Luminosity vs. fnatic preview

After not being far from going out in the group stage of IEM Katowice, fnatic have found a way to another grand final over Virtus.pro and Astralis to attempt to make their tournament win streak alive.

In that same group Luminosity only lost one map, to Ninjas in Pyjamas at a point when they had already secured their place in the semi-finals. In another mouth-watering series with their rivals Natus Vincere, the Brazilians came out ahead, stopping Na`Vi's streak at four grand finals in a row.

The teams will meet in the grand final of IEM Katowice at 18:00 and we have put together a preview for the upcoming best-of-five between the two.

Grand final

fnatic fnatic	Rating		Luminosity	Rating
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	1.29		Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	1.18
Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson	1.16		Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	1.04
Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist	1.08	vs.	Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	1.23
Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell	1.13		Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	1.06
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	0.94		Lincoln "⁠fnx⁠" Lau	0.84

* Ratings shown are from IEM Katowice

Head-to-head history

Due to Luminosity's frequent encounters with Natus Vincere, the team doesn't have that much of a history with fnatic. The two faced each other four times in the same lineups, on two best-of-ones and two best-of-threes.

One of those is a 16-0 blowout at FACEIT Stage 3 Finals, Luminosity's first match after swapping two players. The two also met at the same tournament's grand final, and there the story was quite different, as fnatic had to come back from a 0-1 deficit in the series after losing de_train.

SL i-League StarSeries XIV Finals followed and once again, the Swedes were able to prevail despite losing the opener (de_mirage that time around) in the semi-finals. The two met in the group stage in Poland as well, and it was the Brazilians to come out on top after a close de_inferno.

Their encounters have been filled with de_inferno, as it's one of the best maps of both teams. It is to be expected that de_dust2 won't be in the mix, as it's a map Luminosity simply doesn't play, while the same applies for fnatic and de_mirage.

Interestingly, flusha has been above average in Luminosity encounters, as he and olofmeister have had the biggest impact in the match-up. On the other side we can see coldzera trailing the two aforementioned Swedes closely, but it needs to be pointed out that Luminosity's best player overall hasn't been nearly as impactful as at previous events.

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating1.0
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	104 - 78	+26	22.2	15.1%	1.25
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	90 - 69	+21	16.3	15.1%	1.19
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	81 - 64	+17	12.8	16.8%	1.05
Dennis 'dennis' Edmandennis	83 - 82	+1	17.2	16.8%	1.01
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	74 - 84	-10	16.7	16.0%	0.85

Luminosity	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating1.0
Fernando 'fer' Alvarengafer	83 - 84	-1	26.1	19.3%	1.05
Marcelo 'coldzera' Davidcoldzera	87 - 86	+1	15.6	16.0%	1.00
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	79 - 83	-4	17.1	16.8%	0.95
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	62 - 91	-29	20.8	21.0%	0.73
Lincoln 'fnx' Laufnx	65 - 90	-25	14.4	18.5%	0.72

Best performers at IEM Katowice

So far at this tournament olofmeister has continued his reign over fnatic's course. Apart from two maps, one of which was interestingly against the other grand finalists, out of ten, he hasn't dropped below 1.00 rating.

In fact, he even had three godlike performances throughout the tournament. One of those was in the deciding map in the group stage, against mousesports, where put up a 37-18 score (1.59 rating) in the overtime-worthy battle.

The other two came from each playoffs match: de_train versus Virtus.pro (26-8, 2.12 rating) and the decider against Astralis, de_inferno (28-12, 1.84 rating). His dominance in fnatic is further proved by fnatic's round win rate whenever olofmeister got a kill - 105-30 (78%, highest at the tournament) - as well as when he didn't - 50-73 (41%, lowest in fnatic).

On the other side, group stage was carried by fer, who put up other-worldly performances in each close match in the group stage apart from the meaningless one versus Ninjas in Pyjamas.

When he dropped below 1.00 rating in the Natus Vincere semi-final, FalleN was there to pick up the slack with a stunning 68-39 score (1.49 rating) over the narrow series.

Overall the AWPer had an insane impact on his team's round wins: when had a kill, assist or survived, Luminosity's round score was 107-40 (73% win rate), and when he didn't contribute at all, the same statistic sits at 8-40 (14% win rate).

He is definitely a player to watch out for in the grand final in terms of his ability to open up rounds. So far at IEM Katowice his score in opening duels is 31-9, which amounts to a 78% win rate, the highest at the tournament. 

Who will you be rooting for in the upcoming best-of-five grand final between fnatic and Luminosity? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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