Fnatic wins the Challengers 2 EMEA 2022

The Challengers 2 EMEA 2022 ended on Sunday 26th June with a Grand Final between Fnatic at FunPlus Phoenix. The latter, previous winners of the first Challengers of the year, lost 3-0 against a very strong Fnatic side, but not without a valiant fight.

FPX quickly fell into the Lower Bracket of the playoffs after being beaten 2-1 by Fnatic. They didn't let it get them down, however, and made their way up the tree, knocking out Acend, M3 Champions, and then Guild Esports in the final. Qualified for the Grand Final, they were ready to take their revenge on Fnatic.

The meeting therefore started with Split, where FunPlus got off to a good start by winning the first four rounds. However, they were soon caught by their opponents. The latter, led by Alfajer and Derke, the two teams played a relatively strong defense and ended the first phase of play at 7-5. Once the roles were reversed, both teams won rounds in turn, until they reached 12-12. An overtime was therefore necessary to break the tie. In the end, it was Fnatic who won 15-13.

The second map, Icebox, was much quicker than the first. Fnatic largely dominated the first phase of play, despite a pistol round win from FPX. They took a very big lead by completing their attack phase in 10-2. Despite an attempt by their opponents to get back into the race, with some very good stuff from SUYGETSU and ardiis, but it wasn't enough. Fnatic won easily 13-5 on this card and gave themselves three match points.

We all hoped that FPX would make a comeback and that Haven would not be the last map. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Once again they were outplayed in the first phase of play, which ended 8-4. However, they managed to get back on track, giving themselves hope of one more map. ardiis was once again very solid on his Jett and allowed his team to dominate the second phase of play. The two rosters were once again at 12-12, which led to another overtime. However, the scenario was not different from the first map, as Fnatic finally triumphed 15-13.

Despite this defeat, FPX qualified for the Copenhagen Masters which will start on 10th July. They will represent seed 2 in the EMEA region, alongside Fnatic (seed 1) and Guild Esports (seed 3). To follow this competition, please visit the official Twitch channel of Valorant.