Fnatic has quick work of FunPlus Phoenix in the first round of the Masters 2 Copenhagen knockout stage. The top seeded EMEA team bared their fangs early on as they won the match 2-0, as they look to kickstart their run to the Masters 2 Copenhagen Grand Final.
With this win under their belt Fnatic will be moving on to the Upper Bracket Semi-Final. There, they will face the ever-dangerous Paper Rex, who triumphed over Guild Esports in the match prior to this one. And if the two teams play anywhere near as well as they did today, then we could be in for a true clash of the titans.
Fnatic get off to a strong start at Masters 2
All eyes were on Fnatic coming into this fixture. This was to be their first match at Masters 2 Copenhagen, after being given a bye to the knockout stage due to their high seeding. And given that Fnatic had managed to qualify for the tournament without losing a single match in Stage 2, the heightened expectations were somewhat justified. And they could not have asked for a better opponent to test their might against than their fellow EMEA rivals FunPlus Phoenix.
This was the fourth time they had faced FPX in Stage 2, with their most recent bout occurring in the EMEA Challengers playoff final. And while this was a slightly weaker FPX squad than the one they faced back in June, they had still proven themselves to be a fierce competitor thus far in the tournament, having beaten Xerxia Esports and Northeption in Group B. Given that Fnatic had yet to take the stage at Copenhagen prior to this match, it seemed like FPX might finally have some sort of advantage on their EMEA rivals. What followed was far from what anybody expected.
Fnatic got off to a shaky start to proceedings when FPX managed to accrue a 7-5 lead in the first half of Icebox. With Emir Ali “Alfajer” Beder in particular seemingly suffering from some first LAN jitters as he was unusually quiet in that first half. But he managed to turn things around rather quickly along with the rest of his team as Fnatic went on to totally dominate proceedings. Fnatic eventually managed to secure Icebox 13-10, with Jake “Boaster” Howlett and Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev taking control of the map. And the momentum only continued to grow into Map 2 as Fnatic steamrolled FPX on Haven to win the map 13-4.
Derke has arrived in Copenhagen
While everyone from Fnatic performed very well in their 2-0 win over FPX, there was only one king of the ring in this affair. And that man was Derke.
After being unable to play at Masters 1 Reykjavik due to COVID-19 protocols, Derke was coming into this tournament with a point to prove. And he certainly showed off his prowess on the LAN stage with his phenomenal Chamber play. Even when Fnatic were in unwinnable situations, Derke seemed to find ways to turn the tide in his teams favor. With the best of all these moments coming early in Map 2 where he pulled off a sensational 1v3 clutch.
Prior to the match experts were quick to build up the duel between himself and FPX’s “Ardiis” as a key battle to watch. But after the match got underway, Derke seemed like he was untouchable. Which was clearly reflected by the fact that Derke finished the match with a whopping 53 kills and only 22 deaths. Giving him an astounding +31 overall K/D ratio across both maps. With a performance like this it was no surprise when he was named the MVP of the match. And this is likely to be but the beginning of his reign of terror at this tournament.
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