Despite a valiant effort to secure a much needed win, Fnatic fell into defeat at the hands of Team SMG in the best of one series in the group stages of the GAMERS GALAXY: Invitational Series HatYai Thailand 2022. Team SMG were looking to defeat Fnatic as it could have secured a tiebreaker between the remaining teams of Execration, RSG and Team SMG. However, despite winning against Fnatic after a bad early game, Team SMG will not proceed to the Playoffs stage as Gamer Galaxy used a time rating method to decide on which teams will proceed to the Playoffs stage of the tournament.

Fnatic In Shambles as Team SMG secures the win.

Going into the match, Fnatic were considered as the favorites to win the match despite playing with Natthaphon "Masaros" Ouanphakdee as a stand-in as its star carry, Marc "Raven" Fausto is sidelined due to illness as Fnatic faced off against former comrades within the newly revamped roster of Team SMG, having added Daryl “iceiceice” Koh and Wilson "poloson" Koh to its roster. For Fnatic, it has nothing to lose as they were confirmed to be eliminated after losing to RSG and Execration in the group stage. As for Team SMG, they could qualify to the Playoffs stage if they win their series against Fnatic as the organization would be tied with RSG and Execration with a 2-1 scoreline.

Recap

Fnatic went for a triple core lineup of Faceless Void, Queen of Pain (QOP) and Dawnbreaker supported by the duo of Chen and Djardel "DJ" Mampusti’s signature Clockwerk while SMG went with Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng’s Lone Druid and Kam "Moon" Boon Seng’s Keeper of the Light (KOTL) with the mix of Razor, Earthshaker and Bane for the remaining players.

Fnatic started the game off well, with DJ managing to kill off several SMG heroes early game as well as assisting his teammates with his Hookshot and Power Cogs ability combo while Armel "Armel" Tabios’s QOP and Masaros’s Dawnbreaker abilities helped Fnatic to earn a massive kill lead going into the 30 minute mark. However, SMG were able to keep the game level in terms of net worth as Midone’s Lone Druid was steadily farming while the combination of Moon’s KOTL and Daryl "iceiceice" Koh’s Razor managed to picked off Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong’s Faceless Void, allowing them to secure Roshan at the same time.

After that, things went downhill for Fnatic as Midone’s Lone Druid bear was securing Tier 3 towers as well as two lanes of barracks of Fnatic’s base while losing a couple more teamfights near their base, before SMG put the deciding blow onto Fnatic as the deciding teamfight saw both teams fight at the top lane as Jabz buys back into the fight only to be locked into place by Wilson "poloson" Koh’s Bane before dying once again, with no buybacks on him and Armel, Fnatic had no choice but to call the game at the 37th minute mark as they are eliminated from the tournament with a 0-3 scoreline.

However, the match was a loss-loss situation for both teams as despite the win, SMG will join Fnatic, Army Geniuses and Talon Esports in being eliminated from the tournament as the tournament organizers revealed that they were using a time-rating method to determine which two teams get to move on to the Playoffs stage according to its rulebook, meaning that SMG were eliminated despite of the win over Fnatic.

Team SMG finished in the Top 6 of the tournament, and will likely travel back to its team house in Malaysia to prepare for the upcoming TI11 SEA Regional Qualifiers while Fnatic will be looking to reset their thoughts following the disappointing result during the group stage as the team will also travel to Malaysia for the upcoming ESL One Malaysia 2022, which starts on the 23rd August.