Team Heretics progressed to the VCT 2024 EMEA League Stage 1 Grand Finals following the Spanish organization’s 2-0 victory against Fnatic. Such a result dropped Fnatic to the Lower Bracket, as they will face off against FUT Esports in a BO5 series later today.
An outstanding Fnatic start on Lotus saw the orange roster get an early four-round lead, which unfortunately for the British-based organization was tied right before the beginning of the game’s second half.
While Fnatic’s start to their attacking half gave the roster another three-round lead, the team’s sloppiness when it came to closing attacks would prove to be differential.
“Attack side, I think we played way too slow, in terms of reacting to what they were doing on the map,” admitted Fnatic’s IGL Jake “Boaster” Howlett in a post-match interview with SiegeGG. “We just played slow, we weren’t going, it was like if we were running in slow motion,” the British followed.
Despite the team’s lack of post-plant success, Fnatic had two chances of closing out Lotus as they reached match point in round 22. Unfortunately for the VCT Masters Tokyo champions, the Europeans couldn’t win the first game of the series as Team Heretics would force the overtime to defeat Fnatic by 15-13 eventually.
While both teams had already qualified for the VCT Masters Shanghai, the final stage of the playoff bracket is potentially one of the most crucial moments of the season as the stage winner is given three extra EMEA Points. With the current format, winning is vital for the team’s chances of reaching the VCT 2024 Champions.
“We threw three post-plants, it felt like a game we threw, I think we had it in the bag and we just threw it,” explained Boaster. “I think on Lotus the communication was a bit too hectic at times, which meant people couldn’t make the right decisions,” he added.
Later on, Fnatic was all over the place on Breeze. Team Heretics won four of their defenses after disabling the Spike. With an 8-4 lead heading to attack, Fnatic knew the Spanish organization’s lead was difficult to overcome. Eventually, the VCT Masters Madrid-bound would close the map with five back-to-back successful attacks.
“It looked awkward at times, we were abusing the flanks at the start of the game, so they played it pretty well to be fair,” Fnatic’s IGL admitted.
Despite the team’s defeat against Team Heretics, Fnatic are still alive. With the team having already qualified for Shanghai, the roster’s short-term goal is to win the first stage to get as many EMEA Points as possible. Therefore, it’s important to look at the rest of the games as knowledge and preparation for what’s the real deal: Champions.
“We can learn a lot from these games while not being punished too much, we’re going to the lower bracket but it means we get more games, we are just preparing ourselves,” Boaster concluded.
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