CSGO: Fnatic Wins Elisa Masters Espoo
| Tags: CS2
| Author Zlosterr
Fnatic take the top prize, beating BIG in the Grand Final of the CSGO Elisa Masters Espoo.
The Elisa Masters Espoo was one of the last top-tier CSGO tournaments for 2022. Even though fans expected BIG to become the champions, the problems with their roster had an effect on their performance. As a result, Fnatic defeated them in the finals and became and won the LAN event that took place in Finland.
The event & participants
The Elisa Masters Espoo was held in Espoo, and it featured 12 of the best teams in the world. They were divided into 2 groups, and only 3 of them survived. After the end of the Group Stage, fans had the chance to see Sprout, BIG, 500, Astralis, ENCE, and Fnatic.
Fnatic and Sprout finished first, which is why they received a slot for the Semifinals. Zyphon and the rest weren’t able to live up to the expectations and lost against BIG, whereas Fnatic defeated the mighty Astralis. Hence, both teams reached the Grand Final.
Even though most fans expected BIG to win this match, Fnatic was the better team and got a clean 2-0 victory. What’s interesting is that the game was not even close because mezii and his teammates ripped through their opponents. Fnatic won Vertigo 16-4 and continued to dominate on Overpass. BIG only won 5 rounds there and lost the event.
Both team’s performances throughout the event
Even though Fnatic and BIG had roster changes before the event, the two were way better than their opponents. Fnatic’s European roster could not rely on Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, which is why the team had to play with Peppe “Peppzor” Borak. As for BIG, we’ve reported that Josef “faveN” Baumann would stand in for Florian “syrsoN” Porsche, who got COVID-19 before the beginning of the event.
Some fans didn’t believe that BIG had what it takes to reach the final, but the German squad dealt with the competition. Sadly, the team did not have enough firepower to bring down the mighty Fnatic, who was on another level.
Speaking of the devil, Fnatic won $100,000 and secured itself a slot for IEM Katowice 2023 Play-in. Needless to say, this will be the prelude to the big $1,000,000 event that will take place later on.
Final
As mentioned, Fnatic had little to no problems and won both maps against BIG in the Final. It all started with Vertigo, where the EU squad slowly but steadily secured itself a comfortable lead on their opponent’s map of choice. Fredrik “roeJ” Jorgensen was the start of the map for Fnatic as he ripped through his opponent and gave his team a very comfortable lead.
BIG tried to bounce back and got a few rounds under their belt, but it was not enough before heading to the CT side. The second half was short-lived for the German squad as Fnatic won the first map. This led to the second one, which was Overpass.
Fnatic is notorious for being one of the best on Overpass, so people expected it to dominate. Following a couple of minutes, the team already got a comfortable 5-2 lead and allowed it to continue to dominate. In the end, the first half ended with a score of 11:4.
After changing sides, both teams exchanged one round, and fans hoped that this would be enough for BIG to start winning and get at least several more rounds. However, this was not the case because Fnatic’s dealers prevented this from happening. Fnatic's stand-in Peppzor even secured his team an ace and allowed it to win the match 16-5.
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Feature Image: FNATIC