*Cover image source: WESG
Fnatic CS:GO took home their second major championship in recent times and added a whopping 800,000$ to their bank after taking down Space Soldiers, 2-1 in the WESG 2017 grand finals.
They finished top of the group in phase 1, over recent major champions, Cloud9 and continued their dominance in phase 2 placing top of Group C. In the playoffs, they lost their first game in the finals, having cleanly taken down MVP PK and Team One earlier.
Turkish side, Space Soldiers had quite an impressive run themselves, taking down a pretty stacked Russian squad in the semifinals who boasted the likes of seized, Dosia, WorldEdit and electronic.
Space Soldiers lost on their own map pick, Cobblestone after a rock solid CT half from Fnatic gave the Swedes an unassailable lead. While they did well on their own CT side, the deficit was too much for the Turkish side to overcome.
On Fnatic’s pick, Inferno, the match was extremely close with both teams staying within a round of each other till the end of regular time. In overtime, Space Soldiers channelled all their strength to take the win forcing a decider.
The final map was Mirage and the Turks took the lead from the CT side. However, the pressure of the grand finals and the massive prize money seemed to get the better of them as the much more experienced Fnatic side came back from behind in their own CT side to take the series.
Despite two big LAN victories in a short time, Fnatic is reportedly undergoing a roster change with Xizt supposedly replacing golden. If he does leave, it is on a successful note and quite a bit richer with the recent results going their way. However, Fnatic might be reconsidering their options.
I stay.
— Maikil Selim (@goldennCSGO) March 18, 2018
Space Soldiers picked up the runner’s up cheque for 300,000$ while Russia finished third to take 150,000$. Cloud 9 crashed and burned in the first round of the playoffs while SK gaming made a shock exit in the first phase itself.
