Fnatic vs Cloud9 Match Decided the First Team Eliminated from the ECS Season 5 Live Finals – Recap

The first matchup on day two of the ECS Season 5 Live Finals saw a heavyweight clash as Fnatic and Cloud9 fought to stay in the $660,000 tournament.

Taking place at the SSE Wembley Arena in the heart of London, the event is the culmination of an online season spanning from March.

Day one of the event saw NRG Esports and Astralis advance to the semi-finals on Sunday, with the remaining teams playing on Saturday for a chance at the playoffs.

Group A’s elimination match kicked off day two with Fnatic and Cloud9 duking it out for a shot at playing Team Liquid in the decider match later in the day.

• More: ECS S5 Live Finals Coverage Hub (Stream/Schedule/Results)

With Fnatic debuting their new roster featuring Richard ‘Xizt’ Landström and Cloud9 playing their last tournament with Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta, it was a scrappy affair as individual performances shone above tactical team moves.

Cloud9 started the game well with a 16-14 win on Overpass, with both sides winning back and forth rounds, with Fnatic’s JW shining but not enough to win the map.

The Swedish side bounced back on Train with a convincing 16-9 result to win their map pick, taking it to Cache to decide who’d be the first team eliminated from the event.

Fnatic took a 5-1 lead but Cloud9 finished the half strong with a 9-6 scoreline with Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik topping the leaderboard.

It wasn’t enough for Cloud9 to hold on and an incredible 1v3 clutch by Xizt in round 26 resulted in Cloud9’s economy being decimated, with Fnatic capitalizing to end the map 16-13 and end the game 2-1.

Fnatic advance to play Team Liquid later in the day in a second best of five, while Cloud9 finish in 7th/8th position and take home $35,000.

Follow our coverage of the ECS Season 5 Live Finals via our dedicated coverage hub.