FNATIC FNATIC Europe Unranked Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder overcame Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Unranked Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le in the upper finals of Masters Tokyo, taking a 2-1 victory that carried them to the grand finals.

And even then, their win almost looked like it wasn't going to happen. In the final round of regulation on Split, Boaster started planting with just over six seconds on the clock. Ethan rushed in and took him out with 2.3 seconds in play.

He tried running for safety to secure overtime, but was quickly traded back by Leo with 1.55 seconds on the clock, closing out the match in FNATIC's favor.

It wasn't the first time Leo showed up on Split, as he put FNATIC on his back throughout the map. He averaged a 1.79 rating on the final map of the upper final, after already having topped the charts on Fracture. Leo's incredible 92-round run in which he never died first also came to an end.

Lotus was a rough map for EG, as FNATIC steamrolled them in a 13-3 win. FNATIC couldn't fully capitalize on that momentum on Fracture, as EG halted a six-round comeback on their map pick with a 13-9 win.

Both FNATIC and EG suffered their first map losses on Lotus and Fracture, respectively. The Split decider was a much more contested affair throughout, as both rosters went back-and-forth in the final rounds of the map up until Leo's monumental clutch that sent EG to the lower bracket final.

Neither team dependent on stars Derke and Demon1 to secure wins today, despite the latter's Split performance. Derke's best map was Lotus, where he dropped seven first kills in FNATIC's most lopsided Masters win so far.

“We both didn't fight that well. We had our gunfights and all that but it was nice playing him finally. It was really good,” Demon1 said of his clash with Derke.

On Lotus, all of FNATIC finished with positive stats across the board — conversely, all of EG opened the match in the red. Boaster was FNATIC's lowest-rated player at 1.22, compared to jawgemo 's team-best 0.76 rating. It was the most dominating victory at Masters Tokyo so far, following FNATIC's own 13-5 against Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Unranked mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov .

“We got shit on, but that's fine,” Boostio said.

“We knew we were going to win Fracture, we will never lose that map against any team, so we were very confident to be honest,” he added. “We just went to Fracture and I just stopped thinking about it and I started owning. [The loss] affected me a little bit, definitely, but overall we knew we were going to win the second map so it didn't matter.”

EG's confidence showed. Their bounceback on Fracture flipped the match on its head, as the momentum was suddenly put on their side.

“I was already in a clean slate. I was just mentally ready for the third map. I was playing my game, that's it,” Chronicle stated. “There was nothing else that I was curious about because like, yeah, we lost the second map, even though we were really close to a comeback, we had some mistakes on it. Maybe for someone that could be embarrassing, they might be sad, but I don't really care about it.”

Chronicle's ability to switch off was one of the many things that gave FNATIC the edge on Split, as he racked up 36 assists alongside teammates Leo and Boaster, nearly as many as the whole of EG put together.

They still hold the top spot. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

It's still safe to say FNATIC are the title favorites, but EG have shown they can be title challengers. They are the first team to really put FNATIC through their paces.

“It was definitely squeaky bum. We haven't really been tested truly this event. It was nice to get that game in before the grand finals, for sure,” Boaster said. “It's nice to know that we got some work to do in these next few days. Change it up, mix it up and make sure we're. truly ready for whoever we actually face. I'm looking forward to it.”

“We're definitely going to come in guns blazing.”

They also have a secret weapon besides mascot Cow Paulo.

“ kamyk is our actual good luck charm. kamyk wasn't there for our game in the finals against Liquid and we lost. Every other game he was here and we won,” Mini remarked.

Back to the drawing board for the EG roster. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

For EG, the tournament isn't over yet either. They have until Saturday to get ready for the lower bracket final, as rest isn't on the schedule.

“We will not be resting, we definitely have practice bright and early tomorrow morning,” potter said.

But, even in the face of this first loss, the roster is sticking true to what got them to Tokyo and to the upper bracket final. There are no expectations for anything; everything is a blessing in disguise.

“This match, we had zero expectations, we've been riding that wave. As a team, we have zero expectations going forward,” potter said. “I know the team doesn't want to play NRG again, but I'd rather play NRG again and beat them.”

“We haven't even hit our skill ceiling yet with this team. This is the first time that we're making it this deep in a tournament. I'm excited to see how much further we can go.”