Fnatic vs Gambit Esports

StarSeries i-League Season 4 ,

Let's start this event off strong! Today is the opening day and first best of three series between all of the international teams competing. It's going to be a action packed day and I can't wait to watch some high level Counter Strike. On the table today in our first match up we will be discussing is Swedish natives Fnatic, taking on the CIS overlords Gambit. Just by hearing these two names you can already tell that this game is one you will not one to miss, so let's jump in and see who we think will come out on top.

Fnatic :

Ever since the departure of both Olofmeiseter and Dennis, Fnatic have found themselves in need of some serious firepower. They rotated through a few different young Swedish players to see who would be the most beneficial to the Fnatic Squad. Because of this down time it caused veterans of the team; JW, Krimz, and Flusha, all to step up and be more on top of their own individual skill. Thus bringing the team to new heights. On top of this, they did find their two replacements that have helped Fnatic reclaim their "Legend" status at the last ELEAGUE Major. These two players are Golden and Lerko. These two young bucks will definitely be ones to keep an eye on in this series.

Fnatic's maps are as followed ; Mirage is 9-5, Inferno is 7-5, Train is 5-2, Overpass is 1-6, Cobblestone is 5-0, Cache is 2-2, and Nuke is the perma ban

Gambit :

After Gambit's surprise success at the Major in Krakow last year, the team as a whole has taken a turn for the worst. Zues left the team to rejoin Navi, and because of this whole in the roster, Gambit tries to fill it with Fitch, another CIS player from years past. Fitch is no longer with the team now because they never had the results they wanted with him, and no one from Gambit could be an in game leader as well as Zues was. The newest addition to Gambit is not an in game leader as expected, but instead is the player in which was kicked from Navi; Seized. Seized is not a terrible addition, but considering that their are many young CIS players that I find would fit a lot better an organization such as Gambit, Seized does not seem like the best choice and Gambit have suffered quite a bit in recent times because of this.

Gambit's maps are as followed ; Train is 5-4, Mirage is 6-2, Overpass is 5-3, Nuke is 3-2, Inferno is 3-1, Cache is 3-0, and Cobblestone is 1-2

Map Pick/Ban :

This series will best of three, so four maps in total will be banned and three will be played. Nuke is an auto ban from Fnatic, and they will also want to ban out Overpass since Gambit are particularly fond of this map and Fnatic isnt. Gambit will follow back with bans of the maps Cobblestone and Inferno, as to take away two very precious maps of Fnatics. The three maps that will be played will be Mirage, Cache, and Train.

Final Thoughts:

My final thoughts on this match up aren't too extensive. Both teams are going to be comfortable on the maps that are going to be played. However in this series I feel Fnatic have been looking much better and well versed in their games, they are very crafty and do an excellent job getting individual kills on eco rounds. Gambit still seem to be struggling and Seized doesn't quite seem like the right fit. With any luck Gambit will take one map, but this series will go to Fnatic in the end. Medium on Fnatic.