fnatic beat Renegades; Natus Vincere send FaZe to lower bracket in IEM Katowice openers

fnatic kicked their year off in Katowice with a victory over Renegades, 2-0, while Natus Vincere won a disputed 2-1 series against FaZe.

fnatic didn’t let underdogs Renegades get under their skin, winning the Australian team’s map pick by an ample margin before mounting a comeback on Inferno to bring it back from the brink and close out the series 2-0. The other concurrent match saw FaZe unable to show the dominating performances they did at BLAST Premier as Natus Vincere stopped the European side to take the series 2-1 with solid CT-side performances on Dust2 and Overpass.

fnatic kicked off Dust2 on the right foot,winning the CT pistol round with a triple by Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim and taking an early 4-0 lead before Renegades could get on the board on their map pick. The Swedes didn’t let it faze them, however, and kept racking up rounds, reaching 10-1 before Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong and Simon "⁠Sico⁠" Williams were able to win another for their team with doubles. Up 11-2 Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin downed three players in mid doubles doors with SG553 headshots to pave the way for a 13-2 half.

Renegades won a 5vs4 retake in the second pistol round, but were immediately surprised by a forcebuy in the second round as Golden and Brollan got entry frags on the way to a 5vs3 plant to go up 14-3. Renegades managed one more round, but that would be all they would get on their pick as fnatic were quick to shut it down and take the 1-0 lead into map two.

Renegades took the lead on the CT side of Inferno and then won a clean anti-eco, but fnatic were quick to bring it back to a tie with guns in play before winning an eco of their own to take the lead, 3-2. Renegades didn’t let up and tied it back up before turning it around as Sico had tremendous impact with the AWP. fnatic struggled to find openings, taking a timeout when down 4-9, but it would only help them to find one more round before the half, which ended 5-10.

Renegades increased their lead in the second half to 11-5, but doubles by Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell and Brollan with pistols kept the Swedes alive, but they were equally upset the following round by Renegades’ pistols. The Australian side took advantage of their superior economy to go up 14-6, but slowly started to lose grip on the match as fnatic clawed their way back. Four-kill rounds by Brollan further powered his team as Renegades deflated and with the momentum completely in their favor the Swedes ended the series 16-14.

Natus Vincere won the CT pistol round on Nuke, FaZe’s map pick, to set the pace in their opening series, taking a 2-0 lead. Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard were then able to win a 2vs2 afterplant on B to get on the board and keep the early game tight. After a long technical pause the game resumed and Natus Vincere increased their lead to 3-1 before winning an extremely close 2vs3 in which FaZe didn’t have time to plant despite their superiority. An incredible retake by Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev in a 2vs2 with two kills including a wallbang through huti further increased his team’s lead to 6-1. FaZe slowly brought it back as Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer took down three to get a second on the board, and from there on out it was the European side who were able to claw their way back to an 8-7 lead at the half.

Three kills by coldzera eased FaZe into a 9-7 lead after the second pistol round on Nuke before Natus Vincere had a similar round to the one FaZe had in the previous half where they had superiority but no time to plant as they went down 7-10. s1mple then took down three to tally a round for Na`Vi on the attack, but FaZe went right back to winning ways, giving up just one more round before hitting match point, 15-9. Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants then stuck a defuse in a 1vs1 on B in the last round to seal the deal, 16-9.

Natus Vincere kicked Dust2 off with a hit on B to go up 1-0 and quickly won against forcebuy and eco to make it 3-0. Once the economy settled it was FaZe who took the point however, taking a 5-3 lead before a B explosion by Natus Vincere brought it back to within one. Down 5-7 Natus Vincere were able to once again close the gap despite losing a 2vs2 afterplant on B as the bomb went off, helping turn the half around to an 8-7 lead for the CIS team.

Three kills by Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and two by broky tied it up 8-8 in the second pistol round after which FaZe sat comfortably in the lead on the attacking side. The European combine seemed on the way to match point with a 13-9 lead, but it was then that Natus Vincere got back into the game winning five defensive rounds in a row to tie it back up, 13-13. The map then slipped away from FaZe whose attacks got stale, as Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy won a 1vs1 clutch situation against olofmeister in the thirtieth round to take it to a decider.

FaZe opened up the scoring on Overpass, the third and final map of the series, after retaking B in the pistol round. The European squad were then off to the races, taking a 6-0 lead before their defense was broken for the first time. Natus Vincere exploited the B site to make it 3-6 after a quad-kill round by Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov the previous round. The CIS squad kept the pressure high but FaZe still won it 9-6.

Four quick kills by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev in the second pistol round kept it close as could be as Natus Vincere went on to tie it up, 9-9. FaZe once again fizzled out on the attacking side and it was Natus Vincere in the driving seat late in the game as NiKo and company were unable to make successful plays on the Terrorist side. broky won a 1vs1 against s1mple to make it 10-14, but it would prove to be too little too late as Natus Vincere closed it out 16-10 to advance through the upper bracket.