Robin “flusha” Rönnquist - The Shield

Known for his incredible game sense, flusha came under fire in the latter half of 2014 as accusations of aimlocking were directed towards him. While nothing has come to light proving his guilt, flusha himself has taken to social media to respond to the claims, stating how it has negatively affected his motivation and performance. Usually a strong contender for being one of the most consistent members of Fnatic, his own admission rings true throughout the series as he was one of the weakest links for Fnatic and a key factor in allowing NiP freedom to stampede through their defenses. In most scenarios, flusha simply failed to connect his shots to get key kills that would have allowed Fnatic to stabilize and regain their composure.

Usually seen as the defensive counterpart to JW’s hyper aggression on their Counter-Terrorist side, flusha’s goal is to simply contain what JW let past, whether it be a trickle or a flood. A key round that showcases how it all fell apart was the fifth round of Inferno, where JW was rushed down on arch by a marauding NiP force. Instead of putting a stop to their rampage, flusha was distracted by a single member of NiP while Maikelele snuck behind him in library and got a knife kill for the eco round win.

On the Terrorist side, flusha continues to complement JW by playing towards the opposite bomb site. Rather than being the last line of offense to support JW, he instead lurks, picking off any rotating CTs and allowing JW an incredible amount of space to work with. On Inferno and Cache, it was flusha who punished friberg’s curiosity at the B bombsite, preventing NiP from gaining any information about the whereabouts of his teammates and their plans. While his Terrorist side was somewhat strong, it was unfortunately the many blunders on his CT side that left Fnatic bleeding too many rounds to NiP.

Jesper “JW” Wecksell - The Sword

Regarded as one of the strongest AWPers in 2014, JW had a lot to prove coming into MLG to reinforce his pedigree as a force to be reckoned with. The aggressive AWPer is a dynamic force with deadly accuracy, capable of destroying opponents on his CT side and causing enemies to fear the very threat of his presence. Similar to Maikelele, JW lives and dies by his aim. While some AWPers flourish by simply holding an angle and netting the team a kill or two, JW will either go big, or go home. Unfortunately for him, he went home, simply because his shots missed a few too many times.

While JW’s success or failure would create a problem for most other teams, Fnatic has created a situation where they do not rely solely on their AWPer. Of course, any game where JW fails to perform may be an uphill battle, but Fnatic often pulls it out in the end. The question then becomes, why did Fnatic end up losing this series? It comes back to flusha, as the duo complement each other so well that when both fail to perform, the team crumbles. Regardless, it was an incredibly close series, but that was mainly due to the next few players on the list.

Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer - The Soldier

While JW and flusha are a dynamic duo, the ex-LGB teammates, olofmeister and KRiMZ, make a deadly combination themselves. An all-around strong player, olofmeister wears various hats on Fnatic, electing to AWP or rifle as needed and switching between lurker and entry fragger on the fly. olofmeister acts as clay in pronax’s hands, being used to fatal efficiency. On the CT side, olofmeister was instrumental towards shutting down all of NiP’s attempts at A on Mirage. Fnatic devised a cunning triangle of death in which JW would hold from jungle, olofmeister defended from CT spawn, and KRiMZ would roam between connector and stairs. This meant that although NiP were able to secure the bombsite and plant the bomb, they had an incredibly difficult time holding off the incoming retake as the triple threat would decimate anyone who tried to defend the site. olofmeister also managed to prevent Xizt’s one-versus-three clutch, which would have caused a huge swing in momentum and perhaps allowed NiP an even better Terrorist half.

While his performance on Mirage was admirable, olofmeister made some critical errors on Inferno that allowed NiP to snag an amazing T side against one of the world’s greatest CT Inferno teams. Combined with the weaknesses of flusha and JW, it created a huge hole in their A defense, allowing NiP to exploit it with great arch control and providing the Ninjas an option to fake back towards B when needed. olofmeister needs to step up his game in his next appearance. Although he ended the tournament as the team’s second-best fragger, his performance was far from perfect throughout the series.

Markus “pronax” Wallsten - The Kingmaker

The in-game leader for Fnatic, pronax has risen to become one of the great minds of Global Offensive. He is a player that can be relied on to not only adapt mid-game, but also to prepare specifically for a team and counter their strategies. First and foremost, pronax is a bloodhound. On the CT side, he exists solely to feed information to the other players on the team and to lift them up and make them stars. More than once, pronax pushed his luck by aggressively gathering information. Key examples include him pushing squeaky or A main on Cache or rushing through apartments on Inferno and Mirage to sniff out information there. This allows for an immense early game advantage throughout each round as the remaining CTs can adjust their game plan accordingly and prepare for any executes.

This tactic paved the way for the incredible triple kill on Cache by KRiMZ during the 23rd round. With pronax taking over A main, it allowed KRiMZ to stealthily push into vents and quickly snipe off Xizt, duel with f0rest, then drop down and backstab a distracted GeT_RiGhT as Fnatic knew the Ninjas were not at A. Aside from being the brilliant mind behind his stars, pronax himself pulled off some extremely clutch rounds that brought his team back into the fold. In what was one of the greatest clutch situations of MLG Aspen, pronax managed to salvage a chaotic A take by somehow securing three one-versus-ones with the NiP players. After losing three teammates to Xizt, pronax managed to pick him off before GeT_RiGhT rounded the corner to the site. pronax pivoted and killed the Swedish legend at truck before deftly turning back to graveyard, where a confused friberg met his demise. However, there is something to be said about his snap decisions when it comes to strategies. Right after that round he immediately called for a rush through banana, running straight into the crosshairs of friberg and halting their momentum.

With everything on the line, instead of playing out a different strategy or taking it slow, he called for the exact same strategy with a small tweak: rather than throwing a molotov into the porch area at B, he landed it at the cart instead, exactly where friberg plays. This alteration forced friberg to jump in front of sandbags where he was instantly flashed, allowing the Fnatic players to pick him off without losing a single player. This adjustment, along with his clutch plays, allowed Fnatic to stay in the game and remain as competitive as they were, bringing the series to a third map.

Freddy “KRiMZ” Johansson - The Giant

While this overview has been quite negative in regards to most of the Fnatic squad thus far, that is simply because most of the praise for this nail-biting series is reserved for this single player. KRiMZ was by far the standout player for Fnatic throughout the entire series. Topping the scoreboard on every map, KRiMZ was playing far above the level of any other Fnatic player on the team.

It was night and day. While JW and flusha let NiP plough through their setup at arch side on Inferno, KRiMZ slammed the door shut at B, denying any Ninjas entrance to the site. On Mirage, KRiMZ proved to be a stellar player once again, holding down the most crucial position on the map, connector, and getting a quad-kill on NiP when they attempted an almost-successful A execute on their first gun round.

Of course, he isn’t just great at holding sites. On Cache, KRiMZ played an invaluable role in keeping Fnatic in the game, grabbing some magnificent entry kills onto B against the near-indomitable friberg and f0rest. He provided Fnatic with opportunities to stay in the game and helped keep the series neck-and-neck. While his performance was brilliant, the frustration was clear on KRiMZ's face as each map bore on. On Inferno, he ran straight down alternate middle and attempted to take a fight with a P250 against Xizt on patio with no help from his teammates. Unfortunately for KRiMZ, his efforts alone could not keep Fnatic in the game, and they fell disappointingly short on Mirage after an anti-eco gave NiP the momentum to shut down any notion Fnatic had of a possible win at MLG.