fnatic are the second team to make the grand final of IEM X Katowice after defeating Astralis 2-1 (16-6 on de_overpass, 12-16 on de_cache, and 16-7 on de_inferno).

The second semifinal match in Katowice was a showdown between two erstwhile rivals (although the Swedes have had the dominant upper hand in 2016), fnatic and Astralis.

The first map of de_overpass gave all indications that the entire tournament was once again fnatic's to win as Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist was part of a brigade of Swedes that incessantly battered on the Danes' doors, with an 11-4 CT half for fnatic converting into a 16-6 map win.

The highlight of this map was no doubt Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer winning a one-versus-two to bring the score to 15-6 while possessing red digit health.

fnatic continue to shut down Astralis in offline games, although the Danes took map two

With the second map moving over to de_cache, things continued to look as if they were playing into fnatic's hands as the Swedish team veered towards a 10-5 first half and olofmeister picked up a second half pistolround ace to continue pressing forward.

However, the Danes, led by Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, rallied and claimed the second map after a solid set of execution strategies, winning 16-12.



Xyp9x and co. could not convert their cache win into momentum on de_inferno

de_inferno was however the fnatic show and saw the Swedish team advance to tomorrow's grand final with a 16-7 scoreline.

In particular, olofmeister continued upon a dominant tournament performance on the third and final map, finishing with a 28-12 score and a 1.84 rating overall.

IEM Katowice 2016 Best of 3 Astralis Matchpage 1 2 fnatic 6 Overpass 16 16 Cache 12 7 Inferno 16

fnatic K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha 64 - 43 +21 102.1 1.40 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister 63 - 49 +14 97.6 1.31 Dennis 'dennis' Edmandennis 51 - 49 +2 69.0 1.06 Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW 47 - 44 +3 69.4 1.03 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ 47 - 43 +4 70.9 1.02 Astralis K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice 49 - 51 -2 67.6 1.03 René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb 49 - 52 -3 75.7 0.96 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x 45 - 55 -10 76.0 0.95 Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan 43 - 57 -14 70.7 0.90 Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh 42 - 57 -15 66.0 0.87

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter