fnatic deny electroNic and Perfecto a perfect debut

fnatic reverse-sweeped Cloud9 (C9) in a hard fought three map thriller, in their IEM Cologne 2023 Group Stage match-up.

First up was fnatic's pick of Vertigo with electroNic's boys on the CT side. A sh1ro triple in an A site brawl saw C9 take the opening pistol. After taking the first two rounds, fnatic got on the board thanks to a dexter double opener on the B site. Another dexter opener on the B site along with a roeJ double saw fnatic tie up the game at 2-2. A triple from mezii on the A site against two saved guns and pistols saw fnatic take the lead at 3-2. It was a five round streak from fnatic before C9 got their third round with a double AWP set-up with buster wielding the big green along with sh1ro. A HObbit triple in the final round of the first half saw C9 end the half with a 8-7 lead.

Source: ESL

KRIMZ's quad kill including a 1v1 against sh1ro saw fnatic tie the game at 8-8 after picking up the second pistol but a HObbit ace as C9 came in with just one AK saw them retake the lead after taking the second round on a hero-buy. C9 converted against the force and eco to go 11-8 up. Four impactful rounds from dexter saw fnatic take four in a row to take the lead at 12-11. A Perfecto quad on an upgraded pistol buy from C9 including a 1v2 saw C9 tie the game again. The rounds kept trading but a sh1ro 1v2 on the B site post plant saw C9 pick up map point. A sh1ro double opener on ramp saw C9 secure the map at 16-13 with the AWPer on top of the scoreboard with 30 kills.

Source: ESL

The second map was C9's pick of Anubis with fnatic starting on the CT side. fnatic got the opening pistol. It was a five round streak to kick things off for fnatic as mezii and afro turned around a 2v5 to give fnatic their fifth. An electroNic double with C9 converting a 4v5 saw them pick up their first T round and another multi-kill from C9's new leader saw them make it two in a row. A KRIMZ 1v2 put fnatic on 7 and they won the half at 8-2. An electroNic triple and a sh1ro double opener saw C9 make it a respectable score at 6-9.

A roeJ triple saw fnatic pick up both pistols and converted against the eco to go 11-6 up. C9 picked up the first gun round and they brought it down to a two-round game after picking up the force and eco. fnatic though didn't waste a lot of time after their guns were out as they picked up Anubis 16-10 with mezii on top of the scoreboard with 24 kills.

The Brit was once again top fragging for fnatic on Anubis

The decider got underway on Ancient with C9 picking up the opening pistol on the T side as buster won out a 1v1 against mezii. It was 3-0 lead to get things underway before a mezii triple saw fnatic get their first CT round. It was a strong T half from C9 as they ended the half with a 9-6 lead as sh1ro closed out the half with a 1v1 against dexter on the A site.

fnatic picked up the second pistol on Ancient as well and after conversion against the eco, it became a one-round game before both teams brought out the guns. fnatic picked up the following four as well to go 12-9 up. A HObbit double finally put C9 on the board and a Perfecto triple saw C9 turn around a 2v4. A crucial buster multi-kill on the A site against the pistols saw C9 make it five in a row to pick up the lead at 14-12. fnatic responded with two of their own to tie the game at 14-14. A mezii triple put fnatic on match point but sh1ro and buster came in with critical double kills to take the game to overtime.

The French AWP-er was impactful on Ancient

Cloud9 picked up the first round in overtime but it was fnatic who made it two-in-row to go 17-16 as it was afro with two impactful rounds.

afro came in with another multi-kill to put fnatic on match-point and they closed it out at 19-16. It was the French AWP-er who topped the scoreboard on Ancient with 33 kills, although it was a strong team performance in the series decider.

IEM Cologne 2023

Bo3

Cloud9

1 - 2

fnatic

All maps

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov	70 - 55	+15	78.5	72.2%	1.18
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov	65 - 59	+6	79.4	67.8%	1.10
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov	58 - 72	-14	81.3	67.8%	0.98
Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy	53 - 57	-4	66.6	75.6%	0.98
Timur 'buster' Tulepov	49 - 62	-13	59.7	58.9%	0.83

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Aurélien 'afro' Drapier	64 - 52	+12	75.4	66.7%	1.13
William 'mezii' Merriman	63 - 64	-1	76.7	73.3%	1.09
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen	62 - 57	+5	78.1	66.7%	1.09
Christopher 'dexter' Nong	64 - 64	+0	72.9	67.8%	1.01
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson	50 - 59	-9	67.8	66.7%	0.93