#ElisaMastersEspoo has been won by #Fnatic after a 2-0 victory over BIG in the championship game. The European team continued their superior play throughout the entire tournament into the championship game, crushing the Germans 16-4 on Vertigo before winning 16-5 on Overpass to seal the deal.
The two teams didn’t have their whole starting lineups for the $200,000 LAN competition, but that didn’t stop them from making tremendous runs and reaching the grand final. Freddy #KRIMZ Johansson, who is out with a hand injury, has to be replaced by Peppe #Peppzor Borak for fnatic. As a replacement for Florian #syrsoN Rische, who contracted COVID-19 just before the competition began, BIG welcomed Josef #faveN Baumann back into the fold.
The $100,000 first-place reward and a spot in the IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In, which serves as a warm-up for the $1,000,000 main tournament that will begin on January 31, 2023, are both awarded to fnatic for winning the gold medal. The European fivesome enters a new era with the victory in Espoo, since this is fnatic’s first LAN event victory since DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019.
The Match Recap
Starting with BIG’s selection of Vertigo, play between the two sides began. Fredrik #roeJ Jrgensen, who had already recorded 11 kills, led the charge for fnatic as they added four rounds to the Germans’ one. As the first half came to a close, BIG’s problems only got worse; the team found itself down 2-9 after seven rounds, despite the encouragement of a vociferous group of Roaring Bears in the front row.
As their offensive assault came to an end, BIG showed some signs of recovery, grabbing two crucial rounds to enter their CT-side with a much less intimidating 4-11 disadvantage.
Any possibility of a significant comeback was swiftly eliminated since fnatic exhibited no compassion in the brief second half. The European team quickly took their second pistol of the map through Middle, then converted the next three rounds with relative ease to steal their opponents’ pick 16-4 and take a 1-0 lead in the championship game.
William #mezii Merriman put up impressive figures once more following his comeback in the semi-final on Saturday. With 22 kills and a fantastic 1.83 rating, the captain was in the lead for both his squad and the server.
The next match was Overpass, where fnatic tried to increase the pressure by opening their time on the attack with a 5-2 lead thanks to shrewd utility utilization that kept the Germans at bay. fnatic maintained their commanding position in the server and defeated an adversary that appeared increasingly deflated and out of their league, 9-4.
BIG received no relief in the final two rounds as fnatic entered the halfway point with a wide 11-4 lead thanks to precise shooting from the whole European team.
To begin the second half, BIG and fnatic traded rounds. FASHR and mezii shut down the B site with a pair of Desert Eagles to regain the initiative, 13-5, just as the Germans appeared to be in with a chance of putting up a run of rounds.
There was little BIG could do at this point to turn things around; a Peppzor replacement’s ace placed fnatic on match point, and the 20-year-old went on to shoot down two more opponents in the round that followed to put the game away, 16-5, and earn his side the Elisa Masters Espoo trophy.
