fnatic advance to ECS semi-finals at expense of MIBR

fnatic secured a 2-0 series victory against MIBR in the Group B decider match, setting up a semi-final clash against Liquid in Arlington.

MIBR entered the series looking to claim revenge for fnatic's Inferno victory in their opening matchup of the ECS Season 8 Finals, a map which had seen Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell post a 2.00 rating as he laid waste to MIBR's T side.

To kick off the veto, fnatic had once again banned out MIBR's home map of Train, leaving the Brazilians to throw a curve-ball as they instead picked Vertigo, a map that Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim and company were yet to play any official games on. In an interview with HLTV.org ahead of the series, Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga said that MIBR were prepared in the event of a rematch against fnatic on Inferno as they were confident they would pick it again, a prediction which came true as the Swedes selected it as the second map of the series.

The Swedish side had also left Vertigo as a decider in their series against Astralis, and although it wasn't played, it was evident that the team had been working on integrating it into their pool as they made short work of MIBR, with Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin powering his team to a map victory. A terse battle on Inferno gave MIBR the opportunity to claim revenge as they held a lead in the second half, but a loss to an eco from fnatic shattered those hopes to grant the Swedish side passage to the playoffs.

fnatic took an early 2-0 lead on Vertigo, which was answered by MIBR taking three rounds off the back of four frags and a 1vs2 clutch from fer. Multi-frags from Golden and Brollan put fnatic back in control however, seeing the Swedes pull ahead 7-3 before Deagles helped MIBR get back on the board.

A quad kill from Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles aided MIBR in their effort to tie up the score at 7-7, but Brollan still gave his team the edge by finding a trio of frags to close out the half. Although the Brazilians were once again able to even the score with a win in the second pistol, a triple kill from JW swung momentum back in the favour of fnatic, and from there they remained in control as five multi-kill rounds from Brollan allowed the Swedish team to run over MIBR and close out the map 16-9.

A similarly strong start on Inferno put fnatic ahead at 5-1 before MIBR began to claw back, capitalizing on the AWPs of Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe to eventually tie the score at 7-7 for the second time. Again it was Brollan who gave fnatic the edge heading into the side swap, securing an ace in round 15 for an 8-7 scoreline at halftime.

MIBR seemed set to push the series to a deciding map as they won six of the first eight rounds in the second half, granting themselves a 13-10 lead. An A apartments pop against an eco from fnatic would prove to be their downfall however, as a crucial triple kill from Brollan kicked off a spree of six rounds for his team to edge out a 16-13 victory.