After a long day of VALORANT where almost nothing went their way, Fnatic just narrowly stayed alive in the EU VCT Challengers Two bracket following a close win in overtime of map three against Team BDS. With the hard-fought win, they still have a chance at reaching the EMEA Challengers Playoffs and potentially Masters Three Berlin, which would go a long way toward securing their spot in Champions.
Following map one against Giants in their first series, it looked like Fnatic would actually be in for a short day and advance to the winners final for a rematch against Liquid. But after taking care of business on Icebox, an onslaught from Giants before and after halftime carried them to a win on Bind on the shoulders of a destructive performance from Fit1nho on Raze. A back-and-forth third map on Ascent fittingly went to overtime and five OT periods were needed before Giants clinched the comeback.
With only about half an hour to collect themselves, Fnatic were thrown into a lower bracket match against Team BDS with their tournament life on the line. The Masters Two Reykjavík grand finalists looked a tad rattled, losing map one to the French side on Icebox after trailing 10-2 at halftime. An early exit was all but assured when BDS started out Bind with a 6-1 lead. But then, Fnatic finally showed signs of life with an impressive comeback, sending the series to Haven and Fnatic’s sixth map of the day.
Just when it looked like Fnatic would finally get off to a strong start against BDS on Bind, they ended up trailing 7-5 at halftime and lost the first two rounds of the second half before doma won an absolutely necessary one-vs-one against logaN. The French side’s win in the very next round dealt a huge blow to the Fnatic economy, but Fnatic still kept it close as the two teams traded rounds with everything on the line, eventually reaching overtime. At the same time as TSM and Gen.G were going to their seventh overtime over in NA, Fnatic took care of business with a nearly flawless round to close out the first overtime period and just barely stay alive.
Fnatic still need to win two more series to reach the EMEA Playoffs, with their next test coming on Friday, July 30 against U.K. roster TENSTAR. Luckily for them, they won’t have to play any more back-to-back series the rest of the way after enduring a nearly seven-hour day of competitive VALORANT with few breaks.
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