The Grand Final of the ESL ESEA Pro League Finals saw Fnatic grind down Na'Vi in a 3-2 map score.
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The first map going into the best-of-five series was de_inferno, an obvious map pick from Fnatic. The Swedes won the knife round and decided to start off on the less favoured T side. The first pistol round was secured by Fnatic, where they stormed A site, planted the bomb and cleared up the defence. Na’Vi retaliated by force buying four deagles and a five-seven at the start of the second round, snatching Fnatic’s chance of running away with more rounds. Na’Vi demonstrated quite the dominance on the CT side of inferno, landing them a comfortable 12-3 at the end of the first half.
The second half saw Na’Vi secure the second pistol round, giving them a very good lead. They did not, however, capitalise on it, as Fnatic managed to push them back on the second round, resetting the Ukrainian’s economy, knocking them back heavily. Round after round Fnatic demonstrated their calm, calculated nature, countering all advances from Na’Vi. The Swedes demonstrated just why they are considered the best team on de_inferno, besting the Ukrainians in a 16-14 round grind.
Second up was de_dust2. Fnatic yet again won the knife round, deciding to stick to the CT side for the first half of the map. The first pistol round went in favour of Fnatic, as Robin ‘’flusha’’ Rönnquist landed a 4k on ‘’A long’’ as Na’Vi were unsuccessful with their rush. The Swedes swept up the following two rounds, securing themselves a solid early lead. Allowing the Ukrainians a total of six rounds, Fnatic forced their game onto Na’Vi, asserting their dominance throughout the first half, concluding it with 9-6 in their favour.
Going into the second half, Na’Vi seemed to be a bit more level headed after clearly being on tilt on de_inferno and the early rounds of de_dust2. The Ukrainians took charge, grabbing the second pistol round of the map, with pistol master, Ioann ‘’Edward’’ Sukhariev, showing up when his team needs him most. Following this successful round, Na’Vi started gaining momentum, propelling the team’s confidence along with their round score. This mental boost was not sufficient to ensure the Ukrainians’ victory on de_dust2, as the Swedes ground them down yet again in a 16-14 stretch.
The third map, de_mirage, saw Fnatic win the knife round for the third time in a row. They decided to pick the T side to start off the map. The pistol round started off with an amazing pick from Olof ‘’olofmeister’’ Kajbjer in B apps, opening the round up for his team to secure it. Despite a convincing start, the Swedes couldn’t quite hold up the lead, as the Ukrainians secured bomb sites, effectively rotated and won duels against the Swedes. Na’Vi closed out the first half at a 12-3 lead.
During the second pistol round of the map, Ladislav ‘’GuardiaN’’ Kovács secured the round for his team, landing a 4k onto the Swedes on B site. Fnatic came back with their most recent addition Dennis ‘’dennis’’ Edmann buying a Deagle two rounds in a row, managing to score back to back triple headshots onto the Ukrainians. This effort was, unfortunately, not enough and Na’Vi took the map away with a 16-8 score.
Next up was de_train, a map where Na’Vi were considered to be the favourite. The Ukrainians managed to secure the knife round, deciding to start off on the CT side. Fnatic went for a B split, which ended up scoring them the first pistol round of the map. In the second round the Swedes were shut down by the Ukrainians, with Ladislav ‘’GuardiaN’’ Kovács landing a couple of ‘’juandeags’’ onto the Fnatic members. After these extraordinary rounds we saw a fair game from both teams, with Fnatic propelling themselves slightly higher at 10-5 at half time.
As the second half commenced, Fnatic managed to close out the pistol round effectively holding off a B aggression from Na’Vi. The Ukrainians retaliated by equalising the round score to 11-11, further contending Fnatic’s lead. The final rounds of the map were absolutely nerve-wrecking, where we saw both teams make numerous mistakes under pressure. In the end, Na’Vi managed to mount a comeback, crushing the Swedes 16-14.
The last map of the best-of-five series was de_cobblestone. Fnatic secured the knife round, picking to start off on the CT side. The first pistol round went in favour of Na’Vi, where they managed to wipe out the entirety of Fnatic on the A site. The winning streak was short lived for the Ukrainians, as the Swedes secured a whopping seven consecutive rounds. Na’Vi managed to grab three consecutive rounds after this series of losses, breaking Fnatic’s economy and forcing them into an eco-round. Fnatic’s Dennis ''dennis'' Edmann managed to play out a 1v2 clutch against Na’Vi’s Danylo ‘’Zeus’’ Teslenko and Denis ‘’seized’’ Kostin, where he landed a jumping headshot on Zeus and outduelled seized. The first half concluded at 9-6 in favour of Fnatic.
The second pistol round saw the Swedes go for a hyperaggressive push onto B, which then somehow turned into a bomb plant on A site, after outplaying Na’Vi. Following the early success, Fnatic ran away with the rest of the match, dominating the T side of de_cobblestone and taking away the match with a 16-6 score. Fnatic sweep the ESL ESEA LAN Finals with a 3-2 maps score against Na’Vi.
