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Fnatic flexes their trademark comeback muscles in the latest ESL CS:GO major in Cologne, Germany.

Fnatic with the trophy. Members: olofmeister, JW, pronax, flusha, KRiMZ. Photo courtesy of Helena Kristiansson, csgo blog.

It was an exciting weekend for Counter Strike: Global Offensive as they broke 1 million viewers on Twitch.tv, concluding an amazing final in Cologne, Germany. Fnatic beat out crowd favorites Virtus.Pro(Germany) and EnVyUS(France) to finish as back-to-back champions for the first time in ESL One CS:GO history. (2014,2015).

Fnatic were always dragging games back from the brink, and every game was as exciting as the other.

Looking at the games, you can see that Fnatic have what it takes to be champions. Each player plays with such reliability that they would out-last their opponents mentally. The amazing this is that Fnatic had to win two matches going in to the Grand Finals day, and after grinding against a crowd-fuelled Virtus Plow, winning 2-1, they blasted through a fresh EnVyUS 2-0. Even though EnVy came out guns blazing, bringing Dust2 to a 14-7 but were unable to close out Dust2, losing the map in overtime 17-15. EnVyUS went on tilt going into Cobblestone, losing that map 16-7.

Olofmeister, with interviewer OJ looking clearly affected by the jeering crowd. Taz walks in to defuse the situation.

Although there were some tensions with regard to booing when Virtus.Pro lost, all was probably in good fun. Taz, like a true gentleman, came out on stage during olofmeister’s winner interview to tell the Virtus.Pro jeerers to stop booing the emotionally distraught olof. As E-sports evolve, rivalries naturally emerge, but good games are what the spectators are looking for, and we definitely had excellent games in Cologne. Boo-ing is fine when the players cannot be affected by it, but directly jeering the winner during their interview is just bad behavior and should not be condoned. Professional gamers aren’t exactly the most self-confident bunch either, and live spectators should all be more understanding.

The moment you know you’re screwed. apEX would miss the shot, probably due to shock. Instant VOD replay courtesy of theScore eSports.

There were plenty of highlight-worthy moments in the Grand Finals, such as the apEX 4-man Fnatic awp party peek, pashaBicep’s quad-kill spraying an AK-47 on inferno, NEO’s jumping awp shot onto KRIMZ. CS:GO is definitely a very accessible and entertaining game to watch, which gives little wonder to why it has recently become so popular, especially when heavily promoted by Dreamhack and ESL.

Fnatic have definitely redeemed themselves this year after a boost controversy in November 2014 which ended with them forfeiting the re-play, and they look comfortable sitting at the top of the world of CS:GO right now.

You can follow me on twitter @TheFreakofnatur and email me at [email protected]. Until next time!