Fnatic pass through Liquid; to Katowice final
Fnatic and Liquid were the two teams in the final semifinal of Katowice, with both teams looking to set up a grand final match against FaZe. The two teams were set to face off on Inferno, Mirage and Cobblestone.
Inferno began with Fnatic's T-side picking up the pistol round, but a quality eco round from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Keith "NAF" Markovic saw the North American side head straight into the lead. With seven rounds in a row secured, they were taking a key lead in the half.
Keeping Fnatic down wouldn't be so easy, as the Swedish legends came back with a set of rounds as Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson ramped it up a gear to keep them in the game. But the final round of the half went Liquid's way for a 9-6 lead.
The second half began with Liquid's T-side securing the pistol round, but in a mirror of the first half Fnatic's CT-side secured an eco win and then pushed on to take the lead. With Jesper "JW" Wecksell waking up in the half to make sure they evened up the match.
Fnatic reached a lead, with IGL Maikil "Golden" Selim taking four to bring his team to a lead. Although Liquid secured another round, narrowly blocking a defuse from Fnatic, the Swedish side instantly reset them to bring them to the brink of map point. However, Russell "Twistzz" Van Dulken came into form at the right moment to take them closer, forcing the Swedes onto an eco.
Eco rounds aren't a simple win these days. Fnatic armed with Deagles and CZ's lured the North Americans into a trap and placed themselves onto map point. From there the Swedish side comfortably won the final round and picked up Inferno, 16-13.
Next up was Mirage, with fnatic picking up the pistol and the two anti-ecos on their T-side. Liquid picked up the first full buy round before losing out to three kills from Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson on a quasi-buy. From there Fnatic kept up their lead, keeping Liquid out of reach.
The two sides then started to trade rounds, with neither able to break the stalemate for a number of rounds. Fnatic was the first to break the deadlock by picking up two consecutive rounds but immediately after that Twistzz and Lucas "steel" Lopes answered back to take another round. flusha thought differently, and oversaw an economic reset of their opponents. In true CZ fashion, however, Nick "nitr0" Cannella used his to overturn said eco to take the final round, but were still 10-5 at the half.
Liquid began their T-side with the pistol round, but Fnatic used the power of the pistol to go straight back into the lead. There seemed to be a pistol theme this half, as Liquid did the exact same in return. Fnatic returned fire with a set of rifles, and from there they break the deadlock and stop the near-hell of trading rounds.
After that it was just Fnatic, quickly taking their 14th round before KRIMZ whipped out four kills to secure map point for his team. With Liquid looking broken and unlikely to make it through, KRMIZ secured three kills to win the game for his team, 16-7.
fnaticLiquid| fnatic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist |
48 - 31 | +17 | 102.3 | 76.9% | 1.50 |
| Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson |
51 - 31 | +20 | 102.2 | 82.7% | 1.50 |
| Jonas 'Lekr0' Olofsson |
38 - 27 | +11 | 67.7 | 80.8% | 1.32 |
| Jesper 'JW' Wecksell |
35 - 29 | +6 | 79.8 | 71.2% | 1.19 |
| Maikil 'Golden' Selim |
29 - 28 | +1 | 61.9 | 84.6% | 1.10 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
38 - 39 | -1 | 65.8 | 63.5% | 0.90 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
29 - 41 | -12 | 76.1 | 67.3% | 0.88 |
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
25 - 41 | -16 | 71.8 | 55.8% | 0.76 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
28 - 38 | -10 | 53.8 | 67.3% | 0.74 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
25 - 42 | -17 | 60.8 | 48.1% | 0.62 |
This result lines Fnatic up for a best-of-five grand final match up against FaZe tomorrow in Katowice.
