After their clean sweep of Group A AGAiN had established themselves as favourites for the World Esports Masters 2009, while fnatic 's progression had to be earned in their final game. Nevertheless the Swedes once again played up to the worn out cliche which pops so seemlessly out of everyone's mouths about how fnatic 'don't do well in group stages but then make it to the final'. The Swedes initially found themselves in a back and forth battle but solved the Polish puzzle to run away with both games.

AGAiN 11:16 fnatic (dust2)

First half

fnatic took the terrorist pistol and then jumped out to a 3:0 lead. On their gun round AGAiN took a round and then two more to even it up. On the 6th PC problems for pasha saw the game paused for a while but once it began again LUq turned a 2v3 into a 2v1 as fnatic had attacked catwalk and the long A. After LUq died it was down to pasha who won a 1v1 against GeT_RiGhT. fnatic then too the next three rounds to go up 6:3. Continuing the back and forth war the Poles took the next three to tie it up again. The 10th coming thanks to a good retake of A as a group and the 11th from LUq winning a 1v1.

That would prove to be the last round for AGAiN though as the three round war was won by fnatic in the first half as they took the final three, dsn killing the last two to take a 9:6 lead.

Second half

dsn repeated his half ending feat by killing the last two Poles on the pistol round to put fnatic up to 10:6. AGAiN bought deagles, except for neo and kuben who had AKs. Despite getting the round down to a 2v2 neo having 5 hp made it unlikely they would win the round and indeed threat stepped up and killed both at A. GeT_RiGhT and dsn combined to kill the entire AGAiN team in the 3rd as the Poles again gambled by buying deagles and an AK and galil. With fnatic 4:0 up on the half and 13:6 overall the Poles made a push to get back in the game as they won the next three to make it 4:3 in the half and 13:9 overall.

f0rest took three AWP kills, yes you read that right, and fnatic went up 5:3. On the 9th loord found himself 1v3 and despite making it into a 1v2 he was killed by GeT_RiGhT and fnatic had hit map point. At this point AGAiN broke fnatic's run, making it the Swedes' shortest of the game thusfar, as loord did what he couldn't do in the previous round and turned his 1v2 into a round win, this time at A. The Pole had reached 22-7 on the scoreboard and was doing his best to keep his team in it.

After an eco from the Swedes they hit the winning number thanks to a two kills from threat and two from dsn. The fnatic stand-in had stepped into his role well on this map to provide a number of at times surprisng kills when the Poles had looked to be getting back into rounds.


AGAiN 10:16 fnatic (nuke)

First half

The second map began with AGAiN losing their 3rd straight pistol round and fnatic hit upper as terrorists. This map was going to be a real challenge for the Poles though as fnatic ran it up to 7:0. On the 6th three kills from dsn finished the round for fnatic and on the 7th cArn won a 1v1 against LUq and dsn's scoreboard listing of 15-2 showed he was having an excellent game of his own.

AGAiN took their first of the map thanks to a deagle eco round which finished up with loord 1v1 against threat, both of them with 10 hp, which he was able to win. Three kills from pasha helped secure a second Polish round win. threat responded with three of his own in the next round to put fnatic up 8:0. At this point AGAiN once again showed their ability to fight back and play up to the level of their opponent in the first half as they took all the remaining rounds to leave the half at a narrow 8:7 lead for fnatic.

In the 11th round LUq and neo had deagles but the rest bought guns. A 3v3 turned into a 3v2 thanks to a neo deagle kill and then pasha took out the last two fnatic players. Two kills from loord and LUq secured the 12th round, one which saw dsn having computer problems for some of it. On the 14th round a 2v4 for fnatic was turned into an even 2v2 thanks to two kills from threat but a kill from loord and then from neo kept AGAiN rolling. The last round of the half was decided by two kills from neo and kuben.

Second half

Any hopes AGAiN were about to make a run at taking the series even were dashed as fnatic won their fourth pistol round. On the 3rd the Poles bought some AKs and deagles but two kills from threat and three from cArn saw fnatic go up 3:0, next round would make it 4:0. On the 5th round AGAiN took a win in the half thanks to two kuben kills but then fnatic ran the score up to 7:1, map point. AGAiN would take two more rounds but then fnatic hit their series winning point.

The Poles were distraught, with the game paused before the last round began thanks to computer problems for a player some AGAiN players (loord, kuben and pasha) were shouting back and forth about the previous round. loord looked visibly upset about something one of the players had done. After losing AGAiN shook hands but then left and were absent from the press conference, leaving fnatic's threat to explain the game's story.


Videos from the game

Both teams coming out:



fnatic win the first pistol round:



AGAiN's heated discussion before the last round:



The final round and handshakes: