Fnatic is the best team in the world, arguably the best in the history of CS:GO, but why exactly? After all, they are not the best team in terms of tactics (teams like TSM, Na’vi and VP are as tactical, if not even more than fnatic) and they are not even the most individually skilled team, as teams like Envy and TSM are more skilled man-to-man. However, one thing that they do excel in is teamwork and synergy.
There are three main qualities in counter-strike that a team needs in order to succeed: individual skill, tactics and teamwork. There are many ways to balance your team: having a very strong individually skilled team but lacking a bit in tactics and teamwork (Envyus comes to mind), or having a team that is very good at tactics but lacks in the other areas (like Titan).
What makes Fnatic special is the fact that they are the best at teamwork and synergy, but they are also in the top of the other departments. Sure, Envy and TSM are better individually skilled than Fnatic, but the difference is very small and the same goes for their tactics.
If you watch Fnatic’s games, they are the best team in the world at trading frags. This means that on the T-side when they try to get an entry they will always send the first man in with a pop flash, then if he dies the next one comes and gets the frag, which leaves the game in a 4v4 situation, where the T-s have the advantage, while on the CT-side they will always use teamwork to catch the T-s in the choke points and get at least one frag advantage.
Another very important aspect is the fact that their players trust each other; the reason why JW can and will make unpredictable plays (like the molly rush at Dubai) is because he knows that even if he dies either olof, flusha or krimz will be able to get the double or the triple needed and save the round for them, while if he does manage to get the frag it gives Fnatic a huge advantage over the remainder of the round.
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And this leads to another one of their strengths: their adaptability, which is one of the most important qualities if you want to remain the best in the world for such a long time. Comparing Fnatic, when they first started dominating (summer 2014) to the Fnatic of today is a huge difference: back in 2014, they were known for being monsters on the CT-side, basically changing the meta to a point where most maps were ct-sided, while abusing the power of the old CZ-75; and the best player of that era was Krimz, who was insanely good at holding down choke points as a CT player. Today’s Fnatic, in contrast, is very different: they are now a very strong T-sided team (while also having a strong CT side too), they are able to punish the enemy team with the use of the tec9’s, and their best player is Olofmeister, who is very good at moving around the map and getting entries for his team.
One last factor for Fnatic’s dominance is the ability of almost any of their players to step up and single-handedly carry the game for the team. At first it was Krimz putting up the 30 bombs, then Flusha took over (usually at majors) and now Olofm is the guy that we look for to carry, while JW acts as a wild-card; when he is on point, the enemy has no chance, but when he has issues the team can carry anyway, which is so important when facing teams like Virtus.pro(when they are on form) or TSM, as they need the firepower to stand up to these teams, which leads to insane results like managing to win events with their B-game against the best teams of this era.
Overall, Fnatic is probably already the best team in the history of CS:GO, striking back-to-back major wins, and their time of dominance is not even over yet.
Published: Sep 13, 2015 04:09 am