Fnatic is on the rise
Fnatic has been the gold standard when it comes to consistent winning teams throughout the short history of Counter: Strike Global Offensive. The organization has several big tournament wins starting from the games conception and has showed different periods of dominance ever since with various different lineups. Although Fnatic has fielded some of the most legendary teams to have ever graced the servers at Valve they have been somewhat quite over the last year only upsetting better teams rarely in big tournaments.
The Swedish team has had its fair share of team changes as well as injuries in the last year and the results have shown accordingly. With the most recent change in the lineup Fnatic has shown improvement and many are asking. Is Fnatic a contender for the next major?
Recent roster changes
In August of 2017 the roster picked up Mailkil “GOLDEN” Selim and Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson. Both players have a very specific set of skills that the Swedes have been lacking over the last year. GOLDEN has come on as the IGL or In Game Leader which is a huge gain for this team. With Golden taking over calling the shots and reactionary plays for the Fnatic team this frees former IGL Robin “Flusha” Ronnquist to return to his roots of being a master fragger.
The other change coming in the form of Lekr0 who has been about as good as you can been for a young fragger. He is great in the pistol rounds and is dangerous with just about any weapon in his hands. It seem as though he has taken to the experience of the veteran team around him and so far has made the best of it.
Changing for the better
Flusha is capable of some of the most electrifying plays possible in Counter Strike. He was in the top 10 of HLTV.org’s Top 20 players lists in 2014,2015, and 2016. Being very consistent when it comes to holding bombsites and having the potential to walk into any site with a dry peak (no nades to assist in the peak) and grab two kills for his team make him invaluable. Flusha upon taking the IGL role saw a drop off in his fragging ability which ultimately hurt his teams. He is considered a fierce competitor and willing to do whatever it takes for a win which landed him the role. This in turn hurt his teams ability to take bomb sites and defend certain rushes from tactile teams.
With GOLDEN taking over the more cerebral responsibilities of the game Flusha can return to what makes him such a great player and a hopeful return to HLTV’s list once more. As far as Lekr0 goes he has been the definition of a rising star the last couple of years rising from the ranks of second tier Counter Strike. Making a name for himself on smaller teams he has bounced back and forth between Fnatic and GODSENT for the past couple of years. It seems as though he has found a comfortable role within his team as somewhat of a utility player and pistol specialist.
What makes them a contender?
moving on from the aforementioned Lekr0,GOLDEN, and Flusha. We need to discuss the two other players of Fnatic being Jesper “JW” Wecksell and Freddy “KRiMZ” Johnasson. Both of them are legendary in their own right but over the past year they have not found top placings in big events. As of late they have performed up to their potential seeing KRiMZ hold bombsites by his lonesome and come up with huge clutch plays from a lurking position. JW seems to have found his confidence again taking insane peaks and getting away with some plays that some pro CS players only dream of. With these two returning to old form along with Flusha this team has a huge upside for upset potential.
The key to all of this success is GOLDEN. He has a great mind for the game and with the tools he has at his disposal he has beaten teams like Faze and SK on a regular basis. The biggest of these wins coming in 3-2 fashion over Faze Clan in Katowice for the Season XII IEM grand finals. This is a huge win as Faze is currently the number one team in the world and has a staggering amount of star power.
More impressive was earlier in the same tournament they gave Faze a clean sweep of 2-0. This plus their recent win of Wold Electronic Sports Games gives them a hot hand moving forward albeit the former had a weak field of teams. The stage seems set for this team to have a great upcoming year and I suspect that they will continue their string of top tier finishes.
Closing comments
Although the next major for CS:GO is a ways off it is important to note that this Fnatic team has only gotten better the more they have played. With the right system put in place by GOLDEN and the trust of his teammates to execute his plans this team stands a solid chance of lifting many trophies this year. As the year goes on we will dive further into what makes these teams tick and what does not. For all things sports keep it right here at The Game Haus and for all things Counter Strike keep and eye out for my name in the coming weeks.
Images from fnatic.com
Heath Dettwiller
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