Restart After The Failed Major Qualification
Topic: CS:GO Fnatic Rebuilding
In today's article, we will take a closer look at the restructuring of fnatic. The Swedish organization, which has already won three majors in its history and has been among the world's top teams since the beginning of CS:GO, missed the last two majors and has now decided to almost completely rebuild the team, resulting in some initial successes. More about that in a moment.
History
If you look back to the beginnings of the legendary Swedish organization in Counter Strike, you'll land in 2005. Over seven years and therefore until the release of CS:GO, fnatic was already represented at the world's top teams and won countless S- and A-tier tournaments. Their success story was to continue in the newly released edition of the strategy shooter. While the first tournament that the then still Danish lineup, competed in CS:GO, namely DreamHack Winter 2012, was not very successful with a 9-12th place, the organization won the first CS:GO Major, DreamHack Winter 2013, around a year later. At that time, the lineup consisted of JW, flusha, schneider, Devilwalk and pronax. Coach of the team was cArn.
Subsequently, fnatic participated in 13 other majors and won two of them. Since the release of CS:GO, fnatic was part of about 110 S-Tier events and won 24. The last bigger success on the international stage was the victory at the ESL Pro League: Europa Season 11 in April 2020. Since then, however, things have gradually gone downhill for the renowned organization.
The Downfall
Alongside numerous disappointing tournament finishes and the missed Major qualification for Berlin, the organization decided to make numerous lineup changes in 2019, 2020 and 2021. In particular, we want to talk about the last 12 months in this regard. While in January flusha had to leave the team and a young Swedish talent was signed with Jackinho, Brollan signed a new three-year deal in March.
After the disappointing performance at Flashpoint 3, which was also a qualification tournament for the Stockholm Major, and disastrous results at the ESL Pro League Season 13 and the IEM Summer, the organization decided to part ways with Golden and JW during the summer break. Especially the departure of JW, one of the most legendary AWPers of all times, caused astonishment. After all, the Swede had been under contract with fnatic since 2013, apart from a four-month interruption. Later, newcomer Jackinho also had to leave.
Rebuilding
The rebuild started in August. The Swedish organization decided to sign ALEX and mezii to replace JW and Golden. The two British players completed the otherwise Swedish lineup and were hungry to achieve success after the failed project at Cloud9. However, the initial results were not as hoped. After a better showing at the ESL Pro League Season 14, where they finished 9-12th, they lost each of their five games at the IEM Fall, the upcoming RMR event, and therefore finished 19th and second to last at the European Qualifier. Due to the lack of success, fnatic decided to switch to a majority British lineup and signed smooya on Oct. 15, 2021 in place of Jackinho. Even though it's only a three-month trial period for now, it's quite conceivable that fnatic will sign the Brit for the long term. We'll show you why in a moment.
Since signing smooya as their new fifth, fnatic has played two qualifying events, as well as DreamHack Open November and REPUBLILEAGUE TIPOS Season 2. When it comes to the recent success the 100% win rate in 11 games pretty much speaks for itself. fnatic defeated teams like Complexity, Spirit, ENCE, BIG and Copenhagen Flames and will face Eternal Fire in the final tonight. About a month ago, smooya and co. were able to defeat the team around XANTARES in a first head-to-head. Even though fnatic has not yet been tested against the absolute world class, one can definitely speak of a sensationally good start. The first tough challenge will be the IEM Winter, which starts on 02.12.2021. The opening duel against Gambit will be an interesting one.
After all..
What do you think of the recent changes and how do you think the future of the lineup is going to look like? Feel free to share your thoughts on Twitter. Personally I love the recent roster moves and can´t wait to see the legendary organization at the next Major.
Current Lineup: KRIMZ, Brollan, ALEX, mezii, smooya, keita (Coach)
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