3DMAX beat fnatic to reach EPL S19 playoffs

The French roster cast fnatic down to the lower bracket and will face the winner of FaZe vs. Astralis for a chance at the quarter-finals.

3DMAX have become the ninth French team in Pro League history to make the playoffs after beating fnatic in Group A of Season 19.

The team around Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda were gifted an easier path through Group A after the last-minute withdrawal of Cloud9, their original opening round opponent, and with Spirit declining an invite, it ended up being SAW who filled the spot.

The Portuguese side made it a competitive game, with 3DMAX requiring overtime on both maps to secure a 2-0, but the French team handled fnatic with far more ease to earn a playoff berth.

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3DMAX, whose organization recently returned to Counter-Strike, are using Filip "⁠Graviti⁠" Brankovic as a stand-in for Pro League, and the 20-year-old flourished as the team 2-0'd Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro and company with wins on Anubis and Ancient.

The Counter-Strike played wasn't particularly pretty on the latter map, but 3DMAX were dominant on their pick of Anubis, running away with the lead on the CT side and wasting little time in closing out the game as Can "⁠kyuubii⁠" Ali had a particularly poor showing for fnatic.

fnatic's Ancient pick was much more scrappy as the Frenchmen lost some momentum in the first half after letting a round slip to pistols, narrowly leading 7-5 at the break.

A questionable pistol round strat from 3DMAX almost gave fnatic a window back into the series, but Graviti stepped up to usher his side closer to victory before a 1vs3 clutch from Thomas "⁠Djoko⁠" Pavoni throttled any hopes of a fnatic comeback and helped 3DMAX take things over the line.