eUnited shock Na`Vi in Chicago; fnatic defeat BIG

eUnited have pulled off the first major upset of IEM Chicago 2018 after easing past Natus Vincere, while fnatic have defeated BIG in what was also a one-sided match.

Many had expected the secondary stream match to be a one-sided affair, and while that was certainly the case, only few would have predicted Na`Vi to be on the losing end. eUnited, now led by Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta, jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Terrorist side before a 1v2 clutch by Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov in the first gun round put Na`Vi on the board. The Ukrainians were unable to build on that, however, as eUnited rallied back immediately and ran away with the lead.

Down 1-9, Na`Vi finally broke eUnited's streak on what was a very cheap buy on their part, and they followed that up with another round, securing their first gun round win. The North Americans were unwilling to take their foot off the gas, though, and won the remaining rounds for a dream 12-3 half against the No.2 team in the world, with Will "⁠dazzLe⁠" Loafman sitting on 19 frags.

Now playing on the Terrorist side, Na`Vi kept their hopes alive by winning the pistol round and the corresponding anti-ecos. But then it all fell apart as the Ukrainians - apart from their star duo - looked well off the pace, while eUnited kept their defense very tight to win four gun rounds in a row and seal a comprehensive victory against the BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen champions.

Meanwhile, the new fnatic line-up and BIG squared off on the main stream, with the German side taking the lead following a triple-kill by Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz in the pistol round.

A quad-kill by Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell in a messy buy round saw fnatic bring the deficit to 1-2 and marked the beginning of a fantastic run by the Swedes, who shut down any chances of BIG stringing rounds together and went into the break up 11-4.

BIG looked the livelier of the two sides at the start of the second half as they won four consecutive rounds to cut the gap to 8-11. However, their efforts were in vain as the Swedes then tightened up their defense to close out the map in the 25th round.