Fnatic clings on to ECS spot over North

Fnatic retained its spot in the Esports Championship Series main European division, after a tense playoff game against North.

Fighting in the promotion series of the ECS, Fnatic succeeded in fending off the Danes in North with a 3-1 victory. The Swedish side, which saw an on form Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer top the charts in all but one map of the series, will now have a chance to make up for its lackluster performance in ECS Season 2.

Aside from olofmeister’s incredible performance, the majority of players on the Fnatic roster delivered solid showings throughout the series. A welcome sight, given the fact that the team recently reunited with all the players that competed on the squad between late 2015 to the the middle of 2016. This line-up is considered to be one of the best all throughout CS:GO history, and went on a dominant streak of six straight LAN victories.

Despite Fnatic winning with a 3-1 overall map score, the series was hardly one-sided. Aside from opening map Overpass, in which Fnatic won with a convincing 16-9 in rounds, North pushed past Fnatic in an overtime victory on Cache. Following up on the exciting confrontation on Cache, the Swedes won Cobblestone with a narrow 16-11 win, and finally rounded out the series after another overtime on Inferno—one of Fnatic’s historically best maps.

For North, this defeat is a major disappointment. The Danish squad previously occupied a spot in the main European division of the ECS when they were still competing under Team Dignitas. But due to joining North on Jan. 3, the players were not allowed to retain the spot in the European division, forcing the Danes to re-qualify for the league through its development league.

One game remains in the ECS promotion series, and will see Polish favorites Virtus Pro face up against Turkey’s strongest team in Space Soldiers tomorrow.