When the Swedes of fnatic found themselves up 15:10 it seemed inevitable they had punched their ticket to the IEM Shanghai final but Natus Vincere came on strong at the end to push the game to the final round. fnatic, thanks to the greatness of f0rest, held on and won what proved to be a truly epic series. In three maps we saw two 16:14 wins and an overtime game.

Not only one of the great series amongst elite teams but also a great Bo3 opening to the new fnatic-Na`Vi engagement which many hope will be continued for a long time to come.

Natus Vincere 14:16 fnatic (inferno - 6:9, 8:7)

First half

Na`Vi began as CT and won the pistol round to set themselves up to be the team pushing the lead. fnatic weren't having it though and came right back with a half buy and took the second round. The theme of fnatic's attacks on this side were probing into each site and then retreating, working the clock and finally picking the right site to attack. Na`Vi looked to be thrown off by this strategy and found themselves without an AWP in markeloff's hands most of the game and starix unable to hold the CT arch of middle most rounds, his wide angles being exploited by fnatic's legendary AK players.

Na`Vi did manage to claw back rounds and the half did end 9:6 to fnatic but a key round, one which the Ukrainians will think back on with deep regret, saw markeloff and ceh9 seemingly certain to win a 2v2 against Gux and cArn in the A bombsite with the bomb planted. The two fnatic players were on low health and when markeloff killed Gux only cArn was left, hiding around the lamppost area in the standard spot. ceh9 fake defused while Na`Vi searched for cArn and then went for the defuse for real. markeloff was looking right at cArn then inexplicably decided to look to his right suddenly as cArn stepped out and killed ceh9. markeloff got the return kill but by now all the time needed to defuse was long gone.

Second half

After fnatic won their CT pistol they looked to push their lead as they made aggressive moves at the right times to damage Na`Vi players early and the Ukrainians looked flustered in their offensive decisions early. fnatic hit map and series point early enough that it seemed as though Na`Vi were all but out of the tournament. At this point fnatic seemed to lose a little steam from cArn and dsn as Na`Vi suddenly made magic occur with a number of unexpected rounds.

Winning on rounds with one or two AKs the Ukrainians got it done at A a number of times, having been unable to break the site for so much more of the rest of the half. Now Na`Vi were playing their own varient of fnatic's tactical style as they probed and when damaged fell back and headed to B.

A huge round saw markeloff left in a 1v2 trapped inside bombsite A as both fnatic players pushed forwards from library area onto the wooden area. markeloff stepped out into the sight of both and killed the first. Stepping back with only 27 or so health he was faced with either risking being spammed through the boxes or risking his team's tournament life by peeking. 2010's player of the year decided to go for the latter and stepped out to execute a great burst and killed cArn, putting Na`Vi so close to sending the game to overtime.

On the final round everyone in the room was surely holding their breath, wondering if we'd be headed to a second straight overtime map or whether instead the game would follow the script of the first with a 16:14 win to one of the teams. It proved to be the latter as f0rest added another round to his bank of historically great players. He pushed up second middle and climbed onto the boxes. Despite being spotted by the Na`Vi players early his retreat position allowed him to be perfectly within his spraying range and he took down two immediately before retreating fully into A with 23 health. Na`Vi were completely out of sorts and looked to be fully feeling the pressure. f0rest would later finish off the round to win the game for fnatic and send his team into another final in China.


fnatic have been famous for having troubles in China, even dating back to their days of 2006. Last year they lost IEM IV Chengdu to SK and the WCG final to AGAiN. They managed to pick up WEM but that was a tournament with a different structure than all others played. Now the Swedes stand in a great position, against an inexperienced TyLoo.raw, to win this title and begin the Gux era with two straight event wins.

With both teams set to attend e-Stars in less than two months fans will no doubt be hoping to see the next chapter in the series on everyone's lips.

(Photograph copyright of ESL)