fnatic eliminate TYLOO from DreamHack Masters Malmö

fnatic's hopes of playing in front of their home crowd will live on as they have survived their first day in Malmö, defeating TYLOO 2-1 in the lower bracket of Group A.

A strong showing from HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu gave TYLOO an early edge on Inferno, allowing the Chinese side to open the map with a 4-1 lead. Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist helped his team fight to even the score, eventually managing to tie up the match at 5-5, but a back-and-forth battle still left TYLOO in the lead by the narrowest of margins at the side swap.

fnatic were quickly able to pull ahead as the second pistol round went in their favour, allowing them to win three of the first four rounds of the half for a 10-9 scoreline. Once TYLOO had rifles in their hands however, somebody and YuLun "⁠Summer⁠" Cai stepped up to bat, taking a trio of rounds to regain control. fnatic managed to post two more rounds to even the score at 12-12, but TYLOO remained resilient as they conceded only one additional round on the road to a 16-13 finish.

TYLOO seemed set to keep the pressure up on fnatic as they took the first pistol of Mirage for their own, but a force-buy from fnatic allowed the Swedes to immediately answer back and seize control from the Chinese side. Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim made up for a lacklustre showing on Inferno as he led the way in frags for his side, with fnatic completely crushing TYLOO's defensive setups to win thirteen rounds in a row. Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand and company were only able to add a single round to their tally before fnatic swiftly brought the map to a close, demolishing TYLOO with a 16-2 victory.

A triple kill from Summer gave TYLOO another early edge as the decider map of Dust2 got underway, converting two ensuing rounds to take a 3-0 lead. The Swedes began to claw back as they won three of the ensuing four rounds through bombsite retakes, but TYLOO replied with a trio of rounds of their own to further extend their lead to 7-3. A resurgence from fnatic, powered by strong performances from Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell, flusha, and Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson, allowed the Swedish side to win four of the remaining rounds in the half, leaving them trailing by a single round as they swapped over to the offense.

Once on the T-side, fnatic remained in full control, winning five rounds straight to kick off the half and pull ahead 12-8. TYLOO attained double digits as they took two rounds of their own, but the map was all fnatic's from there as JW and company cruised to a 16-10 finish.