In a clash between the number one seeds from Americas and EMEA, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder has come out on top, eliminating G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf from Masters Toronto in a 2-0 victory. With G2's loss, Americas is the first region to be fully eliminated from the tournament.

These two teams faced off once before, in Champions 2024. Back then, FNATIC cut G2's run short, sending them home early in a 2-0 victory. Almost a year later, and it's the same story.

In the hectic back-and-forth series, FNATIC was able to come away with two 13-10 wins on both G2's map pick of Lotus and their own map pick of Split.

When talking about the IGL head-to-head before the match, Boaster said, “ valyn can shoot maybe a little better than me, but I don't need it. I got my boys behind me.”

The boys in question did in fact show up, and they showed up big. Alfajer and Chronicle were monstrous, especially on Lotus where the duo put up a combined 52 kills on the map. Additionally, Alfajer had an insane 9-0 first kill to first death ratio in the map, helping FNATIC to take the advantage in most of the rounds.

FNATIC's greatest enemy in this match was hardly the opposing team, but the clock. On their attack side, they played an incredibly slow style, spending most of the round prodding for map control before hitting sites at the very last second. Several times, G2 were able to capitalize off of the time pressure to steal away rounds from FNATIC, as trent did on the opening pistol round of Split.

A vintage trent clutch, no Tejo needed.

But as much as their slow style cost FNATIC, it also rewarded them, as it did in round 21 of Lotus.

“When the clock runs late, you're bound to make mistakes, and FNATIC is really good at exploiting that”, said valyn in the post-match conference.

This one round gave FNATIC the momentum they needed to finish out the map win.

FNATIC hits a site with less than 10 seconds and somehow wins it.

Split was another back-and-forth affair, as both teams traded one round at a time in the first half. Come the second half, however, FNATIC's defense put on a show, with their young gun kaajak really coming alive.

The young prodigy is showing that he can perform on the international stage.

Apart from a few eco rounds they managed to win, G2 weren't able to put much together on their attack. The loss has eliminated them from Masters Toronto, exiting the tournament in fourth place. Their performance in the year thus far has already secured them a spot in Champions, but an international trophy still evades them. When asked about what was holding G2 back from winning it all, coach JoshRT noticed a common factor in the remaining three teams that they were lacking.

“You gotta be able to perform on the big stage,” he said. “They're showmen. They know how to play the game in a play-to-win fashion… to take the right risks to win it.”

FNATIC certainly have one of the biggest showman on their team in Boaster. After every round win, he's up on his feet, shouting and dancing, and has even got the once stoic Alfajer to join him in his silliness. Alfajer shared insight into this shift of atmosphere in the team.

“Normally we put expectations on ourselves… but for this tournament, we just came here to play and have fun,” he said after the match.

This new mentality from FNATIC is working to great success as they move on to the top three in Toronto, their highest placement since their win in Masters Tokyo. They will face Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #2 SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) Juicy Tyler James Aeria tomorrow in the lower final for the chance to battle Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 PatMen Patrick Mendoza Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov in the grand final. Boaster gave a message to the opposing IGL SiuFatBB , delivered in Mandarin, his opponent's native tongue.

“Your teacher's coming, are you ready?”