Fnatic History: Part two
In the previous part, our narrative about Fnatic settled on the events of the end of 2006. Then, recall, the “black-orange” squad suddenly left for her fans Christopher Nordlund ( TentPole ), instead of which a less experienced, but very promising Swedish shooter was taken Oscar Hill ( Ins ).
► The next command photo shoot of INS’Y, apparently, does not like – he is a gloom, like a winter morning.
Get Oscars
Although nobody doubted the abilities of Ins’a, many wondered what a new general team will be Fnatic After this transition. But the fans were worried in vain – Oscar excellently joined the old game schemes, and the team began to play more plastic and much more diverse.
First of all, this applies to cards where, when playing for protection, the second was often used AWP. The main sniper was DSN , But with the second there were difficulties, and the “green rifle” sometimes had to take even Patrick Lindberg (F0rest). The appearance of InS’a solved this problem, because he often bought AWP in his former team Ninjas in Pyjamas.
► And here INS with his AWP. In the role of victims – either Indian or Pakistani team Havoc.
All important championships of 2007 were scheduled for the summer-autumn, and old-timers Fnatic there was enough time to get to the newcomer. The first serious test for strength and championship ambitions was Electronic Sports World Cup , Passing in the capital of France in the first week of July.
Step before the final
In total, over thirty teams participated in the tournament, and Fnatic, of course, were among the main favorites. On the first day Patrick Sattermon ( Carn ) and the companies had to play only a light group, in which in addition to them were teams from India, Pakistan, Canada and French Emulate.
► Oscar Holm (INS) on Parisian ESWC 2007.
Only the latter (15:15) showed worthy resistance, and the others were defeated to fluff. Fnatic They scored thirteen points, went around the French due to the best difference between the won and lost rounds and left the first place in the group. The second day they rested – there were matches in the four remaining groups.
The first two tournament days determined the sixteen better teams, and the organizers did not come up with anything better than to cut them again in groups. The heroes of our narrative "was lucky" to be in the quartet "C", where they had to play with the Germans Alternate Attax , Americans Turmoil and Ukrainians A-gaming.
The Swedes approached these matches very responsibly and in the first two games of the stone on the stone were not left from Turmoil And A-gaming (18:12 and 23: 7, respectively). Having mined six points, Fnatic almost guaranteed themselves a way out in the playoffs and in the last round allowed themselves a draw. All their thoughts were about the quarter -finals where the Finns were already waiting for them 69 ° N-28 ° E.
► E -sports championships in the French capital always collected full halls. Especially – Electronic Sports World Cup!
This team was an extremely uncomfortable opponent for any top team, because the Finns played very aggressively and did not always follow tactics. Unlike SK, Pentagram or the same fnatic, Tommy Kovanen (lurppis) gave his shooters complete freedom of action, and the Finns rushed on the map like a mad. Young NASU , Plaste And Ruit They jumped through the wagons on de_train, like monkeys on vines, and it was extremely difficult to beat them.
The fate of the winner of the first card de_nuke determined additional rounds. More experienced Fnatic They pulled out victory with a score of 19:15 teeth. There was no struggle in the next match – they managed to “burn out” Suomi on Nuke and, as is often the case with young groups, with a bang blowing. This defeat sent them to their homeland according to the coordinates indicated in the name of the team.
► “Black-Orange” squad traveled a lot. Today they could be in the USA, tomorrow in South Korea, and four days later in Sweden.
Further on the way to the second finale ESWC The Poles stood from Pentagram G-Shock (Neo, TAZ, LUQ, Loord, Kuben), better now known as ESC Gaming V Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In the future, the gentry more than once will block the Swedes to many finals, but that confrontation was one of the first.
Not wanting to put a ticket to the final in a long box, Fnatic They took a frisky start and won the first card (16: 9, de_nuke). However, NEO and the company first played out on De_DUST2 (16:12), and after generally deleted the Swedes from the championship race on De_inferno (16: 7). Match for third place against last year's offenders from Mibr "Fanatics" played through the sleeves, but still turned out to be stronger.
► ESWC 2007 Best Movimakers Movienations Muvimakers
Swedish revenge
Beat Fnatic Braziltsev and in the final of the Spanish championship Gamegune , which traditionally took place in Bilbao at the end of July. That tournament was noteworthy that all Fnatic rivals in Parisian participated in it ESWC. According to the logic of things, gold in Baskonia should have taken the Brazilians who had made their way to the finals, but everything happened exactly the opposite.
Rafael Kamargo (Cogu) And his arrows showed a very bright game in Spain and dared from their journey at first Pentagram , And then and Emulate. However, in the superfinal, fate gave the old debt to the Swedes, who, like MIBR in Spain, were supposed to win ESWC 2006 And suddenly lost.
