TThe ESL One European Group Finals have concluded with Fnatic defeating Cloud9 in a best-of-five series with a score of 3-2 to secure a spot in Frankfurt finals. Cloud9, Empire and the third and fourth placers of the groupstage will now fight for the final European spot.
The ESL One LAN finals are fast approaching, and eight of the strongest teams in the world will travel to Frankfurt, Germany to battle for the massive $150,000. the ESL organization gave the chance to all DotA teams, amateur and professional, to join Na'Vi and Alliance in the tournament finals, with extensive regional qualifiers for the East and West.
The second best-of-five series of the main European qualifiers of ESL One has just finished. With a 3-2 victory, Fnatic is to emerge from the European qualifiers and earn a place in the Frankfurt finals. The teams seemed to stand on equal ground during tonight's match, with the outcome being decided by small details, and a sloppy performance by EternalEnvy during the final game.
Game one was a victory for Fnatic with their infamous Tiny-Wisp that caused a lot of trouble to Cloud9, whom went with a unconventional Warlock pick. With Cloud9 banning Io in Game two, Fnatic selected a Luna-Invoker-Centaur tricore. However, Cloud9's high physical damage was overwhelming and Fnatic called the GG 38 minutes in after losing almost their entire team in their own base.
With the series tied up at 1-1, Fnatic managed to take Game three after a poor early game performance by Cloud9 resulting in a score of 28-7 only 27 minutes in. Cloud9 once again came back in game four after Fnatic went with a highly unorthodox Meepo pick. Unfotrunately for them, Doombringer put Meepo into the dirt on more than one occasion. Losing their entire team at middle against a farmed Naga Siren 29 minutes in didn't help, and they called GG shortly after. With the score evened up at 2-2, both teams came in to game five with everything on the line.
Game five was a back and forth battle that saw EternalEnvy's Weaver die five times in fifteen minutes. Fnatic had a powerful push-oriented strategy with Naga Siren and Natures Prophet. Clutch arrows combined with fast farming from their cores gave them a significant early game advantage. With Fnatic whittling away at their defenses, Cloud9 was completely confined inside their base thirty five minutes in. A massive team fight at forty one minutes actually gave Cloud9 a small victory, but Natures Prophet managed to get more barracks during the scuffle. Several minutes later, one more final push by Fnatic was the straw that broke the camels back as EternalEnvy died twice with a buyback, calling the GG at 45 minutes.
The defeated squads of the two best-of-five matches, Empire and Cloud9, will now join the third and fourth placers of the main qualifier groupstage in a single elimination bracket. The winner of the bracket will claim the third and final spot of the Frankfurt finals. Counting Na'Vi and Alliance, there will be a total of five European teams in Commerzbank Arena this June.
For more information about the qualifiers, check out our coverage hub here.
For more information about the ESL One 2014 tournament, visit the official website.
HL image by EMS One.
