The British organization returned to the Major after missing the appointment in Copenhagen.

fnatic has officially won a spot at the Perfect World Shanghai Major after overcoming the difficult ECLOT with a score of 2-1 (13-4 Ancient, 11-13 Inferno, 19-17 Nuke).

A brilliant effort from Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer helped his team overcome a chaotic decider, where fnatic came back from 12-15 down to win in the second overtime. BlameF achieved a score of 12:0 in the opening phases, had 8 multi-kill rounds, achieved 103.3 ADR and a rating of 1.59.

fnatic had to pull out all the stops to secure their spot at the Major, which they were certain of if they won, thanks to having the highest Bucholz score of any team that could finish 3-2.

"It's been a long road with failures at key moments," Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro told James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks in the post-match interview. "We were very close, but now I'm really happy to be here with my teammates."

"We missed out, and I personally missed out, on this experience in previous teams, when things mattered the most. This comeback in extra time will be the one that makes me proud." It's a beautiful dream and a nightmare. I can't describe it, I'm just in shock and it feels great to be back."

fnatic started the series as favorites by destroying ECLOT on Ancient. A USP headshot quad-kill from Matúš "⁠MATYS⁠" Šimko set the tone for the match, and multi-kills from bodyy and blameF gave fnatic a 9-1 lead before closing out the map in style. quickly in the second half.

ECLOT performed better in Inferno, with reasonable retakes in the middle of the map putting them ahead. However, fnatic exploited area A to equalize the score before the break.

fnatic controlled the match after the break, but ECLOT turned the tide by repeatedly attacking fnatic's A zone defense — despite the occasional spray error — to claim a close 13-11 win.

Nuke is where things started to get difficult for fnatic, although blameF still tried their best to keep the team in the game. fnatic won the second force-buy round and took a 3-1 lead, but continuously lost the opening advantage when ECLOT led 7-3 before fnatic pulled back in the last 2 rounds of the half.

"We had a hard time finding ourselves in some matches," bodyy shared with BanKs about how the Nuke match went. "We know we can play very well, we have great individuals, but sometimes it's difficult to get together in the right direction, less focused on individuals."

fnatic won a number of unconvincing rounds after switching sides, mostly thanks to close situations or 2v2s, to take a 12-9 lead thanks to the efforts of blameF and Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson. However, they couldn't finish the match as Screw "⁠nbqq⁠" Pohlot and David "⁠forsyy⁠" Bilanh excelled with multi-kills, forcing the match into extra time.

In overtime, blameF and Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson shined on the defensive side, with nawwk redeeming himself with missed shots on Inferno, helping the team force ECLOT into a second overtime. ECLOT tested a bold double-AWP strategy but failed, creating an opportunity for fnatic to close the match with a score of 19-17.

"During the extra innings, everything kept going up and down, we were really stressed with what we were doing," bodyy shared. "The more we played the more uncertain we became, and at a certain point I thought, 'This is it, we can't come back from here, they have three match points and we just need the points. this thing.' It's really been a long road."