► Patrick Lindberg on Gamegune 2008. The Spanish tournament has always been distinguished by love for the old CRT monitors, and the players liked it.
Championship on Gamegune was a kind of catalyst, and Fnatic At the end of summer they began to play much better. On the triumphal wave, they won in August E-STARS SeUL tournament, where they had to steal decently with the Chinese X7-HACKER (Baeseulki, BB, Forever, K1ngz, Zy) on two final cards.
Directly from South Korea, the plane delivered the champions to his homeland, where after a couple of days national qualifying World Cyber Games. The four best teams of the country made their best part of the qualifications, and the competition was incredible.
SK Gaming , Fnatic And Ninjas in Pyjamas were considered teams of approximately the same level and in 2007 were part of the ten strongest teams in the world. As for Blank , then there were also eminent players in it, but their chances of first place were appreciated low.
► with star players such as F0rest, Fnatic have always been interesting to the international press, whether it be Chinese, German or American.
The semifinal couples looked like this: SK Gaming against NIP And Fnatic against Blank. Naturally, the first confrontation was awarded more audience attention, but the meeting of the "fanatics" remained in the shadow. However, this may have been for the better, because Fnatic was quietly defeated by the opponent, giving only thirteen rounds for two cards.
The final match against NIP turned out to be boring. Patrick Lindberg (F0rest) Almost one left beat the team whose colors, by the way, now protects in CS: GO. By the way, for the "ninja in pajamas" then played a very young Christopher Alesynd , better known in the CS community as Get_Right.
► Fnatic fight against compatriots from SK Gaming as part of the Dreamhack Winter 2007 home championship. Tentpole is visible on the background.
Cool peak
Grand final WCG 2008 He took Seattle in October, and Fnatic went for the ocean for the next gold. The draw determined them in group G, where the Koreans were already located Estro , The British 4Kings , Brazilians G3x and weak teams from Austria and Macedonia.
The Swedes easily outplayed outsiders, but a mistake came out with the teams. Sensational (with a fat sign minus) a draw in a match with the second team of Brazil and defeat by hand Estro (13:17) did not leave Fnatic chances of further struggle. The main favorite in a couple of hours has turned into the main disappointment.
► American WCG 2007 will surely remember Carn for a long time – it rarely happened that the Swedish teams do not leave the group.
The early flight was a heavy blow to organize, but this time, unlike the first two American ”failures on SPL , The composition of the team did not change. On the one hand, without gold ESWC And WCG Direct Fnatic The best team of the year did not work, but on the other hand, the Swedes took several smaller tournaments, and in general they played well.
Not WCG, so SEC!
Looking ahead, let's say that 2008 was the year of dominance MTW (Zonic, Sunde, Ave, MJE, Whimp). The Danes won all the main championships in the year, and Fnatic I had to be content with crumbs from the bar table. But you should not think that the “black-orange” squad played slurred-on the contrary, Fnatic added skill, but few people were able to catch up with the Danes then.
► Harley Orwall with his rarest microsoft 1 mouse.1a Special Edition at the World Esport Masters tournament in Guangzhou.
Samsung European Championship was the first more or less large tournament in 2008, where Fnatic was able to take first place. In the course of Hanover's championship F0rest and the company did not lose a single card, but left one by one with his nose Hellway , The Elder Gods , Alternate and several times neo with comrades.
By the way, the "golden" Polish five by that time had managed to join Meet Your Makers and performed in Germany precisely under this tag. The championship in the European WCG (so position SEC) in addition to satisfaction brought Swedes more than twelve thousand euros.
► Beautiful game Oscar Torgersen (Archi) in the match against Mym on Kode5
From one ESWC to another
The next event deserving of our attention was ESWC Masters of Paris with a prize fund of $ 65,000 for all disciplines. In 2008, Electronic Sports Cup allowed himself to grow into three championships at once, and the main tournament moved from Paris to San Jose. European fans did not like this, and, in order not to offend them, the organizers came up with two less tournaments – Masters In Athens and Paris.
► MTW Danes with another trophy won. In 2008, they clicked the championships like nuts.
The first tournament in our case will not interest you, because they played there only in Quake And Warsraft 3, but in France Counter-Strike 1.6, Naturally, attended. And not only Fnatic, but also other leading European groups were found there.
The entire first gaming day was dedicated to the group stage, which the Swedes played, frankly, ambiguously. On the one side, Fnatic again bypassed Mibr , And the Brazilians flew out, and on the other, the match was lost in the first place for the first place Team Roccat. However, Fnatic at least left the group, but their fundamental opponent Mym and could not do this.
