IEM CS:GO Katowice 2016: Fnatic Takes 6th Consecutive LAN Title

After an action-packed series, Fnatic takes their sixth consecutive title in a row at IEM Katowice 2015 against Luminosity Gaming, 3-0, in a best-of-five matchup.

The bans and picks were pretty much standard for both sides, with the Brazilians opting to remove Dust 2 and the Swedes getting Mirage off their backs. Then, in alternate order, Overpass, Cache, Inferno and Cobblestone were picked, with Train as the deciding map.

The showdown between these two top-tier teams at IEM Katowice gave everyone a taste of the next level of strategic play in Counter-Strike and Fnatic’s win ensures the continuation of their run as the most successful CS:GO team in recent history.

Overpass

Overpass is Luminosity’s pick and everyone was expecting them to have a hard time until they decided to have strong setups on the defensive side. LG gets the first round on a bomb defuse and goes on to win the next three rounds comfortably even as the Swedes make their first gun round on the offensive side of the map.

The Brazilians just kept pushing beyond Monster and Long to the point that they are able to make it to 6-0. In the 7th round, Fnatic fakes an A push in the middle of the round only to return to the B site with less than 30 seconds left, and Marcelo “coldzera” David is caught off-guard with the AWP in his hand. The CT side is unable to make the retake and the Swedes take their first round on the board. However, Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and co. break Fnatic’s economy on the 8th and makes them go for a tactical pause.

Even with that pause, Fnatic are unable to do anything about it as Epitacio “TACO” Pessoa and coldzera have a stranglehold on the B site, completely shutting down the Swedes on the 9th. The Brazilians take three more rounds to make it 11-1, with FalleN making a show on the 12th round at A long with his AWP.

On the 13th round, Fnatic makes it after picking off coldzera on the boost area on B which allowed them to push quickly afterwards. On the 14th round, LG makes it through the creative application of flashbangs on the B site, denying Fnatic the push into B. On the final round, Fnatic wins after a close fight.

While the Brazilians showed an advanced level of tactical thinking in the first half, the Swedes made tons of highlight plays in the second half, forcing their opponents into unfavorable situations early in the round and wrecking their economy as well. Luminosity took only two rounds in this half, while Fnatic was able to make a comeback which is massive even by their own standards.

Overtime came down to some solid play by the Swedes who at this point, already got all the momentum that they need. It ends up 19-17 in their favor, but it took a good amount of mental fortitude as well as some next-level individual plays in order for them to take the series to overtime. This particular map has shown that a combination of consistent individual play, in-game creativity and tactical discipline is the key to win convincingly against the best team in the world.

Cache

While Overpass was considered to be Luminosity’s show despite the fact that they lost the map, Cache once again proves to be a niche map for the Swedes as they demonstrate how mid control wins the round for the Terrorist side of Cache.

With the Brazilians on the defensive side of the map and Fnatic on the offensive side, Luminosity wins the 1st pistol on a retake and the succeeding round in quick fashion. However, from the 3rd round onward, the Swedes just literally mauled through their opponents as they threw boosts, bullets, bodies and grenades toward the middle portion of the map in order to gain control of that area.

Once they gain control, they just waltzed into the site of their choice regardless of the setup that FalleN and co. choose to have on their side of the map. The only exception to this happened in the 8th round when a strong hold by Lincoln “fnx” Lau and coldzera denied Fnatic control of the A site, thus making it 5-3 for LG. However, the Swedish side immediately regained control of the half.

The first half of Overpass ended up in a 12-3 scoreline for Fnatic and upon changing sides, the Swedes just pushed the Brazilians out of Cache in brutal fashion as they did not allow Luminosity to take a single round on the Terrorist side.

Inferno

It is easy to brush this one off as another Fnatic slaughterhouse, but things were not always like this in the past: If Fnatic autobans Mirage in this patch, they used to automatically ban Inferno back in 2013 as well as the latter part of 2014 due to the mastery of the map by Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) and LDLC.com, respectively.

Today, Inferno is at the top of Fnatic’s pick list as they win a staggering 78% out of 97 career matches on this map (In comparison, NiP only wins 54% out of 65 matches and EnVyUs wins 72% out of 29 matches). In other words, Inferno is a death sentence for their opponents – to the point that NiP’s win over Fnatic on Inferno back in ESL Cologne 2014 is considered to be a miracle in CS:GO history.

Yet, despite having full knowledge of this, FalleN and co. chose to fight on this map. Luminosity once again start on the CT side, which turns out to be virtually impregnable for the Swedish side to conquer. As a result, Fnatic only managed to take three rounds on the offensive side of Inferno.

However, once the sides changed, it became a very harsh battle as the Swedes fought tooth-and-nail for every round that they take off the Brazilians. It was a brawlfest where no one is assured of victory until the final seconds of each round.

After taking 12 out of 15 rounds on their CT side, Fnatic was able to force it into overtime and this time around, Fnatic played a perfect overtime in order to get four straight rounds on the board, winning Inferno and the championship in the process.

Never since facing NiP on Inferno during ESL Cologne 2015 did Fnatic need to gather all their strength in order to win their “home” map. Luminosity did a great job of displaying superb gameplay, but in the end, sheer mental fortitude enabled the Swedes to take their seventh consecutive tournament title.

Fnatic takes home $104,000 (P4.86 million) for winning the championship, while their Brazilian counterparts get $44,000 (P2.06 million) for their second-place finish.

Lessons

Each map offered three different aspects of Counter-Strike that can be used at any level of play: Overpass was a prime example of tactical discipline and out-of-the-box thinking, while Cache showed how fundamental Counter-Strike can win rounds convincingly.

Finally, Inferno was the slugfest that exemplified the current state of the game: No one is safe regardless of the early lead that one takes, as brilliant individual play combined with nerves of steel can turn the tables into one’s favor.

If these teams continue to perform like this, then we may very well see a new age in CS:GO history within this year.

Here are the final results of the tournament (these include win bonuses):

1st place: fnatic ($104,000)
2nd place: Luminosity Gaming ($44,000)
3rd/4th place: Astralis ($25,000)
3rd/4th place: Na`Vi ($23,000)
5th/6th place: Tempo Storm ($13,000)
5th/6th place: Virtus.pro ($13,000)
7th/8th place: FaZe ($7,000)
7th/8th place: mousesports ($7,000)
9th/10th place: Ninjas in Pyjamas ($5,000)
9th/10th place: E-frag.net ($4,000)
11th/12th place: EnVyUs ($3,000)
11th/12th place: TheMongolz ($2,000)

Images taken from ESL.

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