Fnatic upsets Astralis in ESL Pro League

Fnatic managed to take down the Danes in an exciting best-of-three series where gla1ve and co. almost managed to rally after a slow start. In a match decided by the finest of margins, Golden's men ultimately triumphed on the Inferno decider, putting them into a commanding position in the second group stage of the ESL Pro League.

Fnatic roar ahead

The Fnatic story of explosive T sides and less effective CT attempts were on full display here, with a brutal 12-3 opening half on Dust 2 as terrorists was followed by a strong comeback effort by Astralis, with the Swedes requiring 14 attempts to secure the four rounds needed to win the map. Though Astralis outright banned Nuke against Na'Vi earlier, they picked it as their map for this series, and scored a comfortable 16-11 victory to even out the series.

The Inferno decider

After putting up six rounds on the T side of Inferno, Astralis' trademark excellent defense had to weather the storm if they wanted to turn the series around. Though Fnatic took five out of the first six rounds on the offense, gla1ve and co. managed to rally and win five in a row to swing the momentum back in their favor. It took an incredible clutch by brollan to secure Fnatic's fifteenth round, but their shaky economic situation meant that the Danes could continue their recovery and push things all the way to the 30th round.

It came down to a 1v1 at 15-14 with KRIMZ defending a planted bomb against Xyp9x, and it was one of those rare days where the clutch minister couldn't quite finish off the job, granting victory to Fnatic by the narrowest of margins on the third map of the series. Notably, Golden topped HLTV's rating 2.0 charts for the map, with an 89.7 ADR which was the highest by anyone on the server for Inferno.