► In between performances for Fnatic, the players of F0rest, DSN and Carn also managed to take gold with their national team on the Europene Nations Cup.
The starting two rounds of the playoff fnatic played on de_train-against SK Gaming And Mousesports. Our guys had long wanted to beat in a personal meeting at a large tournament, but fate did not bring them in any way. When it happened, Schroet Kommando deservedly blew, although they took twelve rounds.
The decisive match against MTW Passed on de_Dust2. The Danes began a stronger attack and at first won several key rounds in a row. Having lost control of the economic situation, Fnatic began to fuss and two of their rounds were able to take only with a score 0:13. Waiting for such a situation was bustling, especially against the magnificent MTWs.
► The best points Electronic Sports World Cup 2008
All that succeeded Fnatic , – Take four more rounds and turn an account from humiliating into simply crushing (6:16). However, there were positive points-the Swedes replenished their pockets for 7500 and got a valuable slot for the main tournament in San Jose.
American ESWC was much larger than the European, and in order to get to the playoffs, the “fanatics” had to overcome two complex group stages. Guess who they had to beat in the second groups? Correctly, of course, poor Brazilians Mibr , which, after winning the ESWC 2006, landed under the skating rink Fnatic Almost at every tournament.
This very skating rink gradually scored, and Fnatic unexpectedly for many defeated in the quarterfinals of recent offenders from MTW. Having beaten the strongest team throughout the tournament, the Swedes probably already saw themselves in the final … and in vain – to underestimate the Koreans Estro It was dangerous!
The underestimation is expensive
In such cases, often a stronger team wins the first card (de_train, 16: 9), after which, thinking that victory is already in your pocket, allows itself to lose the next one (de_inferno, 10:16). But this does not very upset the favorites, because they are going to easily win the decisive third, as if nothing had happened ..
But here they are ambushed. The outsiders, equalizing the score, understand that they are quite capable of defeating and catching the courage. Holding it tightly by the tail, such commands in rare moments of insight are capable of real miracles, and to the favorites with claws to scratch the advantage.
► Joy Patrick Sattermon (Carn) with a check for second place in ISF 2008. The final was then lost to the Koreans.
That's all this happened on the third map de_nuke. The Swedes under the oppression of responsibility played constrainedly, and the Koreans, on the contrary, have grown wings. When Estro (Solo, Termi, Bail, ARI, HeE) There was only one round to Victory, the Scandinavians caught on the attack and incredibly equalized the score. The audience fell into a real shock, the air in the hall was simply electrified.
Unfortunately, there were not enough Scandinavians – on the second additional rounds, Asian rejoiced Fnatic And together with Mym We reached the final, perhaps the most prestigious tournament in 2008. Well, the Swedes … The Swedes went again to play for the bronze and won again, but this time already at Mousesports. Speak, the shell does not get into one funnel twice? Well, well . Giant Wins sister sites.
► Happy Poles from Meet Your Makers after winning Estro in the ESWC 2008 final. The Swedes watched the final as ordinary spectators.
Another offensive defeat in the semifinals was waiting for our heroes and on the Swedish qualifying to WCG 2009. And again Fnatic slightly underestimated the opponents – in particular, Lag Blank (Striker, Face, Gux, Niko, Snajdan). In that year, Sweden at the Cyberlympiad represented SK Gaming , and fnatic has never once taken gold on WCG.
Time of change
After several failures, in a row, the individual players of the team began to abruptly disappear the incentive to play in Counter-STRIKE at a professional level. We are about two Oscars – Ins In January 2009, he plunged into online poker, and Archi a month later he devoted himself entirely to parties and burning life.
► "Get_Right or die tryin" – one of the first muviks about the Christopher Alesund
But before leaving, the Oscars managed to sing their swan song at the stop Intel Extreme Masters In Montreal. In Canada Mibr Sent Fnatic In the lower grid in the third round (3:16, de_train), but then the Swedes took revenge in the final of the lower grid (16: 6, de_inferno). In the superfinal, they naturally beat compatriots from SK Gaming – Well, old rivals!
After leaving Archi And Ins ’A the team took the team Get_Right And Gux. The transition of the first newcomer approved the community, but the choice of the second candidate provoked a serious hype. However, this has already happened in 2007 with Archi, and nothing terrible happened then.
► IEM Montreal 2008-one of the last victories in the professional CS-carrier of the Swedish shooters Archi and Ins’a.
Thus, in the winter of 2009 the second and last legendary composition was born Fnatic By Counter-Strike 1.6. The freshly formed five over the next two years will achieve very great success and will enter its names in the history of computer sports in gold letters. We will tell you about this in the third, final part, stay with us!
