The road to Bucharest — Fnatic
Yuriy SheremetWe continue learning about the participants of The International 10 from various parts of the world. The eighth issue of «The road to Bucharest» continues in Southeast Asia and today, we will talk about the second and last participant of Ti from one of the very few represented regions of the main event of the year.
Fnatic is this team. They once were great and fearsome but they need new achievements now.
We learn about the history of «the orange team» and find out what their road to Bucharest was.
The team’s portfolio
Traditionally, we start the review with the analysis of the main aspects of Fnatic. It is summarized below
- The date of the club’s foundation: November 7, 2011;
- The roster for The International 10: Raven, ChYuan, Deth, Jabz, DJ, SunBhie (coach);
- The region: Southeast Asia;
- How the team made it to The International: the winners of the closed Southeast Asian qualification;
- The main achievements: the 5th-6th place at The Shanghai Major 2016, The Manila Major 2016, the 4th place at The International 2016, the 4th place at ESL One Katowice 2018, the 2nd place at DreamLeague Season 9, the 3rd place at DreamLeague Season 11.
Having learned about the pros of Fnatic, let’s dive into their history and road to the main event of the year.
The first appearance
Fnatic, like the first representative of SEA T1, came to Dota 2 from another discipline. They were well-known in the esports field, first of all, due to its CS squad and they decided to expand their presence in the international arena in 2011, having signed the Serbian roster.
Fnatic’s early attempts in Dota 2 can hardly deserve attention. They managed to place 2nd at DreamHack Winter 2011 in 2011, which became one of the best results of the year.
The roster of the little-known Serbians existed until March 2012. After the disbandment of not the most successful roster, the orange organization assembled the roster of former Heroes of Newerth players.
N0tail, Fly, and Era were the first ones to join their new disciplines. H4nn1 and Trixi joined the European international roster later.
The European period of Fnatic
Having completed the Dota 2 roster in September 2012, Fnatic entered the battle. «The orange ones» achieved the first results by the end of the year.
Fly and the company prevailed at DreamHack Valencia 2012 and Thor Open 2021. But it was just a warm-up before the start of the upcoming competitive season.
Fnatic started 2013 as a strong average team, which was ready to compete with the strongest teams of that time but it was worse almost in all terms. However, the beginning of the year was pretty promising.
Fnatic held the 1st place at EMS One Spring Cup #4, the 2nd place at The Defense Season 3, Starladder StarSeries Season 5, the 4th place at RaidCall Dota 2 League Season 2, and made it to the top 4 at DreamHack Invitational 2013. Later, they finished fourth at The Premier League Season 4 and reached the top 4 at the third EMS One Summer Cup #3.
Fnatic’s work during the season was mentioned not just by the esports community but Valve too. In summer 2013, the European roster of Fnatic received an invitation to The International 2013, which became the main achievement of the organization in 3 years of its presence on the Dota 2 scene.
At The International, Fnatic pretty justified Valve’s faith and proved that the direct invitation was received for a reason. They reached the top 8 at the main tournament of 2013, having lost to Orange Esports, which finished third, as a result.
It was a pretty good result for the players who had been playing the different discipline in the near past.
The result of Fnatic at TI3 definitely motivated the players, so they continued participating in various events rapidly. And they did it pretty well.
But as it happens frequently, they were not able to keep the high speed. Fnatic performed at TI4 where they held the 13th-14th place. After TI, they tried to return to the top but they failed to do so.
Fnatic disbanded the European roster in October 2014. They returned to the competitive scene in June 2015, having changed the roster and moved to Southeast Asia where they keep locating nowadays.
Southeast Asia and the establishment of Fnatic as the best team in the region
Fnatic signed Team Malaysia in June 2015, which marked their transfer to Southeast Asia. The debut roster included kYxY, Mushi, Ohaiyo, Kecik Imba, and JoHnNy.
The Malaysian five received an opportunity to try themselves at the main tournament of the year almost immediately – The International 2015. Unfortunately, they were unable to do so.
Fnatic played at TI15 even worse than their predecessors. They finished their road to Aegis almost at the start, having held the penultimate place and lost in the first playoff round later.
Roster changes did not make us wait too long. kYxY, JoHnNy, and Kecik Imba left the team and their slots were taken by Black^, Net, and DJ.
