FNATIC FNATIC Europe Unranked Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder delivered an absolutely clinical performance in a 2-0 victory over G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Unranked jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf in the first round of the lower bracket at Valorant Champions 2024. They will face Sentinels Sentinels North America Unranked N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid or EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Unranked S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) on Sunday.

The EMEA champions put up a levels-to-this performance in their first match against a North American team this year, dropping just 14 rounds in both maps, undeterred by whatever G2 tried to put in their paths.

On Haven, the most dominant of the two maps, Alfajer delivered a 2.02 rating — a rare sight in international Valorant — and 24 kills in just 16 rounds. His ADR approached 300 and his mere seven deaths allowed for a 94% KAST on Iso.

“They nerfed Iso, but they didn't nerf me. I'm still good,” Alfajer said.

Alfajer at Champions 2024 Unmatched. (Photo by Li Yicun/Riot Games)

After that soul-crushing performance from Alfajer allowed his team to reach a 13-3 win on their Haven pick, the match segued to Bind. G2 put a much better performance on their own pick, though, and nearly pushed FNATIC to overtime.

The map seemed to go the same way Haven did for the first half, as FNATIC took a comfortable 8-4 lead. G2 would not back down as easily, and broke FNATIC's economy as they reached an 8-8 tie. The match remained incredibly tight from thereon out until the final round of regulation, when Chronicle put up the highlight of the match.

With just one chance to close out the game at 12-11, Chronicle and Boaster prepared for a 2v4 A defuse while most of G2 sat in showers. Boaster got a kill and as he stuck the defuse, G2's remaining three pushed out through the Cosmic Divide with a myriad of flashes, ignoring Chronicle as he blindly sprayed down all of G2 to find victory.

Alfajer was a little cooler on Bind, averaging a 1.08 rating. The larger numbers went to his teammates Derke and Chronicle, at 1.25 and 1.36 respectively. The latter also found five opening kills in a total of 24, 17 of which on attack, making the difference in FNATIC's first half.

The definition of spray and pray.

This victory over G2 is a lifeline for FNATIC, after a sketchy 2-0 loss against Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Unranked MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius in the upper bracket opener. That loss threw FNATIC into the lower bracket, a place they have never recovered from ever since their Masters Reykjavik 2021 run.

“We had a long discussion last night. At least an hour, probably a bit longer, just talking about how we performed because yesterday wasn't good,” Elmapuddy told the analyst desk. “It was just ‘have a win Heretics,' basically, except for the second half of Abyss.”

The FNATIC that entered the server today looked rejuvenated in a way they have not been in a long time. Their Haven was a show of unparalleled dominance and, after closing out a drawn-out Bind, FNATIC's confidence is certainly unbridled going into their next lower bracket match.

“It's just the energy. If we have the right energy on the right days, I think we're really hard to stop. You saw in EMEA, we just steamrolled everyone,” Elmapuddy said. “The boys stepped up, people are fragging, they're talking, they have good energy.”

Historically, lower brackets have not treated FNATIC well. Most recently, at Masters Shanghai, they were eliminated without a win to their name. They have surpassed that hurdle now, but Champions will keep FNATIC up against the ropes until they are either knocked out or get their hands lifted.

“I told the boys if we can get over [G2], they're a really good team, we can beat anyone else that's left. We just have to keep the energy and keep going,” Elmapuddy said.