The long haul started on Consulate with Team Empire cutting down Fnatic, but the match was only just beginning. Fnatic made sure Empire had a tough time trying to get to the grand finals, while Evil Geniuses looked to secure their spot against FaZe Clan.
Empire and Fnatic faced off to give fans their first three-match series in the 2019 Milan Finals. After four 2-0 wins during the quarterfinals, it looked like fans had clear-cut winners all the way to the end. But Fnatic wouldn’t submit to Empire’s attempts to snuff them out of the running.
Consulate went heavily in the way of Empire 7-4. Even though Fnatic threw up some clutch plays, it was too little, too late. Fnatic made sure to slow the Russian’s ramming speed on Border with their own heavy-handed victory.
Border was wrapped by Fnatic at 7-3 with both Jason “Lusty” Chena and Ethan “RizRaz” Wombwell waking up to some solid holds on defense. But the momentum didn’t carry over to Clubhouse. Danil “JoyStiCK” Gabov destroyed three Fnatic players in the final round to seal the Australian team’s fate. Empire closed out the first three-match series of the 2019 Milan Finals at 7-0.
Evil Geniuses handled FaZe Clan on Clubhouse. Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski opened with a 4K on FaZe in round four to build some needed momentum after FaZe convincingly took round one. But FaZe couldn’t maintain their footing and lost 7-5.
Border served as an evenly-matched map—at least in the early rounds. Evil Geniuses steadily built up a 4-2 lead to carry them through the half. FaZe had a lot of trouble adjusting to EG’s strategies, but managed to put up several solid attacks after the half. Austin “Yung” Trexler absolutely destroyed the entire FaZe roster with a one-vs-four clutch to cancel the momentum FaZe had previously built.
EG squashed FaZe’s grand final hopes at 8-6. At the end of the day, FaZe made too many mistakes and the same can be said for Fnatic. Even after both eliminated teams had great comebacks, they were ultimately undone by mistakes that were capitalized on by their opposition.
While predictions rang true for the semifinals, both Fnatic and FaZe outshined their expected performances. Team Empire and Evil Geniuses will fight it out in the grand finals at 2pm CT.
