As the heaviest of heavyweights in the CS world clashed on the same day as Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin are set to go to war in their much anticipated UFC heavyweight title bout it was fnatic who proved to have the glass chin and Na`Vi who proved to hit hardest.

fnatic will head home to Sweden with a 5th-8th placing for this event and the memory of a humbling elimination map. The mighty Ukranians of Natus Vincere sent their Swedish rivals home with a superlative 16:1 thrashing on dust2, 14 of those rounds coming as terrorists. A little payback for fnatic's drubbing of them on inferno at Arbalet Cup Europe perhaps. After a troubled second group stage Na`Vi now reemerge as arguably the favourite for the crown in Paris.

Natus Vincere 16:12 fnatic (train 11:4, 5:8)

Na`Vi were their usual solid selves playing the defensive side of train and there were not too many bright spots for fnatic. Their best terrorist round came in the 13th as they won without losing a man at outer. Na`Vi had their own moment of brief hilarity as zeus had turned a 1v2 against GeT_RiGhT and f0rest into a 1v1 which he won with a little flair. The Na`Vi captain was hidden under the outer bomb train and when f0rest planted only a metre away Zeus managed to move out at the exact same time as f0rest was crouching and moving to his previous position, allowing zeus to deduce there was nowhere else f0rest could be. He aimed onto the Swede's head, sounded his use button and killed the legend.

After their big 11:4 first half Na`Vi found fnatic hitting their stride after the side switch and the Swedes tore off four in a row before the Ukrainians took their first round of the terrorist half. After only taking one of the next three fnatic took a three round run to make the game 14:12 to Na`Vi. At this point outer attacks took Na`Vi over the finishing line for the first map.

Natus Vincere 16:1 fnatic (dust2 14:1, 2:0)

Facing elimination fnatic made some unusual and ill-timed decisions in their defensive setups and the 13 rounds in a row they gave up without a single answer broke their back before they even had a chance to play as terrorists. The first risk was playing the CT pistol round a la WeMade FOX and allowing Na`Vi to enter A and plant without seeing or fighting anyone. Two kills from the superstar combo of markeloff and Edward ensured that pistol round went to Na`Vi.

Things were going badly for fnatic but thanks to great Na`Vi plays as the 4th round highlighted. fnatic gambled playing nobody long and three catwalk but got kills and looked to be heading towards a round win when a galil-wielding ceh9 found himself 1v2 and managed to plant the bomb even as cArn came from catwalk and fired at him a second before he finished the plant. He escaped that and killed the player coming up from CT spawn ramp.

In a 1v1 with cArn he quickly switched to an AK, knowing the fnatic captain was above him, and fired upwards the second he saw the Swede jump onto the ledge. Being as ceh9 was only on around 30-40 hp at this time the weapon switch proved the decisive factor and he won the unlikely round for the Ukrainians. Once again ceh9 had proved his worth with ballsy play in a big tournament series.

On the 9th round GeT_RiGhT tried to take a round with some cheeky 1v2 play as he hid inside the site behind the green box at the back of the bomb planting area with two Na`Vi players alive, one on the ledge and one outside the window/hole. He killed the first but then upon starting to defuse starix took him down through the hole.

Everyone on Na`Vi was rolling as terrorist and everyone on fnatic was unable to get into the game. Edward had 20-3 stats before the 11th round had begun and markeloff hit 17-2 towards the end of the half as he picked fnatic players, notably f0rest, over and over either crossing middle or through mid doors. In sharp contrast nobody on fnatic had gotten above five kills after the 10th round.

fnatic took their only round of the game with famases on the 14th but Na`Vi finished the half with their incredible 14:1 run and even fnatic had to know at this moment such a lead was going to be insurmountable. So it was as Na`Vi won the pistol round and shut the game down and fnatic out. fnatic pick up their second 5th-8th placing in as many tournaments and their Arbalet Cup Europe victory seems a world away.


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