Spotlight on the Top 20: fnatic

In this series, we take a look at the teams that finished 2020 in the Top 20 rankings. Today we take a look at number 14.

Name: Fnatic

Origin: Sweden

When you think of fnatic, you think of this enormous organization that always has been on the top of CS:GO, a team with endless history and a team with multiple Major Championships. However, the 2020 edition of fnatic has been no more than one big antithesis to these glory days, even though their core roster has been untouched for years.

Active roster:

Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson

Jesper “JW” Wecksell

Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin

Robin “flusha” Rönnquist

Maikil “Golden” Selim

Transfers in 2020:

In: Maikil “Golden” Selim (Permanent contract)

Out: Richard "Xizt" Landström

 Highlight of the year:

ESL Pro League Season 11 - $110.000 prize earning

Fnatic’s peak of 2020 was their impressive victory at ESL Pro League 11 back in April. The Swede had throughout the tournament taken down strong teams like Astralis, NAVI, and FaZe, concluding the event with an exciting Grand Final against a well-playing ropz and the rest of mousesports.

After three maps, fnatic looked done and dusted. The Swedes were 2-1 behind in maps and needed a win on both mousesports map pick of Nuke and the decider on Mirage. However, a reawaken fnatic side led by KRIMZ managed to complete the comeback, through two monster performances in the last two maps, including a 16-1 victory on Nuke.  

Low point:

fnatic have, as earlier mentioned, had a horrible 2020 season, with the trophy at ESL Pro League as the only accolade of the entire year. The Swedish team didn’t manage to display the same level of CS for the remaining of the year, looking like a team without synergy and motivation, both lacking both consistency and individual quality. Golden and company did only manage to make it to one sole Grand Final appearance, for the entire year, with 6 Grand Finals by comparison in 2019.

The collapse culminated with two early exits at both ESL Pro League Season 12 and IEM Beijing-Haidian.

The future:

fnatic doesn’t hold a particularly young roster, in fact, their average player age of 25.1 is rather high, compared to other promising and up-and-coming teams. However, the experienced trio of flusha, JW, KRIMZ have proved that their A-game belongs at the very top of CS:GO, and mixed with the huge prospect of Brollan, proves that fnatic still can be a contender for 2021.

A report by multiple sources emerged in mid-December that the Swedish giants were looking to acquire the young Swede Jack “Jackinho” Ström Mattson to their roster, either as a replacement or as 6th. The transfer hasn’t been yet, but it will be exciting to see if fnatic will join Astralis, Vitality and NAVI and form a 6-man roster.

Read more: "fnatic eyeing Swedish talent"

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/media-fnatic-eyes-swedish-talent/"}]

Spotlight on the Top 20:

20: GODSENT [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-godsent/"}]

17: Ninjas in Pyjamas [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-ninjas-pyjamas/"}]

16: Evil Geniuses [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-evil-geniuses/"}]

15: Gambit [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-gambit/"}]