Unlike the beating Oxygen received earlier from Team Liquid, Gambit looked to challenge Fnatic’s good form and qualify for Masters 2 Reykjavík.
Standing as the last line of defence against the EU domination of the EMEA Challengers playoffs, Gambit started off poorly on Icebox, allowing eight straight rounds on the defensive side.
Fnatic’s newest addition Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev had a solid impact on his team’s performance, netting 21 kills and 310 ACS in a fairly one-sided affair, going 13-6 to Fnatic.
After losing on their own map pick, Gambit looked poised to even the series, jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Fnatic responded by winning three rounds in a row before Gambit completely took over on the defence on Bind for a 9-3 half-time score.
Not deterred from their ultimate goal, Fnatic started the second half on a 6-0 run to even the score at 9-9. Gambit, desperate to stop the bleeding managed to pick up the next two rounds, putting them only two away from tying the series.
Derke and his teammates didn’t feel like playing a third map and made a final push to end the series at 2-0. The last four rounds went Fnatic’s favor and ended Bind on a 13-11 note. Gambit out, and Fnatic off to Iceland! Another quality performance of the Finnish player, showing he deserves his spot amongst Europe’s finest.
Fnatic will face Team Liquid later today in a best-of-five final in a replay of the Champions Tour Europe Stage 2: Challengers 2 finals. Back in mid-April, Fnatic won that final rather easily 3-1.
Both teams have already qualified for Iceland and are playing for prize money, and of course bragging rights. With €20,000 separating first and second, there’s still a lot to play for.
Also read:
- Fnatic wins EU Stage 2 Challengers 2
- 100T falls to Envy in Challengers Main Event; fails to qualify for Iceland LAN
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Image Credits: Fnatic