ESL One Katowice 2015- Fnatic strike back

Yoshit Khatadia

After a fairly successful year of Counter Strike in 2014, Valve returned with ESL One Katowice 2015 to start off a new year. ESL One Katowice 2015 was the fifth CS:GO major sponsored by Valve.

16 teams participated as usual with 8 teams who qualified for the playoffs at DreamHack Winter 2014 returned as legends whilst the rest 8 participated through qualifiers.

The format of the major remained the same as the previous major as teams were divided into 4 groups. The top two teams from each group qualified for the playoffs. Group stage matches were a Bo1 while all playoff matches were Bo3.

Map pool

The maps too was exactly the same as the previous major with 7 maps in the active pool. Those were:-

Inferno
Cobblestone
Overpass
Mirage
Nuke
Dust II
Cache

Main event of ESL One Katowice 2015

NiP, Team Envyus (ex Team LDLC.com), Virtus,Pro and Fnatic were once again the heavy favorites to take home the trophy. All eyes though were on Fnatic who were coming back after the controversial “olofboost” at the previous major.

Envyus were hoping to become the first team to win back to back major while NiP were looking to reach a fifth straight final appearance.

Fnatic coming back off an impressive few months were looking to silence their critics who criticized them for forfeiting the quarterfinal against LDLC at DreamHack Winter 2014.

Fnatic managed to silenced the critics as they put on a stellar performance throughout and became the first team to clinch two CS:Go majors. This is the journey of Fnatic at ESL One Katowice 2014.

The 16 teams were divided in 4 groups as per usual with NiP, Fnatic, Envyus and VP headlining each group.

Fnatic started off very strongly demolishing Vox Eminor 16:3 sending a strong statement to their rivals. They won their followup match against Na’Vi to confirm their progression to the playoffs.

NiP, Virtus.Pro and Envyus too progressed in the next stage with a 2-0 W-L record and hence avoided each other in the quarters.

Fnatic faced PENTA, VP were up against the “FalleN” led Keyd Stars, NiP tooj on TSM and Envyus had the challenge of Na’VI up against them.

Fnatic continued their rampant form and easily outclasses PENTA winning 16-8 on Inferno and 16-7 on Cache. “JW”, “olofmeister” and “KRIMZ” were firing all cylinders which made a scare prospect for their rivals.

The competition however was shaping up to be the most competitive yet as NiP, VP and Enyus all progressed into the semi finals.

Fnatic faced Virtus.Pro in the first semi-final while NiP met Envyus in the other match, a replay of DH Winter 2014.

The first semi-final was a testament to Fnatic’s form as yet again stomped to a 2-0 victory, with VP serving as the victims. Fnatic defeated VP 19-17 on Cobblestone and 16-8 on Mirage to book a third appearance in the grand finals.

The second semi final saw NiP avenge their defeat against Envyus as they managed to beat them 2-0. The victory saw NiP enter a fifth straight final appearance as the team inched towards a second major title.

The final was everything that any counter strike fan would have hoped. Fnatic were up against their arch rivals NiP as both team were aiming to create history. Fnatic hadn’t dropped a single map yet so there were the slight favorites going into the match.

NiP had a 1-3 W-L record in the grand finals of a major, a poor record considering the firepower in their ranks.

Dust II, Cache and Inferno were selected as the maps for the grand finals. The match was expected to break previous viewership records as two of the biggest names went head to head.

Dust II was up first and Fnatic were the first to take initiative as they went to win 16:14 in a closely fought affair. With a map win already in the bag, Fnatic looked to close out the final on Cache itself. They started off brightly and gained a 8-7 lead after the first half. It was then when NiP fought back as they allowed only 2 rounds to Fnatic once they shifted to the CT side. NiP’s “allu” was instrumental in the sides comeback as they won 16:10 to set up an enticing 3rd map.

Inferno, the best decider map was up in store for the fans at the Spodek Arena who were going wild.

Fnatic started the final map aggressively on the CT side as they managed to take a 11:4 lead after the first half. NiP were again in need of a comeback to seal the championship. They did managed to grind some rounds but fell short in completing the comeback.

Fnatic had too big of a lead to be overturned as they eventually managed to seal the match with 16:13 scoreline. Fnatic had yet again duped NiP and became the first team to win the major twice.

NiP’s hearts were broken once again as the team ended with a 1-4 W-L in the finals, a record which didn’t bode well for the legendary team.

Fnatic throughout the tournament looked as a title winning squad with a certain “olofmeister” at peak. Fnatic over the course of the tournament had a special liking to the Tec-9 meta. Fnatic often changed the course of a match when on a low buy by buying the Tec-9 and still able to win the round.

“olofmeister” who invented the ‘run and gun’ style of play was awarded the MVP for his consistent performances.

Fnatic truly silenced all their crtitcs with their performances and laid a marker for the future. Their victory at ESL One Katowice 2015 was just a glimpse of what the roster was about to achieve in 2015.