fnatic advance to Katowice group stage over MIBR

The Europeans defeated the Brazilians 16-11 on Vertigo before putting up a commanding 16-9 performance on Overpass.

fnatic have secured their spot in IEM Katowice 2023's group stage after taking down MIBR in the second round of the Play-In. The squad led by William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman successfully bounced back from a collapse against OG on the first day of play to reach the next phase of the Polish tournament.

The last time these two organizations met was at IEM Katowice 2021 where the Brazilians came out on top after a 2-0 sweep in an elimination game. The fixture was played by two wildly different lineups as fnatic still fielded a Swedish roster at the time, with Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson standing as the last member from their defeat two years ago.

MIBR's run in Poland had many positives despite their failure to qualify for the group stage, including the emergence of Felipe "⁠insani⁠" Yuji as a star player for the Brazilians. The 18-year-old had several exciting performances in his first-ever international LAN, including a 1.45 rating in the series against Grayhound.

Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen emerged as fnatic's best player at IEM Katowice with a 1.21 rating in the first two matches, and he carried that form against MIBR. The Dane opened up the series against the Brazilians with a pistol ace on Vertigo and remained at the top of the scoreboard despite fnatic's struggles in the first half. insani continued to shine for MIBR as he accumulated a 1.27 T rating and 86.7% KAST while powering his team's offense to secure a slight 8-7 advantage before the break.

The Brazilian squad, however, failed to keep up the pressure after switching sides and fnatic found it easy to retake the advantage. The offense stole the lead on the back of Dion "⁠FASHR⁠" Derksen and Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi's performances as the duo cracked open both sites with a total of nine first kills. MIBR struggled to maintain composure in late-round scenarios and conceded their map pick 11-16 to the Europeans.

fnatic did not slow down after moving to Overpass as they easily took an early 6-0 advantage to start the map, while roeJ and KRIMZ shined throughout the Europeans' T side thanks to their impact in disadvantaged situations. The first half was characterized by great utility usage from the Ts and poor decision-making from MIBR, which led to a one-sided 11-4 scoreline in favor of mezii and company.

The second half proved equally as frustrating for the Brazilians as fnatic extended their lead with their third pistol round of the series. MIBR only claimed a handful of consolation rounds in their T side, which only slowed down the inevitable as fnatic eventually recovered to close the map 16-9, eliminating the Brazilians 2-0.