fnatic came from behind to beat Titan 2-1 and progress to the Upper final at the ESEA S17 LAN finals (13-16 on de_cache, 16-12 on de_nuke and 19-16 on de_inferno.

The first map of the series was de_cache, where a flying start from Titan, who began on the CT side, saw them stroll to a 5-0 lead. fnatic then responded and turned the score around after winning seven rounds on the trot, but the Frenchmen regained control of the match and went into the second half with a narrow 8-7 lead.

In the second half, a triple kill from Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell powered fnatic to win the round and equalise the match on eight rounds. Titan then came close to winning the first eco round, but Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub lost the decisive 1-on-1 showdown against getting three frags.

The French team went on a full buy in the third round, a move that did that pay off as it allowed Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans's men to regain control of the match and eventually restore parity at 11 rounds.

The next two rounds then went to fnatic, and when everything seemed to be pointing towards a victory for the Swedish side, kennyS inspired Titan to secure a 16-11 victory following some great individual actions.

Titan take the lead in the series

Both teams then moved on to de_nuke, with fnatic starting off on the highly-favoured CT side. The Swedish team came out determined and won the first two rounds of the map, but a full buy from Titan in the third round closed the gap to 1-2 for the French side, with kennyS getting a triple kill and Jeremy "⁠ioRek⁠" Vuillermet a double.

After conceding the following round, fnatic regained the lead thanks to a triple frag from Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson near the secret area. The Swedish giants followed that up with two more rounds, but at 5-2 three entry frags from Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire near the red box plus a 1-on-2 victory for Mathieu "⁠Maniac⁠" Quiquerez put to an end to such a winning streak.

apEX continued delivering key entry frags for Titan, but fnatic kept their momentum going and went into the break up by seven rounds (11-4).

In the second half, Titan picked up the opening three rounds and followed it up with the next two rounds to shatter fnatic's economy, but then the Frenchmen were stunned on the eco. The rest of the half was a close affair as rounds kept going back and forth, but in the end fnatic walked away with a 16-12 victory to equalise the series.

fnatic levelled things up on de_nuke

The deciding map was de_inferno, where a strong start from Titan on the Terrorist side gave them a 3-0 lead following an A push in the pistol round. When it came to gun play, however, fnatic quickly proved they were the stronger team as they strung four rounds together.

Titan then won their first gun round of the map and equalised the game on four rounds, but the rest of the first half was a one-way street as fnatic's defensive wall would never be broken again by the Frenchmen.

fnatic picked up where they had left off and won the pistol round as Terrorist with a no-nonsense B push and also the following two anti-eco rounds, which allowed them to boast a 14-4 lead.

It seemed that fnatic had this one in the bag, but, inch by inch, Titan began to gain ground on their opponents, much because of Maniac, who carried his team from 10-14 to 13-14 with three triple kills in rounds that were dangerously leaning towards fnatic.

A triple frag from KRIMZ in the pit area then gave fnatic two matchpoints, but Titan pulled themselves together and won the last two rounds to take the match to overtime. However, the Frenchmen's efforts proved fruitless as fnatic simply ran riot and sealed a 19-16 success to advance to the Upper Final of the tournament.

ESEA Invite Season 17 Global FinalsBest of 3 fnaticMatchpage 2 1 6th December 2014 Titan 13Cache 16 16Nuke 12 19Inferno 16

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	68 - 58	+10	-	1.09
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	71 - 67	+4	-	1.01
Markus 'pronax' Wallstenpronax	57 - 62	-5	-	0.90
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	60 - 64	-4	-	0.88
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	57 - 68	-11	-	0.86

Titan	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS	87 - 60	+27	-	1.34
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	76 - 66	+10	-	1.17
Mathieu 'Maniac' QuiquerezManiac	63 - 65	-2	-	0.95
Jeremy 'ioRek' VuillermetioRek	50 - 60	-10	-	0.81
Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' DroolansEx6TenZ	41 - 62	-21	-	0.69