In a clash of styles, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Alfajer Emir Ali Beder defeated DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Hermes Ahn Byeong-wook (안병욱) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) 2-1 in the opening round of the VCT Champions Paris playoffs, advancing to secure a matchup against Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov .

DRX's pick of Haven appeared to suit its double-Duelist comp. With HYUNMIN 's Waylay and Flashback 's Neon, DRX had little to no issue piling together rounds on that side of the map. After dropping the pistol, DRX pieced together an anti-eco round and continued forward to win ten consecutive rounds. DRX went 10-for-11 on post plants, with the pistol being the only round without a plant, and the final round of the half being the only other loss.

Down 10-2, a crucial pistol round win helped FNATIC to, what seemed at the time, delay defeat and prevent a blowout. On defense, DRX broke the cardinal sin of playing against FNATIC's attack. Stylized by in-game leader Boaster 's patient approach to the attacker side of the game, FNATIC played slow, taking passive control of the map and relying on Duelist player kaajak 's confidence ramping up as the rounds progressed.

To counter that, DRX played patiently, rarely, if ever, playing proactively and putting the pressure on the attackers. With DRX on the back foot and executing, at most, three on-site, FNATIC snowballed round after round, layering its ultimates together effectively while DRX's own ultimates did garner nearly the same amount of success.

After winning six straight, FNATIC did drop one round to give up an 11-8 lead, but it was only a brief bump in the road. FNATIC won the next five rounds, with the final round seeing Boaster go against anything he did in the last 11 rounds. FNATIC put its foot on the gas, forcing a five-on-five retake, which DRX never had a chance of winning with FNATIC's map control giving Alfajer a clean view of two backs.

After a slow start, Alfajer and kaajak heated up on attack, finishing with 25 and 22 kills, respectively.

After the map, FNATIC head coach Milan described simple troubles in the first half; he said FNATIC let DRX push out and failed to properly hold choke points, leading to the large halftime deficit.

"At halftime, we had a talk. . . Alfa was speaking for like 30 seconds, giving an inspirational speech," Milan said, smiling. "It reminded me of the NAVI game where the same thing happened. He said, 'I'm not losing,' and that's what happened."

In that Stage 2 game against Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #13 sociablEE Volkan Yonal Filu Dawid Czarnecki Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat , FNATIC came back from down 7-2 two maps in a row to secure a crucial reverse sweep that eventually secured a second seed in the group.

FNATIC's pick of Ascent saw the two teams field comps with four agents in common. The respective IGLs played Omen, while Yoru, Sova, and Vyse supported them. Where the teams branched off was DRX's double-Duelist, with HYUNMIN again on Waylay, and FNATIC's Alfajer on Sage, to round out a double-Sentinel comp.

Starting on attack, all rounds won were rounds inching FNATIC closer towards its defender side, which presumably would be the easier side with the comp and the map tending to lean towards the defense. FNATIC grabbed six rounds on attack, headlined by Alfajer's 12 and Chronicle 's nine kills.

In the second half, DRX's game plan appeared to play out to perfection. Despite dropping yet another pistol, the fourth one lost of the series, DRX used the two-pronged attack of Flashback and HYUNMIN to pick apart FNATIC's defense, putting their foot on the gas and eliminating the FNATIC members on site. DRX won five of the next seven rounds with the spike detonating, using man advantages from their site executes to clinch a 13-8 win.

On the decider map of Lotus, DRX continued with mostly the same comp, with the same double-Duelist pairing, free1ng on Vyse, and MaKo on Omen. Meanwhile, FNATIC continued with the Omen-Viper comp that's been popularized in recent years by Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #3 Lakia Kim Jong-min (김종민) ZynX Kim Dong-ha (김동하) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) , with Alfajer on Killjoy, kaajak on Raze, and crashies on Fade.

The comps and the sides that both teams started on made it so that once again, the first half was a race. After winning their first pistol round of the series, DRX looked to start on a high note, but six straight FNATIC rounds turned the tide quickly. DRX entered halftime down 8-4, which presumably could have been enough given the double Duelist.

FNATIC won the second half pistol, a crucial one as it was a gateway for the team to roll on to the end of the map. Anti-eco, bonus, and a further converted round got FNATIC to match point with a 12-4 lead, plenty of breathing room. FNATIC played both sides of the map confidently, and while there was a brief hiccup, they won 13-5 on Lotus to close the series.

Alfajer came up huge on the map, logging 20 kills, including 13 on the attack side alone. He ended the series head and shoulder above all, with a match-high 64 kills. kaajak's 52 were the next highest among all players in the server. Flashback's 49-kill performance, which included a match-high 14 first bloods, was not enough for DRX, who will fall to the lower bracket.

Up next

FNATIC moves on to the upper semifinals, securing a rematch of the Masters Toronto grand final against Paper Rex. Meanwhile, DRX will face elimination for the rest of its Champions run, beginning with G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf .

VCT Champions Paris will continue with the following matches:

• Team Heretics vs. MIBR (Upper quarterfinals)
• NRG vs. GIANTX (Upper quarterfinals)