fnatic are through to the DreamHack Winter semi-finals after a 2-1 victory over LDLC (10-16 on de_dust2, 16-8 on de_cache and 16-13 on de_overpass.

LDLC started thing off on de_dust2 by pushing the middle/catwalk section in the pistol round. At first, it looked like fnatic had this in the bag, by a series of kills in quick succession from the Frenchmen saw them take the lead.

A good eco round from fnatic - with Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell getting three kills - leveled things up, but the Swedes got a taste of their own medicine right after as LDLC wreaked havoc with a B-middle split, much because of Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey's great entry fragging.

LDLC kept their momentum going and took the score to 6-1, at which point fnatic finally managed to react. But every time the Swedish team won a round, they were immediately set back by their opponents, which shattered their economy. Still, the last rounds of the half were neck-and-neck, but in the end LDLC enjoyed a 10-5 lead.

fnatic came out strongly in the second half and won the pistol round with a no-nonsense B push and the following anti-eco round. A triple kill from Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt in the third round ended fnatic's streak, but the Swedes did not lose momentum and won two more rounds to close the gap to 9-11.

Many thought that a comeback was in the making, but a great eco from LDLC in A frustrated the home team, with Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist losing the decisive 1-on-1 battle after getting four kills. That round proved to be the turning point of the match as LDLC picked up a 16-10 victory to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

kioShima in great form on de_dust2

Next up was de_cache, where fnatic, who began on the Terrorist side, got off to a flying start by winning the first six rounds of the map. LDLC then reduced the deficit to 1-6, but they were denied the chance to string some rounds together, courtesy of JW's impressive AWP work across the map.

With the scoreline 9-1 in favour of fnatic, NBK- spared LDLC's blushes by getting four kills in what could have been a massive blunder for the French time, who almost spurned a 2-on-5 situation. The following round then went to fnatic, who won the gun battle in A, leaving LDLC's economy in shambles.

The French team would get two more rounds before the end of the first half, but a 4-11 deficit meant they had a mountain to climb to get back into the game. Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer's side refused to throw in the towel and strung the first three rounds of the second half together, but fnatic responded in convincing fashion in gun play and won the five rounds they needed to secure a 16-8 win.

KRiMZ was on fire on de_cache

It all came down to de_overpass, the final map of the series. LDLC, who started off on the CT side, came out the better and won the pistol round with ease, a perfect retake in B, with Happy getting four kills. After losing the first anti-eco round, fnatic picked themselves up and won the following two rounds to level the score 2-2, only to see LDLC run riot as they picked up five rounds in a row.

A triple kill from JW put fnatic back in the game, but the rest of the first half was a one-way street, with LDLC proving far too hot to handle as they secured a commanding 12-3 lead.

Things went from bad to worse for fnatic after that as they lost the pistol round, but then drama ensued: for almost every round that followed, the Sweded used a boost position never been seen before in professional matches and that could be considered an exploit as it is based on an invisible ledge. From this position, Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer could see most of the map, and it took LDLC some ten rounds to figure out where they were getting killed from. Using a scout first and then an auto sniper olofmeister simply tore LDLC apart, which powered fnatic to win 12 rounds in a row and turn things around in a match that will certainly go down in CS:GO history.

olofm says "yes" to boost

Broken tag

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	35 - 30	+5	-	1.13
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	37 - 33	+4	-	1.06
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	36 - 35	+1	-	1.06
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	34 - 36	-2	-	0.96
Markus 'pronax' Wallstenpronax	21 - 31	-10	-	0.72

LDLC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittNBK-	35 - 33	+2	-	1.07
Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieykioShiMa	37 - 32	+5	-	1.03
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	32 - 31	+1	-	0.96
Edouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxSmithZz	28 - 32	-4	-	0.90
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy	33 - 35	-2	-	0.88

Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Age: 20 Team: LDLC Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 462 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.64 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer Age: 22 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 259 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.63 Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer Age: 23 Team: LDLC Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 311 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.64 Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Age: 19 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 399 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.67 Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist Age: 21 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 405 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.63 Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey Age: 20 Team: LDLC Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 271 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.64