Into the Breach beat fnatic to secure Major playoffs spot

The underdogs continue their giant-killing by eliminating fnatic from Paris.

Into the Breach defeated fnatic in the penultimate match of the Legends Stage with a 2-1 scoreline (Inferno 10-16, Overpass 16-8, Vertigo 16-4) to secure a BLAST.tv Paris Major playoff spot.

Thomas "⁠Thomas⁠" Utting joined the broadcast for a post-match interview and was unable to hide his delight. "We had to play with everything we had, I gave every bit of energy to motivate my boys," said the 25-year-old. "It wasn't a grudge match, like playing against friends and when momentum starts, anything can happen." He finished off the interview in classic British fashion, saying "UK CS might be back, God save the King."

Into the Breach thus secure a top-eight berth at the French Major, with their road to qualification being the biggest surprise of the entire tournament. They started their campaign with a loss against Apeks before beating FaZe and ENCE to reach a progression series. They dropped their first shot against Liquid but made the most out of their second chance by defeating fnatic, becoming the first UK-majority team in the Major playoffs to the surprise of pretty much everyone in the community.

Conversely, fnatic exit the Major after the loss. They did the heavy lifting yesterday by eliminating G2 but fell short when they were in the role of favorites against fnatic after going missing on two of the maps in the series.

"We were sloppy on out T sides, it was just not our day," said another Brit, William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman, in a distraught post-match interview. "Against the top teams we are much more on the ball with comms and teamplay, and when we get into these game we fall short and play more sloppy."

The match started on Inferno, and the first map of the series was a chaotic affair. fnatic dominated the offense and ran away to a 10-5 lead and despite Into the Breach being able to reduce the deficit with a couple of low-buy victories enabled by fnatic's misplays, it wasn't enough. The European combine edged out a 16-12 victory and moved the series to Overpass, where their record made them massive favorites.

That was far from reality, however, as Into the Breach won 14 rounds on their defensive half. fnatic were able to get up to eight before dropping the map, but in reality, the map was never a contest.

The decider was Vertigo, and Into the Breach kept up their momentum from Overpass. Cai "⁠CYPHER⁠" Watson started it off with an ace in the pistol, enabling his squad to race to a 7-1 lead. They dropped a few near the end, but their early success was still enough for a 12-3 half. The second-half pistol was a must-win for fnatic, and with Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi falling just short of clutching a 1vs3, that was it for the mezii-led squad. Into the Breach ran away to a 16-4 victory, condemning fnatic to a lackluster exit from the Paris Major.

The Paris Major playoff team list is as follows: