fnatic edge closer to playoffs after victory over MOUZ

12-3-2022 20:07

A frustrating end to the series sees MOUZ face an uphill battle to claim a spot in the playoffs.

fnatic secured their 3-1 recond in Group A at ESL Pro League Season 15 after defeating MOUZ 2-1. A crucial victory for the boys in black-and-orange, putting them within an inch of qualifying to the playoffs despite their dire stand-in situation. fnatic's series started with a 9-16 defeat on Nuke which quickly turned for the better on Inferno, taking the map 16-10 before completing the upset on Mirage 16-8.

This victory is a very important boost for the Europeans' campaign as they only need G2 to at least take a map off Entropiq later today to secure their advancement to the next stage of the tournament. If Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's return proves to not be enough, fnatic will want to defeat the Russians themselves, hoping to avoid tiebreaker scenarios at the end of regular group play.

The result almost puts MOUZ out of playoffs contention, needing a victory over Looking For Org on Sunday as well as several other results to go their way, including a G2 sweep over Entropiq.

mezii played a fantastic series

We were treated to an entertaining start to the series on MOUZ's pick of Nuke. Despite conceding the second-round force buy, Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong's boys were quickly able to bounce back with a last-minute push on the B bombsite, breaking the CT economy and propelling them to a 7-1 lead. Not ones to go down quietly, fnatic quickly began to find their form again, claiming five of the following seven rounds thanks to Valentin "⁠poizon⁠" Vasilev carrying his great from the previous day.

The second half started with fnatic equalizing the scores after taking the pistol and the following two rounds, but that was all they would get from their offensive half. Once the MOUZ defense got rolling with the rifles, they were unstoppable, going flawless for the last seven rounds to take the map 16-9. Aurimas "⁠Bymas⁠" Pipiras was fantastic to watch throughout the game, finishing with an impressive 29-13 K-D and a 1.80 rating.

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

In stark contrast to the first map, Inferno began with fnatic on the front foot. The boys in black-and-orange took the pistol and quickly created a 6-0 advantage thanks in part to an inspiring William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman performance. Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás getting into the game proved crucial, with the young AWPer contributing several opening kills to give the early round advantage to MOUZ, salvaging a 6-9 half. Despite equalizing after some early success in the second half, MOUZ were unable to maintain the pressure as mezii kept bailing fnatic out of trouble. Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin and co. secured a 1-1 series score after claiming Inferno 16-10.

Bymas tormented fnatic on Nuke

The first half of Mirage saw fnatic again take over the early game, with the trident of mezii, poizon, and Matias "⁠Banjo⁠" Kivistö propelling the squad to a 7-0 advantage. While MOUZ were able to stop the bleeding, stringing four in a row, their streak was quickly put to an end on round 12 as the Deagles from fnatic shut down their play on the B bombsite.

Despite converting the second pistol, fnatic fell to the following MOUZ force buy, leading way to a couple of chaotic rounds. The real turning point came in round 19, with Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt's monitor failing him in a 1v2 situation, forcing him to play the clutch while looking through someone else's screen. After that, it was just one-way traffic in favor of fnatic, taking the decider 16-8, and the series 2-1.

ESL Pro League Season 15Best of 3

fnatic

Matchpage

12th March 2022

MOUZ

Nuke

Inferno

Mirage

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Valentin 'poizon' Vasilev poizon	59 - 47	+12	87.8	70.7%	1.23
William 'mezii' Merriman mezii	62 - 47	+15	84.7	70.7%	1.19
Matias 'Banjo' Kivistö Banjo	48 - 45	+3	70.5	70.7%	1.04
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin ALEX	49 - 52	-3	72.6	69.3%	0.94
Peppe 'Peppzor' Borak Peppzor	32 - 53	-21	50.3	65.3%	0.79

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras Bymas	66 - 47	+19	97.2	73.3%	1.35
Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt NBK-	48 - 57	-9	73.9	69.3%	1.03
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás torzsi	48 - 48	0	61.5	66.7%	0.96
David 'frozen' Čerňanský frozen	41 - 48	-7	70.0	69.3%	0.90
Christopher 'dexter' Nong dexter	39 - 52	-13	60.6	62.7%	0.86

Group A

TEAM

Group B

TEAM

Group C

TEAM

Group D

TEAM

Bymas vs 9

2022-03-12 20:08

6 replies

#freeBymas

2022-03-12 20:11

5 replies

"fnatic edges close to playoffs" Thats a headline that i never expected to read

2022-03-12 21:37

1 reply

Aahha yeah

2022-03-12 22:02

nono, bymas belongs in mouz, its the best for him

2022-03-12 21:44

2 replies

2022-03-12 21:49

Source: im lithuanian

2022-03-16 22:31

Wtf is happening with poizon, where's all this skill coming from

11 replies

alex > baitf

2022-03-12 20:09

If you really saw any coL game you won't ask that question for sure. He is a beast.

2022-03-12 20:18

7 replies

fake flag? he was good on complexity for maybe 3 months, absolute trash last year

2022-03-12 20:29

More like coL were absolute trash, the problem WASN'T IN poizon obviously. And yeah it's hard to play in shitty team so here it is

2022-03-12 21:01

3 replies

2022-03-12 21:50

He did suck for an entire year, team and leadership had nothing to do with it.

2022-03-13 00:07

It has everything to do with it. He was the best player on coL after Konfig.

2022-03-13 09:00

og vs col never forget

He's good and many under rate but he had wrist injury and also in col everyone sucked cause of baitf

2022-03-12 23:28

Alex is a masterclass of an IGL who has worked with zywoo before. I am sure he knows how to activate awpers.

Poizon has been a beast since the beginning bro tf u mean ??

2022-03-12 23:40

ez for peppe borak

banjo was really good on mirage..

Yeah we finally got a solid map out of him which is amazing. He's got some real potential.

2022-03-12 20:40

If he doesn’t play a banjo, I riot

2022-03-13 00:00

It's so awesome to see a resurgence from poison, seriously

Fnatic resurgence

dexter carry

2022-03-12 20:12

poizon rly wanted that contract

2022-03-12 20:13

Nbk robbed

2022-03-12 20:20

savebymas

2022-03-12 20:23

2022-03-12 20:34

the 1v2 when NBK's screen went off was honestly still do-able of a clutch. very unlucky and unfortunate.

2022-03-12 20:35

poizon and bymas looking insane rn

i hope fnatic sign poizon and also maybe its time for mouz to get rid of dexter and let nbk call and get more firepower in.

2022-03-12 21:10

2022-03-12 21:51

It is so weird being a fnatic fan right now...

2022-03-12 21:36

Sooo true. They come into this tournament after getting rid of smooya who was really solid and then brollan can't play either. So it was already looking bad. Then we lose krimz and have to go with 2 academy players and poizon. Still had hope though cuz ik poizon can be good and so r banjo and peppzor. But the first match made me think fnatic were screwed. Then somehow they manage to get through to the playoffs even still

2022-03-12 21:48

If fnatic can play like this with Banjo instead of KRIMZ man I'm really hyped up about this roster when KRIMZ comes back. I really think that this might be the roster that makes fnatic comeback to Tier-1, really, with the fragging of mezii and KRIMZ, ALEX also fragging pretty good for an IGL, poizon and mezii as those kind of supportive utility players, ALEX now being the entry, I can see this working, GL in the playoffs fnatic. For MOUZ though, I really don't think this roster will do anything, the firepower is lacklustre, their composure and strat side are also a mess, the roles doesn't seem to match to much, I really have no hope for this roster.

2022-03-12 23:10