Fnatic was playing with this roster until December. During this period, they managed to enter the top 8 at ESL One New York 2015 and also failed at the first Major in history, having finished in the top 16 at The Frankfurt Major 2016.
MidOne held Black^’s slot at the end of the year. This time, the replacement appeared to be quality.
In the upcoming months, Fnatic entered the top 6 at The Shanghai Major and The Manila Major but the club’s main achievement was just ahead. The International 2016 was coming.
Fnatic did not deserve a direct invitation to the sixth TI. They had to make it to the main event by Valve through the closed qualifiers.
Having passed them successfully, Fnatic went to Seattle.
«The orange ones» lacked one victorious map in the group stage to proceed to the upper bracket of the playoffs. The main stage started with an elimination match.
Fnatic was not embarrassed. The team from Southeast Asia felt itself nicely since the very first playoff round.
They defeated Escape Gaming, Alliance, Liquid, MVP Phoenix, and only after that, they were beaten in the match against Digital Chaos. Fnatic placed 4th at The International 2016, which remains the best result in the club’s history.
The season 2018
The next memorable period for Fnatic was 2018. The year of the Majors.
Fnatic partially returned to the model of the international roster in the season 2018. The team included: EternaLEnVy, Abed, UNiVeRsE, DJ, and pieliedie.
The international roster of Fnatic managed to visit lots of tournaments in one year where they demonstrated a pretty confident play. In the year, Fnatic placed 2nd at DreamLeague Season 9, 3rd-4th at StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5, 3rd-4th at GESG: Thailand Dota 2 Minor, 4th at ESL One Birmingham 2018.
But it was not enough to earn a direct invite to The International 2018. Fnatic had to make it through the closed qualifiers to the main tournament of the year again and they passed it again successfully.
At The International 2018, the team was unable to demonstrate even a part of the play they had been demonstrating during the year. Fnatic failed the group stage and lost in the first round of the playoffs, having held the 13th-16th place.
After that, there were replacements and Fnatic stepped on the road of creation of the optimal roster for the international performance.
The season 2019 and another failure
After the failure of the international roster at TI8, Fnatic returned to its roots, having signed 5 players from the SEA region. The new roster included jabz, Abed, iceiceice, DJ, and DuBu.
Fnatic performed at The International 2019 with this roster. Fnatic proceeded to the tournament by a direct invitation, which was received for a few successful performances at the Majors.
It seemed that the battle-worthy team, which had held the 7th place in the DPC rating, had to prove itself well at the main event of the year but in fact, Fnatic faced another disappointment. The team failed the group stage, after which it lost in the first playoff match and, as a result, it placed 13th-16th.
Fnatic’s curse at The International continued.
The online era
The world was under the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The system of the tournaments changed and Dota 2 went online totally.
Fnatic was locked inside the region, which definitely benefited them. Having updated the roster partially (23savage and Moon arrived), the team began winning everything possible in SEA.
Fnatic achieved victories at 5 tournaments and finished in the top 3 at 3 more events. But it made no difference to be honest because the tournaments had no value, besides the financial one.
Everything changed in 2021 when Valve updated the DPC system and the world was slowly waking up from hibernation.
Making it to The International 10
In 2021, the DPC season was divided into two parts and all participants were put in regional leagues. Fnatic, which was leading in SEA the previous year, was extremely happy with this.
«The orange ones» held the confident first place in the first season of the SEA elite division and went to One Esports Singapore Major. Fnatic played at the first Major for almost a year and a half, not the best way, to say the least.
Having advanced right to the playoffs, «the orange ones» were defeated in the upper bracket first, and then, they lost in the first round of the lower bracket. Fnatic managed to enter the top 12 only due to the DPC system.
The failure at the first Major was a disturbing signal and Fnatic had to face a real nightmare in the second DPC season.
The team, which had been playing in SEA from the power position and staying as the leader in the region, failed the regular season, having held the 4th place. A skip of the second Major in the season fully cut all the direct ways to proceed to TI10. Fnatic went to the closed qualifiers.
«The orange ones» managed to prevail with some problems, having beaten TNC Predator in the grand final with a score of 3-2. Fnatic’s story before TI10 is finished.
Let’s see if they manage to stop the row of horrible performances at Valve's main events on October 7.
See you soon on EGamersWorld.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.