fnatic defeat MAD Lions to reach DreamHack Open November final

Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin and company remain undefeated going into Sunday’s grand final match.

fnatic surprised in the DreamHack Open November group stage, taking the top seed in Group B with 2-0 victories over Spirit and ENCE, and have now punched their ticket to the grand final with another victory, this time against MAD Lions.

The British-Swedish side, who have been displaying a solid brand of Counter-Strike in their first event since missing out on a spot at the Major, will be vying to take the DreamHack Open trophy on Sunday when they go up against the victor of the second semi-final, which pits top Group A seed BIG and FORZE.

fnatic have yet to drop a map in the tournament

The series kicked off on Ancient, a map picked by MAD Lions although they were yet to play on it during this tournament, and it served Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk and company well early on as they were able to put up a strong terrorist side after which they held a 9-6 lead.

MAD Lions won an important pistol round on the CT side to hit double digits and inch closer to taking the map, but fnatic activated and little by little mounted a comeback, which ALEX culminated with a triple in the last round to get his team across the line, 16-14, to set up a possible sweep in the series.

Once again it was MAD Lions who took the lead, this time on the CT side of Inferno, after the pistol round, but neither of the two teams managed to gain control of the map early on, with fnatic taking a slight lead at the half.

After the switch, the two teams kept vying for control but neither could shake the other, going back-and-forth to a tie after 22 rounds, but from there on out it was William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman and company who came out on top to take their map 16-12 and claim their place in the grand final.

DreamHack Open November 2021Best of 3 fnaticMatchpage 2 0 13th November 2021 MAD Lions 16Ancient 14 16Inferno 12

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii	43 - 37	+6	74.6	1.15
Owen 'smooya' Butterfieldsmooya	40 - 37	+3	74.4	1.13
Ludvig 'Brollan' BrolinBrollan	40 - 37	+3	87.3	1.12
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	32 - 36	-4	61.8	1.02
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekinALEX	39 - 41	-2	72.7	0.99

MAD Lions	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Thomas 'TMB' BundsbækTMB	44 - 37	+7	92.6	1.21
Volodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukWoro2k	46 - 37	+9	77.2	1.17
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusjL	39 - 37	+2	70.7	1.00
Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumellsausol	30 - 41	-11	68.9	0.83
Johannes 'b0RUP' Borupb0RUP	28 - 42	-14	53.1	0.78

Volodymyr 'Woro2k' Veletniuk Age: 20 Team: MAD Lions Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 195 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.65 MAD Lions #21 Johannes 'b0RUP' BorupThomas 'TMB' BundsbækVolodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukPere 'sausol' Solsona SaumellJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius FORZE #29 Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'shalfey' MarenovAleksandr 'KENSI' GurkinEvgeny 'Norwi' Ermolin Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin Age: 26 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 1075 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.71 ENCE #11 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferJoonas 'doto' ForssPaweł 'dycha' DychaOlek 'hades' MiskiewiczLotan 'Spinx' Giladi BIG #16 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNicklas 'gade' GadeNils 'k1to' Gruhne fnatic #32 Alex 'ALEX' McMeekinFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonOwen 'smooya' ButterfieldLudvig 'Brollan' BrolinWilliam 'mezii' Merriman Spirit #23 Abdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' VorobievRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovAleksandr 'KaiR0N-' Anashkin William 'mezii' Merriman Age: 23 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 413 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63