It certainly wasn’t pretty, and they’re certainly not out of the woods yet, but Fnatic kicked off their first ever foray into the world of Flashpoint CS:GO with a 2-1 win over Contact Gaming on Wednesday.
The Swedes came into the match against their fellow Europeans on the back of a five series losing streak, one of their longest for years, slumped down in 13th in the HLTV world rankings, and playing less than twenty-four hours after being dumped out of IEM Beijing Online by Flashpoint season one champions, MAD Lions.
They came up against Contact in what was their debut in Flashpoint, a side ranked 43rd in the world with a fresh new roster and no weeks in the top thirty since their inception. The CS:GO odds might have had Fnatic as clear favourites, however what followed a series of tough matches and tense moments that Fnatic were totally reliant on their star-studded individuals clutching their way out of in order to get the win. It was convincing or pretty, but it was a result at the end of the day.
Here’s everything you need to know about Flashpoint’s most dramatic day so far.
Mirage
Contact picked into Mirage to open the series up, a map that traditionally Fnatic had looked relatively strong in, but had struggled on over the previous few competitions. The Swedes have a win percentage of just 30% on the map, making it their second worst and only above Dust II, which was perhaps the thinking for Contact.
However things always looked pretty comfortable for Fnatic on Mirage, with their opening T rounds putting them in the driving seat for the map.
Flusha was the standout star for Fnatic on the T side, running at 15-5 with a rating of 2.31 and a KAST contribution record of 100%. Though he would drop off to a fairly sloppy 6-10 on the CT side, it was still enough to see him close out the map as the MVP as Fnatic comfortably won 16-10.
Train
Train has never traditionally been one of Fnatic’s best maps, rarely picking into it and usually having it as a veto against sides that specialise on it. Their win percentage is only at 37%, making it their third worst in the pool, so it was a surprise to see them actively select it as their pick.
Whether it was an experiment or a desperate attempt to try and find something resembling a winning formula, Fnatic actually started the map quite brightly; they won the opening two rounds and the final four on the T side to give them a great foundation of 7-8 going into the CT side.
However what followed was what Fnatic fans have become too accustomed to seeing from their side over the past six months or so, with the Swedes only picking up two more rounds to close out the map with a 9-16 loss.
Overpass
The decider was on Overpass, a strong map for Fnatic but also one they have dropped below a win percentage of 50% on over the past three months, dropping to 42% and their third best out in the pool. Though it looked like it could have been yet another upset for Fnatic fans to stomach, the map was a bit of an anti-climax as Fnatic took an early lead and never really dropped their composure enough to give themselves a fright or Contact the momentum to trouble them too much.
JW, Krimz and Golden all managed to snag over twenty kills over the course of the map whilst no one from Contact managed to reach the same, and Brollan managed to make an impact as an entry fragger with four successful first kills on Overpass, the most of any player over the course of the series.
The Numbers
In total over the three maps, Fnatic finished with 268 kills and 48 assists against Contact’s 246 and 40. Krimz was the MVP with 0.83 kills per round and a 1.30 rating, and there were a plethora of good points for the likes of Flusha who pulled off a couple of memorable clutches and JW who looked far more confident with the AWP in his hands.
However the numbers don’t lie, this was far from convincing from Fnatic. They were reliant on 7 successful clutches to Contact’s 3 showing that, against a more high profile opposition, they might not have had things their own way.
It remains to be seen whether this will be a bedrock for the Swedes to finally find some form, or just another performance that covers over the cracks this roster has been plagued by during the CS:GO online era.
