Even seeing the name fnatic makes one immediately associate it with the thought 'the best CS team in the world' and yet they find themselves facing a do or die single map game against WeMade FOX which would see them eliminated or progressing.

In the other game of the day Meet Your Makers swe have an opportunity to grab back some dignity and show that for all the troubles of Arbalet and this tournament it has just been a lapse and their more dangerous qualities are merely blunted for now. AGAiN are chasing relative perfection though as they know PowerGaming have won all three of their matches and a similar record should be expected from them to retain #1 status in this tournament thusfar.

fnatic vs. WeMade FOX (dust2)

The decider for Group B means everything for both teams. WeMade Fox overcame a loss in their first match to grind out a win in the last round against wNv.cn to put themselves in the position of deciding their own fate in this game. Meanwhile fnatic had a shaky win over wNv.cn in their first and then turned up against PowerGaming and getting soundly thrashed in the second half. The beauty of the way the group has played out is that round difference doesn't need to come into play as these two teams now face each other to see who gets to go through.

fnatic have been a very unknown quantity at this tournament, largely because they freally haven't shown us much. We haven't seen any monster performances by anyone, in fact GeT_RiGhT was seemingly absent for most of the PowerGaming match in terms of performance, and stand-in threat has simply done that: stood in. He hasn't played poorly and he hasn't played well, he's just been another body in a seat providing an average amount of kills. The question is will that be enough for fnatic to get past the Korean team to at least give themselves a shot at the crown?

As of right now that is a very close call, especially with the map they will be playing. Let's get it out of the way that whenever a team has f0rest and GeT_RiGhT in its lineup it is in theory capable of winning any game at any time and against any opponent. f0rest has also been known to produce some godlike performances on dust2 when needed. When it comes to predicting its tough to ignore form and matchups though. WeMade Fox's strength on inferno now, where they are considered one of the elite teams and capable of playing higher than their level on other maps, used to be strength on dust2 when they were called eSTRO.

I think there are three keys for fnatic in this game:
1) GeT_RiGhT must play at least above average, we've seen that they really need some of his firepower with this unit and its current form.
2) threat needs to make a significant impact. It's not enough for him to show up and play decently or get easy kills which present themselves. He is replacing GuX who had perhaps the most versatile role on the team and could do anything they needed from enter bombsites to put up numbers to win clutch rounds. threat doesn't have to take on all of those roles or even be close to GuX's level, he does need to have an impact in his kills though. Kills coming up catwalk which take out a key A defender or on a rotating player attempting to enter B are the kind which will give his team a chance to win.
3) fnatic must match their aggression to the Koreans' level of passive play. If WeMade Fox are willing to play the A bombsite passively and let fnatic penetrate it before they rotate and counter then fnatic have a real opening to take enough rounds to get this win in the books.

For WeMade Fox their form seems pretty good, not their best but enough to mean they could in theory have won all of their games but for some minor mental errors or the other team playing at another level. In this game glow needs to show up more than he did on nuke, this team wins when he is playing as the second best player on the team. solo has looked good in both matches so if he can continue to play big then everything is set to allow them to progress. bail's defensive play was sparkling as CT on nuke against wNv.cn so I think he is the X factor for this team and if he can play at the same level then its going to make life very difficult for fnatic, even on split attacks.

I still think fnatic are better on paper, I would even give them a 50% chance to win this game. I just haven't seen enough to warrent picking them over a WeMade Fox team who have an equal chance, I think, but have shown some grinding ability and have not laid down for anyone.

Prediction: WeMade Fox wins



AGAiN vs. Meet Your Makers swe (nuke)

This game in theory doesn't matter, after all MYM are elminated, AGAiN are already in the semis and they have a huge round difference meaning they will be in 1st. There's also the matter of MYM's lackadaisical form which has seem them either unable to maintain high level play or able to initiate it in enough time to have a chance to win games. So can a team who only a few weeks ago were rightly considered in the top 5 in the world bounce back from losses to teams who are the lower end of the top 10 (TyLoo) or even worse?

The reason I've placed that emphasis on the MYM side of things is that they are the biggest question mark in this game. The MYM of IEM IV Dubai and DreamHack Winter is very good on nuke, they smashed Vitriolic (now AGAiN) in the semis of Dubai on it and rolled mTw.int in the second half of the deciding DreamHack Winter finals game. This does not seem like the very good MYM though, though I am not as quick to write them off as some will be. I think the inclusion of pasha in the AGAiN lineup, combined with knowing they're going through in 1st, means this game is probably 60-40 in the Poles favour.

The other AGAiN, with TaZ, is incredible at attacking on nuke, one of the best ever, and yet is also capable of getting a lot of CT rounds against any team who don't bring their A+ game. With pasha instead of TaZ I see AGAin losing some of that offensive talent, though as a result of not having TaZ to make key mid round kills at upper rather than through any fault of pasha's play. However, it may well be the case that they pick up a little extra on the CT side, perhaps we'll see the much vaunted pasha AWP outside or at the ramp room.

If MYM bring their best they can win this map, though I don't think their chances are huge even with that caveat. If AGAiN play at 80% of the level they can normally then I think this game is in the bag for them and they'll be joining PowerGaming as the teams who won every game in their group.

If Delpan's AWP ever needed to go crazy then it does now and if Jumpy ever needed his timing on pushes perfect then this would be an appropriate moment. This game doesn't matter for MYM in terms of the tournament but if they get crushed on this map, against this opponent and with their overall form at this event then you can expect a massive drop in their stock as far as most of the community's opinion goes.

Prediction: AGAiN wins



Check out all of the media from the first three days of WEM here.