fnatic take down North; advance to semi-finals in Shanghai

The second quarter final of StarSeries i-League Season 7 finished with fnatic defeating North 2-1 (16-6 Mirage, 10-16 Nuke, 16-1 Inferno), and advancing to the semi-final where they will face NRG.

North bagged a 3-0 start on Mirage, fnatic's map pick, off the back of a T-side pistol round win, but the Swedes got back on track when they stopped a B site execute in round four and pummeled North on the way to a 5-3 lead. An A split on which Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade got a triple was converted into a fourth round for North, but that was just a short hinderance to fnatic, who bounced back with Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström clutching a 1v1 against Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup.

After finishing the half with a dominant, 11-4 lead, Xizt once again came up in the clutch and added the second-half pistol to fnatic's name. North stopped the bleeding by winning the first rifle round on the defensive side, but things crumbled soon as they lost a baffling 1v3 to Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell with under 20 seconds left on the clock. fnatic closed things out then and there, 16-6, moving on to Nuke.

KRIMZ led the way for fnatic

The second map started similarly to the first, with Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså's team claiming the pistol but fnatic bouncing back shortly from the CT side, 4-3. The Danish team had a great opportunity to break the CTs and run away with the lead after taking three out of the following four rounds (6-5), but then fumbled against USP-S' as Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson claimed three kills on the A site and his teammates locked it in.

Winning the second pistol round set up North for a comeback on the defensive side, with Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's ace on the lower bombsite being crucial to the Danes stabilizing their economy and allowing them to take the lead. As the score was 12-10, North contested the outside smoke-wall successfully to reach the home stretch. At 14-10, Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye found a hat-trick and closed out the round to get to map point, which his team converted on immediately to force the decider, Inferno.

North struggled on Mirage, but bounced back on their map pick, Nuke

Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson and Xizt secured two kills apiece in the pistol to set up fnatic to a good start on Inferno, but the Swedes couldn't hold against a pistol-armor execute on A, with Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin getting overrun and the after plant held successfuly by North. (4-1) However, KRIMZ's flank on the following round yielded him a triple and put the Danish team on the back foot going into the second part of the half.

Xizt's team had a stour defense from there on out, not looking under pressure at any point, which was shown by them only allowing North one bomb plant before the end of the half, 14-1. Trading kills early in the pistol and getting into the afterplant saw fnatic take the second pistol round as well, 15-1, and close out the game shortly to advance to the semi-final.

StarSeries i-League Season 7Best of 3

fnatic

Matchpage

2

1

5th April 2019

North

16

Mirage

6

10

Nuke

16

16

Inferno

1

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	61 - 42	+19	92.1	70.8%	1.31
Simon 'twist' Eliassontwist	55 - 43	+12	83.2	73.8%	1.18
Ludvig 'Brollan' BrolinBrollan	44 - 39	+5	76.8	73.8%	1.17
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	41 - 40	+1	79.1	73.8%	1.15
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	31 - 36	-5	55.6	70.8%	0.90

North	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangsåvalde	41 - 45	-4	66.5	72.3%	1.02
Casper 'cadiaN' MøllercadiaN	44 - 47	-3	69.8	64.6%	0.99
Nicklas 'gade' Gadegade	38 - 46	-8	62.3	63.1%	0.93
Markus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeKjaerbye	39 - 48	-9	68.9	63.1%	0.91
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	38 - 46	-8	69.3	66.2%	0.90