Fnatic round up the top eight for the Mid-Season Invitational Bracket Stage

Fnatic qualify to the Bracket Stage of the Mid-Season Invitational after they defeated GAM Esports.

The last day of the Play-In Stage saw the likes of Fnatic qualify to the next round after they defeated GAM Esports 2-0 for the second time at the Mid-Season Invitational. The LEC second seed will join PSG Talon as the other team to qualify to the Bracket Stage of MSI alongside the likes of T1 and Top Esports.

As for GAM, they will leave MSI once again in the Play-In Stage where they are joined by FlyQuest as well as the Latin American teams like LOUD and Estral ESports. While it did look like they had enough in the tank to steal the second map away from Fnatic, GAM could not keep it together as they bow out of the tournament with dreams dashed once more.

The first match of the series started off as a tightly-contested game with neither team willing to give an inch. However, as the game wore on, Fnatic were able to find openings in GAM's armour. This paved the way for Hyeon-taek “Noah” Oh's Kalista to go berserk. He would go on to claim 13 kills and nine assists to go with zero deaths; it's also worth noting this is his first-ever MSI event and only second-ever international tournament.

But it wasn't just Noah that ran riot in the first game as Se-joon “Jun” Yoon also had a near-flawless match. His Ashe was everywhere on the map as he picked up one kill, two deaths, and 21 assists. This meant that Jun was involved in 88 per cent of the team's total 25 kills. Heading into the second game, many thought Fnatic would steam roll GAM once more, but that was certainly not the case.

Fnatic started the second game strong as they were able to hold off GAM for most of the early game, despite dropping unnecessary kills now and then. But as we edged closer towards the mid-to-late game, it looked like GAM weren't going away, especially after a chaotic bottom river fight that saw Fnatic lose four with no response. Duy “Levi” Khánh Đỗ was doing all he could for the team as his Nocturne had four kills and four deaths to go with nine assists.

Even the likes of Hứa “EasyLove” Thành An on Zeri and Trần “Kiaya” Duy Sang with Rumble weren't able to carry GAM across the finish line, despite their massive damage output as the game went on. While GAM came close to winning the game occasionally, they just didn't have enough firepower to take down Fnatic for good.

MSI 2024 — Bracket Stage

After the conclusion of the Fnatic vs GAM Esports series, the final eight were drawn into the double-elimination bracket that will also be a best-of-five throughout. And of the four draws that took place, Fnatic will go up against the undisputed LCK champions, Gen.G Esports. To make it even better, the Bracket Stage will have a double-header between the LCK and LEC as T1 got drawn to face G2 Esports.

As for the LCS' only team left standing, Team Liquid will do all they can do best Top Esports, who came through from the Play-In Stage. And for the LPL champions, they will have a go against PSG Talon, who are more than likely seen as the underdogs at this stage of the tournament.