Defending international title holders FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 Leo Leo Jannesson Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder dominated NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Victor Victor Wong Marved Jimmy Nguyen Ethan Ethan Arnold Demon1 Max Mazanov in a historic first matchup between two of the best cores in Valorant's history.

For what seems like ages the core rosters of FNATIC and NRG have fought battles at the highest levels of international Valorant, but at every turn, they have avoided the head to head confrontation.

That isn't to say that NRG and FNC are entirely unfamiliar with each other. Chronicle has first hand experience denying FiNESSE , crashies , and Victor a Masters crown, and ardiis has a long resume against his EMEA brethren.

Unfortunately, the showdown was anything but climactic. An even 6-6 first half on Fracture turned into a complete rout as NRG managed just seven round wins across the following 27 rounds of play. FNATIC put up a combined +57 kill to death differential in a short and brutal series.

Over 81% of all pickems on VLR put their faith behind FNATIC, and NRG attempted to defy the conventional odds with an unorthodox Sova pick on Fracture. Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le Apoth Vincent Le jawgemo Alexander Mor wielded that strategy with devastating success, and as the masters of adding wrinkles to their gameplay, NRG snatched it up.

Coach Chet admitted the Sova was a play to mess with FNATIC's famed anti-stratting, but that “we were comfortable with it”.

NRG won the initial pistol, and they pulled off several elaborate maneuvers around the map to put FNATIC in difficult retake scenarios. However, FNATIC's individuals constantly stepped up to dominate the full buy rounds. Three NRG wins with weaker weaponry salvaged a 6-6 half.

FNATIC's own attack turned up the heat. A pistol win spiraled nearly out of control as FNATIC managed their economy brilliantly to cruise to an 11-6 lead. A late push from NRG was too little too late to stem the orange and black tide from taking the 13-9 victory.

During the onslaught, Boaster picked up the Operator despite Operators being less common on the attacking half along with the fact that he was an IGL playing Brimstone, not a common sniping role.

“Someone said something about an Op, and I said, ‘no I'm gonna Op',” Boaster joked.

NRG were constantly outmaneuvered by FNATIC who boxed NRG out of the extremities of the map. That map control let FNATIC

“It led to us holding sites with lesser numbers and running into their game plan,” FiNESSE confirmed.

LOCK//IN MVP Leo was dominant with a 1.53 rating, and he contributed to the team in more ways than one.

“There are a lot of calls he made that won us rounds basically,” Mini said in a mid-match interview.

NRG still had a good opportunity to keep the series interesting as they moved to their favorite map, Bind. Unfortunately for them, the map was over almost before it began.

The half-armor meta was popularized by FNATIC, and they continued to show their mastery of it. After winning the pistol, they spent properly to have a full buy in their third round bonus. Despite losing rounds three and four while forcing rifles, their economy wasn't broken a single time.

Constant saving was the only thing keeping NRG's economy afloat as they lost eight straight rounds to close the half. They never fully converted to the half armor meta and had to take a weaker buy every other round.

A late comeback looked improbable, and whatever hopes NRG still harbored ground to a crunching halt as ardiis accidentally threw his own slowing Sage utility into the chokepoint NRG needed to burst out of in the dying seconds of one of the final rounds.

“We just had a lot of things going wrong, it wasn't just one thing,” said Chet when asked about where it all went wrong for NRG.

Every member of FNATIC finished with more kills than deaths and vice versa for NRG as the boys in orange and black secured EMEA's second team in the upper semifinals.

Of course, FNATIC celebrated on the stage in style.

“Oh yeah, I was just twerking,” Boaster laughed.

Banner image credit: Lee Aiksoon/Riot Games