The first quarter finals and what a match! EnVyUs have managed to knock down a three time major champions Fnatic in a great fashion.
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Someone could call this match to be the finals before the finals, but one thing is certain - we had a chance to witness two real giants fighting their way through the playoffs. The map pick didn't bring anything suprising as Team EnVyUs went for de_mirage, while Fnatic decided to go with de_cobblestone. The deciding map was randomly picked and it was de_cache. The only interesting fact regarding the drafts is that both teams decided to start on T side of their opponent's picks.
Mirage was opened by a very strong pistol round by Team EnVyUs where Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and Vincent "Happy" Cervoni were leading the charge. Fnatic was just looking clueless in the first couple of rounds on their T side, and Team EnVyUs was slowly building up their lead. However, winning one semi buy round with pistols only where Team EnVyUs players failed on upgrading their kevlars to head armor, Fnatic got themselves back in the game. This was backened with another great round by Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson who made a quad kill in a 2vs5 situation to win yet another round for Fnatic. The French economy got broken and Fnatic just steamrolled their way up to 6-8. Nathan "NBK" Schmitt finally woke up in the last round of the half which gave Team EnVyUs another round to work with. The half time score was 7-8. But, Fnatic just continued in the same fashion, winning the next pistol round and rounds to follow. In the end, Team EnVyUs couldn't take more than two rounds on their T side which secured a 16-9 win for Fnatic.
What happens really often to Fnatic was proved once again, for some reason the Swedes seems to always struggle on their map pick. Team EnVyUs opened this map with quick four rounds, showing Fnatic that they are not here to surrender. However, Fnatic stricked back with a couple of rounds making it even, but in the end Team EnVyUs had an overall better gameplay which prevailed a 9-6 lead at the end of the first half. In the second half Team EnVyUs extended their lead to 14-6 and it was looking like an easy catch for the Frenchmen, but Fnatic pulled out some extra strength and scored three consecutive rounds. The moment it was looking like Fnatic is building up a momentum here, Team EnVyUs picked a 15th round out of nowhere by using only pistols with no kevlars. The final score was 16-9.
The 'moment' of sadeness, or the 'moment' of glory? It depends on from which point of view you look at this map. However, Team EnVyUs proved that they are one of the best if not the best team in the world on de_cache. Fnatic was just completely demolished, held at only two rounds on both halfs.. The Swedes started on a heavily favored CT side, but Team EnVyUs was just cruel leaving no chance for the Swedes to climb up. It was already easy to figure out how this map will finish when Team EnVyUs had a huge lead in the middle of the first half. Even the time-out didn't help to shake Fnatics players to start hitting the shots. Nine rounds into the match and Fnatic didn't had a player with more than three kills. It all just culminated into a brutal 16-2 for Team EnVyUs and Fnatics elimination.
