ELEAGUE Group D recap

This week, ELEAGUE Season 1 taking place in Atlanta, Georgia hosted fnatic whose Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer returned, Dignitas who recently lost their young gun Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye, the rising FaZe, and TSM who used Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller as their fifth player.

fnatic played their first two matches against TSM as the Swedes won 16-13 on Cache and 16-3 on Mirage. olofmeister warmed up after the first map and put on a vintage performance, posting a 24:8 rating and a 1.92 rating.

The Swedish team later faced Dignitas and defeated René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg's team in two matches as Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist & company only gave 15 rounds in total. olofmeister had a 27:18 score and a 1.50 rating on Cobblestone while flusha posted a 1.91 rating on Dust2.

The return of olofmeister–and consequently the return of vintage fnatic–stood out after fnatic demolished FaZe, beating them 16-0 on Cobblestone as Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman had a 2.03 rating showing in the massacre.

FaZe replied with a 16-8 victory on Mirage thanks to Ricardo "⁠fox⁠" Pacheco who had a 25:13 rating. Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson posted a 0.28 rating, tying his second worst performance ever. With these results, fnatic guaranteed the #1 seed for the playoffs.

Just like the Swedes, FaZe secured five wins in the group stage as they won two maps each against Dignitas and TSM. Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup exploded against Dignitas on Cobblestone, having a score of 31:6 and a rating of 2.48. These wins ensured the #2 seed for the European mix team.

Dignitas and TSM faced off for the third seed of the group, which meant avoiding fnatic in the semi-finals, and the Danish team won both maps. cajunb brought home the first map with his 1.33 rating performance and Ruben "⁠RUBINO⁠" Villarroel took charge in the second map as he had a 1.34 rating performance.

The first semi-final featured fnatic and TSM and although the North American team manged to get a map off of the Swedes, Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell's team moved on to the finals with a 2-1 victory. Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta's 64:54 score across for maps did not suffice as olofmeister led his team to the victory with his 59:48 score and 1.17 rating.

Dignitas clashed with FaZe in the second semi-final and after splitting maps, FaZe finished it off with a 16-14 win on Mirage. Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard led all players with a 1.31 rating and a 72:52 score while Dignitas's IGL Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen was subpar to say the least (0.82 rating).

The group final wasn't competitive as fnatic beat FaZe 16-12 on Cache and 16-5 on Cobblestone. olofmeister had a 1.51 rating and a 51:31 score on two maps. All but one fnatic player had more than a 1.00 rating while only aizy managed to exceed the said mark on FaZe's side.

Group D MVP: Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer

Are we even surprised at this point? The guy returns to LAN after a 74 day break caused by an injury and dominates everyone, making his team look like close to unbeatable. He is on a mission to Make fnatic Great Again and I endorse him for the job.

He led all players this week with a 1.24 rating and got 0.87 kills per round. He survived, had a kill or an assist in 72.4% of the rounds, topping everyone in his group. His impact is clear and fnatic, once again, might start climbing the rankings all the way to the top.

Final standings of Group D:

1. – fnatic: 11 points (5p GS + 2p SF + 4p GF) + A spot in the ELEAGUE playoffs
2. – FaZe: 7 points (5p GS + 2p SF) + A spot at the Last Chance Qualifier
3. – Dignitas: 2 points (2p GS)
4. – TSM: 0 points

*GS: group stage – SF: semi-finals – GF: grand finals

TSM's grand total of zero points eliminates them from the tournament and Dignitas will be joining them as they won't be among the two third placed teams with the most points.

ELEAGUE will continue next week with Group C and you can visit our tournament page for more information.

Follow HLTV.org writer BenjaCS on twitter.