnatic finally woke up, taking three rounds in a row, the last of which included a teamkill by kennyS in a close situation that seemed likely to give the Swedes some wings.

However, French-Belgians weren't affected and they closed the half out 10-5, following that up with a 3K by Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt in the pistol round which set them up for 13-5, despite fnatic's buy attempts.

Now without having enough money for the first full buy, the Swedes looked to be in trouble, but they somehow managed to win an eco and start a mini-comeback. Four rounds later Titan got their 14th round for 14-9, but then pronax won a huge 1-on-2 clutch to keep his team in the game.

Ex6TenZ then held an in-game timeout during his team's eco round and a couple of minutes later when the score said 14-12 his quick A attack proved fruitful.

ScreaM had a couple of big clutches on de_dust2

Facing match point, fnatic were about to reset Titan's money and give themselves good chance at overtime after getting to a 5-on-2 situation. But kennyS and ScreaM quickly made it 2-on-2, and the latter then won another 1-on-2, this time for the win and the final score of 16-12.

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating1.0
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	44 - 46	-2	-	-	0.95
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	42 - 48	-6	-	-	0.91
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	42 - 54	-12	-	-	0.88
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	42 - 53	-11	-	-	0.86
Markus 'pronax' Wallstenpronax	45 - 52	-7	-	-	0.86

Titan now enter their first grand final at an international tournament since DreamHack Stockholm back in February, where they will meet either in-form dignitas or Virtus.pro.