fnatic win DreamHack Masters Malmö

The Swedish organization, fnatic hasn't had a victory this big since IEM Katowice 2018. It’s almost poetic how their DreamHack Masters Malmö win comes with a seed to IEM Katowice 2020. Add the fact that their victory occurred on their home turf and you’ve got a win to remember.

The first map was Dust II, where fnatic managed to take the first half, 9-6 and even continued their lead until scores were 14-12. It looked like the map was theirs but even a quad-kill from Robin "flusha" Rönnquist couldn’t prevent Team Vitality from making a great comeback and securing themselves the win.

On map two, Inferno, fnatic drew first blood with their CT pistol, but came close to losing yet again. Reaching map point at 15-9, they failed to close the win which allowed Vitality to catch up. However, fnatic was able to seize the map in overtime and not a moment too soon, making it yet another thrilling game to watch. 

On the final map Mirage, Vitality came at them hard, taking the first half. The French team continued to press their advantage on the Terrorist side until fnatic was able to improve its economy. As if intentionally letting their opponents take the lead, fnatic proceeded to dismantle Vitality with nothing but pistols in another map that they came dangerously close to losing.

This was Vitality’s first match since the departure of Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, so one could say that they weren’t at their strongest since their roster hasn't had much time together. The winners walked away with $100,000, while Vitality took $50,000 and 3rd-4th place teams Astralis and Natus Vincere took $22,000.