FNATIC advance to grand final with a 2-0 win over Vitality

The VCT EMEA Stage 2 playoffs upper final saw FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder face Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #8 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso . Both teams had fought their way through the elimination stage of the tournament. The stakes were high, with FNATIC confirming a berth in the grand final post-win.

The map veto saw Fnatic opt for Lotus, a staple in their pool. They continued to let Sunset through the bans, a map Vitality quickly locked in given their win on the map over Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius yesterday. The decider of the series was Ascent.

Vitality found a brilliant start on Lotus, their opponent's pick. On the attack, they won the first five rounds convincingly, until FNATIC won a round by running Vitality down on the timer. This let them recover, winning the next three rounds with the help of an Odin and even an Operator on Derke . Both teams netted one more round apiece to end in a 7-5 half in favor of Vitality.

Unfortunately, Vitality's first half momentum had been sandbagged by FNATIC's explosive attacking side, bolstered by Derke. FNATIC converted a flawless full buy round after losing the pistol and anti-eco, followed by another win off of a 3K from Derke to narrow the score to 9-7. Despite a thrifty win to bring the score to 11-9, FNATIC maintained their pace and won the next four rounds to take the map 13-11. Derke was FNATIC's hero on this map with 25 kills, six first kills, and a +10 kill differential.

Vitality's pick of Sunset, following Sayf 's pop-offs on Neon in previous games, was up next. While FNATIC had a flawless record on the map so far this stage, they had played it only twice. Vitality won the pistol again, but after FNATIC stole away the anti-eco with just classics, the team collapsed. FNATIC won six more rounds to get to 8-1 before Vitality punched back with a round off a 3K from Sayf, but the damage had been done. The half culminated in a 9-3 scoreline in favor of FNATIC.

Vitality won their fourth pistol of the day and the following round to narrow the scoreline to 9-5, but once again, rifles allowed FNATIC to secure the next two rounds. Boaster in particular showcased the potential of the Astra in the post-plant, as well as being able to use his own smokes to find crucial kills in both rounds. Vitality won one more round to bring the score to 11-6, but FNATIC could feel the win. They took the map 13-6, winning their final round with another explosive 4K from Derke.

While Vitality's Sayf had the highest damage with 277 ACS and the most kills on the server, three of FNATIC's players crossed the 200 ACS threshold – Derke, Chronicle , and rookie hiro – while none of the remainder of Vitality did.

FNATIC have qualified for another EMEA grand final with this win. Both teams have qualified to Champions already, along with FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius , so the fight right now is for a regional title. While FNATIC have multiple under their belt, this would be Vitality's first. Vitality will play the loser of FUT vs. Heretics in the lower final.