Only three teams remain, as fnatic knocked off Shuttlecocks last night in a 3-1 victory for the loser’s bracket final. This leaves SK Gaming, TSG and fnatic in the SK Battlegroup 9 5v5 Arena Tournament. SK, having already defeated TSG, will await the victory of the upcoming TSG versus fnatic match.

In the Shuttlecocks versus fnatic match, the two team combinations were significantly different which, in the end, gave fnatic a slight advantage. Fnatic ran a Rogue, Mage, Priest, Warlock and Druid, referred to as a “Euro comp,” while Shuttlecocks played a Warrior, Warlock, Shaman, Priest and Paladin, called a “2346.”

In map one, fnatic focused its attack on the Shaman, Glorbin, dropping him under 30% health before Shuttlecock’s healers were able to catch up. Shuttlecocks focused on fnatic’s Mage, Azurewrath, but were unable to even get him below 60% health. Then the match broke out into the open area on the Nagrand Arena and Shuttlecocks managed to force a Mage Iceblock.

However, once the Iceblock came off, Shuttlecocks continued the pressure and were able to drop their focus fire target. Azurewrath went down just as a bubble from the Shuttlecock’s Paladin wore off of Glorbin. While fnatic was able to take down Glorbin, it was already over as Shuttlecocks used their numbers to finish off fnatic taking a 1-0 lead.

Fnatic clearly revised their targeting and roared back into the second map.

This time they focused on Shuttlecock’s Warlock, Nicduim. Shuttlecocks pursed the same strategy focusing Azurewrath and while again forcing an Iceblock couldn’t finish him off in time.

The third map saw a repeat of Shuttlecocks strategy. They initially attacked fnatic’s rogue, Kakashi, but quickly switched back to the Mage, Azurewrath. Fnatic repeated their attack on Nicduim hoping for another quick kill. A few close calls kept tensions high, until Nicduim finally died 2 minutes 10 seconds into the match. It wasn’t quite over though, as Azurewrath died a quick 30 seconds later before fnatic could drop another Shuttlecock member. This left it the teams even at 4 versus 4.

It didn’t last. In a series of quick surpises, Shuttlecocks managed to get a resurrection off on Nicdium giving them five members. fnatic, with some timely play and hard focus fire, responded quickly, killing him before he could get his health back up to full. Shuttlecocks tried to focus the fnatic’s Priest, Trance, during this time but simply couldn’t finish him off. And with the teams even again at 4 versus 4, Fnatic’s better damage output went to work on their old familiar target Glorbin. After he died it was all over for Shuttlecocks.

With two victories in Blade’s Edge and Lord of A – , fnatic was faced with Nagrand Arena in the last map, the same map they lost to start the match. Fnatic changed up their strategy this time around, going for a quick burst on Shuttlecocks’ Warrior, Globals. When Globals started getting serious heals at around 30% health, they switched to the Warlock again, Nicdium. This seemed to work well on the this go around as Nicdium went down after being healed up once.

With a clear 5 to 4 lead in players, none of the fnatic members dropped below 50% health and they sailed to a 3-1 victory. It wasn’t perfect but it got the job done and the initial decision to focus the Shaman proved to be the wrong one while attacking the Warlock ended up being the key to victory.

Fnatic will move on and face TSG in the consolation final. The loser will be left with third place while the winner gets to test its luck against SK Gaming in the finals.

Lower Bracket Round 3


Fnatic
Azurewrath (Mage)
Agnos (Warlock)
Caal (Druid)
Trance (Priest)
Kakashi (Rogue)

Shuttlecocks
Glorbin (Shaman)
Glasroy (Paladin)
Nicduim (Warlock)
Dw (Priest)
Globals (Warrior)