fnatic send Cloud9 packing in London

fnatic came from behind to beat Cloud9 2-1 and progress to Group A's decider stage at the ECS Season 5 Finals.

The opening match of day two in London saw Cloud9 storm to a 3-0 lead on the back of a successful B execution in the pistol round. After fnatic bought up, however, the landscape of the game changed instantly, with the Swedes losing just one of the next nine rounds to take a massive 8-4 lead. Things were starting to look grim for Cloud9, but then the North Americans tightened up their defence to bring the deficit to a solitary round.

The second half began with Cloud9 taking the pistol round with a fast B execution, but they could not follow it up as Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell went huge and pulled off a quad-kill with the CZ to put fnatic back in the lead.

That marked the beginning of a dominant period from fnatic, with the scoreline blooming to a 12-8 advantage for the Swedes, forcing Cloud9 to call a tactical pause. The North Americans were able to respond immediately, thanks to back-to-back quad-kills from Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta and William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba, leaving fnatic's economy in shambles.

Down 12-13, the Swedish team finally put a halt to Cloud9's fantastic run and even reclaimed the lead after winning two rounds in a row. The North Americans were starting to look a bit nervy, but Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham rescued his team with a 1v2 clutch to restore parity at 14-14. With no money in the bank, fnatic were simply helpless to prevent C9 from running away with the game.

Train, the map that followed, began with a chaotic pistol round that came down to a knife duel won by Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim. fnatic used that momentum and rampaged to a stunning 8-0 lead as Cloud9 simply could not break through the defence.

Cloud9's offence then finally came to life, with the North Americans winning five rounds straight to put a significant amount pressure on fnatic, who would, however, still hit double digits before the break.

Now playing on the CT side, Cloud9 took the opening three rounds of the half to cut the gap to 8-10. But their hopes were soon extinguished as fnatic took control of proceedings once they had money in the bank and shut down any chances of the North Americans building up an economy, locking down the map at 16-9 to take the series to Cache.

fnatic got off to a flying start on the final map of the series and raced to a 5-1 lead after immediately responding to a pistol round loss. Cloud9 looked lost for ideas, but, after calling a tactical pause, were able to shut down the fnatic defence out of nowhere with just CZs. That was the start of a fantastic run from the North American side, who would take a three-round lead into the break.

The Swedish side came from the break the livelier of the two teams and won four rounds right off the bat. A triple-kill from Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik then breathed new life into Cloud9, who would take a 12-10 lead, but the rest of the haf was all about fnatic's impressive offence as the Swedes lost just one more round before taking the map.

With this victory, fnatic are through to the decider stage, in which they will battle Liquid at 16:15 for survival in the tournament.