Pinnacle Cup Championship 2022fnatic upset Heroic and secure opening victory at Pinnacle Cup Championship
William "mezii" Merriman's side took down the heavy favorites and booked their place in Group A's first-place decider on Thursday.
fnatic took their first win of the Pinnacle Cup Championship in a hard-fought victory, 16-14 on Inferno. Playing with their newly-formed squad after having recently added Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi and Fredrik "roeJ" Jørgensen to their lineup, as well as Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg being a temporary stand-in, fnatic overcame the overwhelming tournament favorites HEROIC in a match that went the distance.
HEROIC are off to a disappointing start early on, having been sent to the GSL format's elimination best-of-three series against the loser of the second Group A match between BIG and MIBR. The Danes will have a long road ahead now to recover from the opening loss, requiring two wins in a row to make it to the playoffs' lower bracket.
fnatic kicked things off on Inferno with a 3-0 lead over their Danish opponents, taking advantage of their superior weapons and breaking through the defense with ease. HEROIC got themselves on the board in the fourth after denying fnatic entrance to the B site, with Martin "stavn" Lund hitting two crucial kills through the smoke in the process. The Danes levelled things up at three apiece after shutting down fnatic's late push in the fifth, forcing mezii and company into a full-eco in the following round.
The mixed European squad started to pull ahead of HEROIC as the first half dragged on, successfully taking control of site and going up 8-3 behind f0rest's aggressive playstyle which allowed him to consistently secure opening kills. Not wanting their deficit to grow even further, Casper "cadiaN" Møller's side started to claw their way back into the game through their utility usage which disallowed any early pushes into site, accompanied by impactful fragging courtesy of stavn and Ismail "refrezh" Ali as they won four straight rounds, only trailing fnatic by one at halftime.
The second half began the way of HEROIC, who went on a three-round streak and secured their first lead of the match before fnatic answered back with five of their own, regaining a three-round advantage over the Danes. Three rounds away from defeat, HEROIC flipped a switch and started trampling fnatic's defense on the A site as they once again equalized with a 13-13 score. Extremely back-and-forth rounds ensued, and in the end it was fnatic that emerged victorious 16-14 over the tournament favorites.
  HEROIC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 - 18 | +3 | 81.3 | 73.3% | 1.14 | |
| 21 - 20 | +1 | 76.5 | 63.3% | 1.07 | |
| 16 - 18 | -2 | 60.7 | 66.7% | 1.02 | |
| 17 - 16 | +1 | 63.0 | 70.0% | 0.97 | |
| 16 - 23 | -7 | 58.7 | 66.7% | 0.74 |
 fnatic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 - 14 | +6 | 70.6 | 80.0% | 1.21 | |
| 22 - 17 | +5 | 76.2 | 76.7% | 1.19 | |
| 16 - 16 | 0 | 62.6 | 73.3% | 0.98 | |
| 18 - 23 | -5 | 66.5 | 70.0% | 0.97 | |
| 17 - 21 | -4 | 69.4 | 60.0% | 0.80 |
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