Fnatic beat upstarts Method in a 2-1 victory even after they showed promising ability on Control maps. As with Method's game against Cloud9 it came down to the Escort decider but Fnatic showed they were a more well-rounded team and came away with the win. They earned their way out of the groups stage as the best team in Group B.

Fnatic didn’t say it but they must have been delighted to face Method in the Winner’s Match for Group B. They consider themselves one of the best Control teams and Method felt good on Control after overcoming Cloud9 earlier. It set up a perfect map pool with Nepal, Dorado, and Lijiang Tower.

Nepal

Method’s first engagements on Control against C9 were excellent and the clash on Village was no exception against Fnatic. Their aggression gave them the point early on and again they found themselves playing into - and winning against - an Ana/Lucio composition with their own Zen. A push back in and superior ultimate usage from Tracer and Rein gave Fnatic the point just in the nick of time though and they recapped as Method got to 99%. In a full reverse sweep Fnatic held on with ultimates, using them sparingly to cycle through their arsenal and make sure that each fight was won. Fnatic went up 1-0 and moved onto Temple.

Temple was just as close but far more back and forth. Buds and Roolf did a lot of work for their respective sides alongside Stoop setting the bar for Reinhardt performances. Fnatic got the better of some key teamfights at the end of the round to get themselves a 2-0 lead.

Fnatic started strong in groups, similar to Gamescom. Photo Credit: ESL

The dream duo of IDDQD and Buds on Tracer and Reaper worked wonders on Sanctum to give them the advantage in teamfights, especially when Nanoboosted every half minute. They tore through Method and gave them no opportunity to get into the fight or shine individually at all, closing out the map 3-0.

Lijiang Tower

Again Method picked another Control map to try and get back into the fixture but this time against a stronger opponent in Fnatic. Method exposed themselves as a one-track record that Fnatic flipped over and smashed on Nepal. It seemed a hard task for Method to replicate the comeback they’d managed in the group stage earlier.

Fnatic started on Garden with a triple tank setup with Stoop on Reinhardt, coolmatt69 on Zarya, and Buds on Winston. Just as when they tried it at the beginning of Nepal it failed and gave Method the early capture, but Buds on the respawn took a Nanoboost and shredded his enemies. ultimawep switched himself out from Reaper to Genji, the hero he was carrying so hard on earlier in the groups, but couldn’t get a grip in the round and went down 1-0 fairly fast.

Control Center saw Roolf come out of the gates strong, helping his team to take an early lead as usual. With Roolf firing out accurate sniping orbs alongside snow’s Tracer and ultimawep’s Genji, Method got to 99% in dominant fashion and after a shaky recap finished out the round. Method looked like they had a system if they could take it onto the upcoming rounds.

They rolled the same team composition into Night Market but lost the intial fight to the triple tank from Fnatic. A Nanoboost was popped onto IDDQD on Tracer but it was completely wasted as he wasn’t able to output enough damage over time with the low clip size. Method won the teamfight and recapped, tying up the timer and sending themselves into the lead with a 2-1 advantage in rounds on Lijiang Tower.

Fnatic looked focused as they shut down ultimawep on Genji and stomped on his dreams to take another round of Garden. After tying up the map 2-2 it all came down to a round on Night Market. The difference in team effectiveness on specific stages was clear, potentially increased by the difference in support composition. Method won the first fight and got so much value from Genji and Zarya plays to keep the timer ticking up, especially with Roolf able to snipe through choke points and mitigate damage all over the point.On the back of IDDQD and Buds, Fnatic recaptured the point and tried to hold forwards with a Graviton from coolmatt and some heads-up play by IDDQD. They got the map into overtime and looked all but done with stragglers, desperately trying to swat Method players away from the point so that they could finalise their victory on the map.

Impossibly Method got onto the point again and again, throwing players into the fray and expending any spare ults to keep it alive. Somehow they turned it, recapturing the point and wiping Fnatic in an instant. The victory had been clutched from the jaws of defeat and Method tied the series up 1-1.

Dorado

Coming into Dorado the obvious question was what ultimawep would go for given his carry history on previous maps. He came out on offense on Genji rather than Pharah, leaving psychowaffle to play Lucio and defend Roolf on Zen. A wide flank from him on fountain opened up the fight and gave them a quick snowball all the way to hotel in a matter of minutes.

Method got a great teamfight at the second checkpoint but didn’t focus the cart enough to cap, allowing Fnatic to establish themselves on highground again and farm their ultimates for a series of successful defenses. Management of ultimates and use of the height let them rinse and repeat defenses continuously and burn out all of the attacking time, denying Method the second point completely.

Fnatic only had to cap the second point to win the fixture and make it out of Group B. Buds started on Hanzo with IDDQD on offensive Mei, and in a break from the norm Roolf switched off to Ana. The Nanoboost wasn’t enough to hold off IDDQD as he swept through the fountain, freezing and spiking opponents constantly. Their only issue was a poor decision to use three ults to stave off a repush when only one was required, but Fnatic were barely slowed as they pushed under hotel.

A Nanoboosted Dragonblade was the final attempt to turn the defense around for Method but thewriting was on the wall. With over 2 minutes left on the time Fnatic were able to pound the payload home with a great attack and secure their spot in the playoff bracket.