In what was a truly crazy weekend in the Call of Duty esports scene, Fnatic placed bottom of Group Blue in the Global Pro League.
They will now compete in June’s relegation tournament to try and regain their place in Stage 2 of the Global Pro League.
Fnatic were joined in Group Blue by three North American teams: first seed FaZe Clan, second seed Rise Nation and Evil Geniuses, who only just scraped GPL qualification following CWL Dallas.
They opened the tournament quite well; despite a 3-1 loss to FaZe in the opening match of the weekend, they followed this up by beating eventual winners Evil Geniuses in a quick and easy 3-0 sweep.
Although not perfect, Fnatic seemed to be in a good position to qualify for Stage 2.
The following day they played their two matches against Rise Nation and FaZe Clan. Once more, Fnatic went 1-1 on the day; a 3-1 loss to Rise Nation followed by a 3-2 win against FaZe. This included a migraine-inducing, blood pressure-heightening 6-5 Search and Destroy win, which came down to the final seconds to keep Fnatic’s playoff dreams alive.
THAT DOES IT! @FNATIC stop the reverse sweep in Game 5 Round 11 & put @FaZeClan 0-2 for the day!#CWLProLeague https://t.co/2N0UomWJ16
— MLG (@MLG) April 29, 2017
After the second day, each team in the group had a 2-2 record – something nobody expected to see. Fnatic’s final matches were to be against Rise Nation and a quickly-improving Evil Geniuses side who had managed to make quick work of FaZe and see off Rise on day two.
Fnatic needed to win their remaining two series to guarantee playoff qualification. Unfortunately for them, their opposition simply came out stronger. Rise held them to a 3-1 loss, though they remained in third place still due to FaZe’s losses against Evil Geniuses.
In their final match of the weekend, Tommey, Wuskin, Skrapz and SunnyB ended up being dominated by the fiery Evil Geniuses side in a rapid 3-0 loss.
This loss spelled the end of Fnatic’s qualification hopes, and they now look to qualify for stage two in June’s relegation tournament, in which the only other confirmed team is NA’s Cloud9.
Splyce confirmed their entry into this season’s remaining tournaments with their second place group finish last week, the first British team to do so.
Only four UK teams remain in stage one of the Global Pro League, taking place over the next two weekends.
Image source: MLG
