poizon shines as fnatic stun G2 in ESL Pro League Group A; NIP through to playoffs

The Bulgarian AWPer had stellar impact in helping fnatic secure victory in a three-map series.

fnatic have claimed a big scalp in Group A of ESL Pro League after besting G2 2-1 on the third day of the tournament, with the lack of Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen on the server leaving Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's side looking extremely flat on the T sides of all three maps Valentin "⁠poizon⁠" Vasilev had a particularly standout series for fnatic as he put up massive performances on the first two maps, with William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman helping take things over the line on the Mirage decider.

The victory is critical for Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin and company as they look to qualify for the playoffs of Pro League, a campaign that started off flat with an entirely one-sided loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas in their opening match. Despite fielding three new players, the international roster have stabilized since dropping that series, coming back from a map deficit against both Looking For Org and G2 to end day three with a 2-1 record. fnatic's win also means that Ninjas in Pyjamas are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs as no team can oust them from the top three of the group.

For G2, the loss — especially in this fashion — comes as a massive blow, putting their own chances of making the playoffs in jeopardy as their remaining matches will pit them against the two teams who sit atop the group, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Entropiq. fnatic, meanwhile, have a crucial series ahead of them as well as they will take on MOUZ on Sunday at 16:00 , a match that will be critical in deciding which team will take third place in the group heading into the final day of play.

poizon averaged a 1.59 rating across the series

Inferno was the playground that the series kicked off on, and despite it being fnatic's map pick, G2 made it look the opposite as they put up a strong defense from the onset. Multi-kill rounds from Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač were key in helping their team to a 5-0 lead before fnatic began to respond with rounds of their own, with poizon in particular standing out with a stellar individual showing on the AWP to help claw some rounds back.

NiKo joined his cousin in keeping G2 in the lead as they put up a 10-5 lead at halftime, and it seemed like they were in pole position for a swift victory after responding to Peppe "⁠Peppzor⁠" Borak's pistol round quad kill with a forcebuy win to swing momentum in their favor, moving up to a 14-6 scoreline.

Victory was anything but swift though as G2 looked entirely lost on the T side of the map, and fnatic had a resurgence as they won eight of the next nine rounds; however, their comeback was cut short at the final hurdle as Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug took down four players in round 30 to take the map over the line for his side, just barely edging out a win to move the series on to G2's pick of Dust2.

Dust2 was an entirely different affair as fnatic took firm control from the onset, poizon absolutely laying waste to G2's attempts to attack bombsites for almost the entirety of the first half. The Bulgarian combined with ALEX to absolutely crush G2 out of the map, securing a dominant 16-2 win with the two players ending with 2.27 and 1.92 ratings, respectively.

Mirage unfolded in almost identical fashion, although it was mezii who was the driving force for fnatic this time around as they raced to a 12-3 lead at the break with a stalwart defense. G2's completely flat T side in the first half came back to haunt them as they only managed a short string of rounds in the second half before being locked out of the map, four final rounds from fnatic sealing their fate, 16-7.

ESL Pro League Season 15Best of 3

G2

Matchpage

1

2

11th March 2022

fnatic

16

Inferno

14

2

Dust2

16

7

Mirage

16

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-	53 - 55	-2	85.6	69.0%	1.10
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	46 - 55	-9	82.7	67.6%	0.99
Audric 'JACKZ' JugJACKZ	43 - 56	-13	64.0	59.2%	0.87
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipovm0NESY	43 - 58	-15	53.4	62.0%	0.76
François 'amanek' Delaunayamanek	27 - 54	-27	46.0	52.1%	0.64

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Valentin 'poizon' Vasilevpoizon	79 - 50	+29	106.7	78.9%	1.59
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekinALEX	58 - 43	+15	90.6	77.5%	1.30
William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii	51 - 38	+13	79.7	76.1%	1.24
Peppe 'Peppzor' BorakPeppzor	49 - 43	+6	75.5	74.6%	1.09
Matias 'Banjo' KivistöBanjo	40 - 39	+1	62.0	76.1%	0.99

Group A

TEAM

M

P

Ninjas in Pyjamas

3

9

fnatic

3

6

Entropiq

3

6

MOUZ

3

3

G2

3

3

Looking For Org

3

0