VG move past fnatic into semis

VeryGames came from behind to beat fnatic 2-1 and progress to the ESWC semi-finals, where they will meet Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Heading into the third day of the tournament, everyone was excited to see how fnatic would fare against VeryGames, especially after Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg had said that his side "could beat anyone", definitely a bold statement on his part.

VG, on the other hand, had looked somewhat off the pace in the group stage, finishing second to Copenhagen Wolves in the group, so the RaidCall EMS One champions knew that they would need to give a much better account of themselves in this match if they wanted to go through to the semi-finals.

de_cache was the first map, and VG are known to be very strong here ( it was only last week that they scored a 16-14 victory against NiP on this map), so fnatic's stunning 10-5 lead at the break came as a surprise to many. VG looked the better side during the early stages of the second half as they closed the gap to just two rounds, but then fnatic ran riot and sealed the deal with a 16-10 victory to take the lead in the series.

fnatic won the first map

The next map, de_inferno, was almost the polar opposite: VG came out the brighter and executed an almost perfect pistol round, taking down some players on middle before disposing of the remaining opponents on B, losing just one player in the process.

One eco was all that fnatic needed, as the Swedes went on a full buy in the third round, and the move almost paid off, had Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux not won a 1-on-2 with the bomb planted on B.

That round really broke fnatic's spirit (and their economy), and VG continued to pick up round after round, powered by Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom's numerous triple kills on B which the Swedes could do nothing about.

A 13-2 scoreline at half-time showed how dominant VG had been in the first half, and the French side further enlarged their lead by winning the pistol round. fnatic then went on a desperate buy, and they were just inches away from winning the round, but Richard "shox" Papillon won a 1-on-3 to push his side to a 16-2 victory on this map.

VG fought back to level the series

The third map, de_mirage, looked to be an exact copy of de_inferno as VG strolled to a whopping 10-0 lead. fnatic finally managed to break VG's momentum and collect their first rounds here, but a 3-12 deficit meant that they had a mountain to climb after the restart.

Victory was then within touching distance for VG after they won the pistol round, but the French side surprisingly threw the second round and allowed fnatic to gain some much-needed momentum and close the gap, little by little. VeryGames wasted several match points and they had to wait for the very last round to seal the deal, when everyone was thinking that an overtime was in the pipeline.

ESWC 2013Best of 3 fnaticMatchpage 1 2 2nd November 2013 VeryGames 16Cache 10 2Inferno 16 14Mirage 16

VeryGames	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Adil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomScreaM	70 - 51	+19	-	1.40
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	63 - 49	+14	-	1.23
Edouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxSmithZz	57 - 46	+11	-	1.15
Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittNBK-	49 - 46	+3	-	1.03
Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' DroolansEx6TenZ	34 - 41	-7	-	0.81

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Jonatan 'Devilwalk' LundbergDevilwalk	50 - 53	-3	-	0.96
Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMODDII	51 - 54	-3	-	0.93
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	46 - 52	-6	-	0.90
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	48 - 57	-9	-	0.87
Andreas 'znajder' Lindbergznajder	38 - 58	-20	-	0.68

With this victory, VeryGames have set up a thrilling semi-final contest against Ninjas in Pyjamas, which will kick off at 13:00

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