fnatic

When They Met

Fnatic faced Astralis eight times in 2018 and ended up with a record of 3–5. None of the results outside of IEM Chicago mattered much because of the constant roster changes that plagued them. At Chicago, we got to see a fresh Fnatic lineup with new young talent in twist and Brollan push Astralis to their limit. They went 30 rounds in a losing effort on Dust, they took Mirage in 28 rounds, and they lost in extremely close fashion on Inferno in overtime. In their series at Chicago a revitalized JW helped Fnatic elevate to a level we have not seem from the organization in a long time. He finished the series with a team high 1.21 rating and tied with Krimz for most kills on the team at 73. When Fnatic slumped throughout 2018, you would often find JW’s playing below standard.

The Hopeful Hybrid

Over the series we saw moments of brilliance from twist. He was third on the team in kills and proved himself to be a capable hybrid player, getting 21 AWP kills out of his 67. His impact for Fnatic as a CT sided AWPers is enormous. On Inferno he racked up 12 of his 21 AWP kills on Fnatic’s CT side alone. His impact was not exclusive to any one area either. In that match, he got kills at B, library, mid and even apartments. In the current landscape of Counter-Strike, having a player that is able to get impactful frags with an AWP consistently is rare. Twist has an even rarer ability to do this in multiple areas of a map. Fnatic will have to learn how to utilize his uncanny toolset to be successful.

Ol’ Reliable

To top it all off, Krimz is still the hard carry for the roster. Throughout Fnatic’s uncertainties Krimz remained consistent in form and continues to be a world class talent for them. While twist and Brollan have come into their own within the fnatic lineup, they have not clashed with Krimz on the server. Over the 17 maps at LAN this lineup has played together, Krimz has a 1.29 HLTV rating with a 1.38 K/D ratio. Fnatic is poised to compete with Astralis with their new additions and some world class veteran talent.