After falling to the lower bracket of VALORANT Champions in Los Angeles at the hands of LOUD earlier this week, Fnatic look to be back in their super-team form, eliminating their EMEA peers FUT Esports to stay alive in the tournament today.
And according to the squad’s IGL Jake “Boaster” Howlett, that loss against Brazil’s best was exactly what Fnatic needed to reset their mental for the rest of this tournament.
“Yesterday, we weren’t slouching, we were back to the drawing board and back to thinking,” Boaster told Dot Esports during the FUT Esports post-match press conference. “Some stuff had been forgotten, and that was why I think LOUD were able to punish us yesterday. But I don’t think it’ll happen again.”
Fnatic certainly looked better today, sweeping FUT on Split and Haven with scorelines of 13-5 and 13-9, respectively. While Boaster still went negative in kills during today’s match, the number was drastically lower (-4 to the LOUD match’s -9). Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov’s performance today was also significantly better; he went from the bottom of the team’s leaderboard with a rating of 0.69 during the LOUD match to second after Turkish superstar Emir “Alfajer” Ali Beder with a rating of 1.19.
“I think it’s nice for us to get a loss, because, unfortunately, when you win you don’t look at the map as seriously,” Boaster said during the press conference. “But when you lose, you’re really looking at the map and why we actually lost rounds and stuff. So yeah, I’m happy we lost.”
Boaster and Fnatic will move forward in the Champions lower bracket, advancing their campaign for their third trophy of the year.They will face whoever wins the knockout match between Edward Gaming and BiliBili Gaming.
