fnatic overcome FaZe in opening EPL S11 Stage 2 match

After falling on the first map, Mirage (16-8), fnatic recovered and took Overpass (16-11) and Inferno (16-6) to secure a 2-1 victory over FaZe in ESL Pro League S11 Europe Stage 2.

Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer's current and former team kicked off ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe Stage 2 with a BO3 matchup, the first meeting between the two sides since the last season of Pro League, when fnatic were forced to use Rasmus "⁠kreaz⁠" Johansson as a stand-in. With both sides with their full rosters this time around, fnatic reigned supreme time, with Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist leading the fragging for the Swedes.

FaZe were off to a furious start on their map pick, Mirage, grabbing a 4-0 start before bouncing back from a round loss with just Glocks to make it 6-1. flusha's triple got fnatic rolling and one round away from equalizing, when another low-economy round worked out for FaZe, propelling them to a 9-6 half.

Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard's USP-S work was crips in the second half pistol, allowing FaZe to reach 12 rounds after cleaning up the followups, bringing them close to victory. fnatic mustered two sporadic rounds on the offense, but after winning the second one, they lost their third anti-eco on Mirage which brought the map to an end, 16-8.

flusha posted a 1.61 and 1.89 rating in fnatic's map wins

After a slow first map, Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin woke up on Overpass and nailed three Glock headshots to see fnatic kick off their map pick strongly. Winning a crucial round at 3-1 swung the first half fnatic's way even more, with the Swedish side looking dangerous on the offense (9-1) after struggling on the map a day earlier against Ninjas in Pyjamas.

FaZe's AWPers Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David, Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, and Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants all found some success to salvage the half at the end, switching to the offense 10-5 behind but closing the gap after the T pistol win. FaZe equalized the scoreline at 10-10 before Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim and flusha stole away an eco, after which flusha continued his tear for the rest of the half, securing 30 kills as fnatic claimed their map pick 16-11.

Inferno, the final map of the series, started with fnatic finding quite a bit of success towards the A bombsite (5-1), but FaZe stood strong on B thanks to NiKo's heroics. Things were looking better for the international squad as they secured their third, but Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell and Golden continued causing issues for FaZe and kept them in a bad economic situation.

The Swedes ended the half 10-5 ahead and extended that by locking down the A approach in the second-half pistol. The score was 13-5 for fnatic before their opponents managed their first T side buy, allowing them to close out the game comfortably, 16-6.

ESL Pro League Season 11 EuropeBest of 3 FaZeMatchpage 1 2 5th April 2020 fnatic 16Mirage 8 11Overpass 16 6Inferno 16

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	59 - 47	+12	81.4	1.18
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	47 - 53	-6	83.6	1.14
Helvijs 'broky' Saukantsbroky	50 - 49	+1	71.7	1.07
Marcelo 'coldzera' Davidcoldzera	49 - 48	+1	70.7	1.04
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	30 - 51	-21	52.2	0.72

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	67 - 51	+16	100.9	1.32
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	57 - 48	+9	85.1	1.23
Maikil 'Golden' SelimGolden	44 - 46	-2	60.0	0.94
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	38 - 47	-9	63.7	0.93
Ludvig 'Brollan' BrolinBrollan	41 - 44	-3	63.0	0.91

ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe Stage 2 features six teams which play a BO3 round-robin format, with the three best teams making their way into the playoffs where the winner of the European division will be decided. The standings are currently as follows:

Group A TEAM M P fnatic 1 3 Astralis 0 0 MOUZ 0 0 Natus Vincere 0 0 OG 0 0 FaZe 1 0 Marcelo 'coldzera' David Age: 25 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 1135 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.61 fnatic #5 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin Age: 17 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 641 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 fnatic #5 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Andreas 'Samuelsson' Samuelsson Helvijs 'broky' Saukants Age: 19 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 303 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.62 MOUZ #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Allan 'Rejin' Petersen Maikil 'Golden' Selim Age: 26 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 618 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.69 OG #15 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski Casper 'ruggah' Due Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Age: 25 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1665 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 FaZe #10 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Janko 'YNk' Paunović Ninjas in Pyjamas #12 Simon 'twist' EliassonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' SternerTim 'nawwk' JonassonNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist Age: 26 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1570 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65 FaZe #10 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer Age: 28 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1385 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Natus Vincere #1 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Danny 'zonic' Sørensen Håvard 'rain' Nygaard Age: 25 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1221 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.69 Rasmus 'kreaz' Johansson Age: 21 Team: Syman Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 284 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 23 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1190 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.67