fnatic are one of the greatest organisations in CS:GO history. Three time Major winners, countless other tier one trophies, legendary players were born playing under their hallowed banner.

But as we move into the Champions Stage in the final Major of the game’s lifespan, fnatic will be nowhere to be seen.

Semi-finalists at IEM Rio last year, they came heartbreakingly close this time round.

Michal Konkol

In the 2-2 bracket after defeating G2 yesterday, today they fell to Into the Breach. An incredible game for UK CS, it’s almost poetic that it was the greatest UK-based organisation that had to pass the torch for ITB to make the playoffs.

Let us take you through the action.

Press F for fnatic

fnatic started the series strong on Into the Breach’s map pick. With a 10-5 half on T side, it proved to be enough to give the mezii-led squadron enough in the tank to half the ITB comeback in the second half.

KRIMZ was the main player in preventing that comeback, with huge multi-kill rounds on both sites.

However, despite fnatic’s eventual victory on Inferno, roeJ was still unhappy with the team’s overall performance, saying he was “really disappointed” and “I don't think we played our game at all on all three maps.”

“I think we had some good moments, I think the T side was pretty good, but, we had a lot of slip ups and we could've easily lost that map because we lost so many stupid rounds against low buys and also our T side was just really sloppy in general.”

Not great then.

Michal Konkol

Heading into map two and three, even if fnatic had enough in the tank to halt ITB on map one, it quickly became clear that at this point they were running on empty.

Their T side fell incredibly flat on Overpass, with just one round to show for their efforts. roeJ told BLAST.tv “In general we were sloppy, had bad communication.” and it was clear to see, as the Into the Breach players consistently secured trade frags and multi-kills an otherwise performing fnatic would not have allowed them to do.

By Vertigo, things were firmly in Into the Breach’s favour, and as CYPHER began the first round by showing the same ruthless aggression that propelled the UK team into the Major in the first place, fnatic felt the hurt as the half ended 12-3.

Michal Konkol

Vertigo ended as a 16-4 blowout, with the fnatic players looking absolutely clueless as to what was being done to them by the vast underdogs.

“I don't know what it is, when we play the good teams we can step up and talk like we normally do but when we are favourites and we think we should win, we just, I don't know, something just happens with us.”

fnatic will bow out of CS:GO as one of its main protagonists. The early heroes of the game with their era defining Swedish team, there are very few who have tasted glory quite like them.

Although it wasn’t to be for them this time, their future, as with their past, still looks bright.