Golden’s ace versus Vitality perfectly sums up Fnatic CSGO resurgence

The ace from Counter-Strike match at StarSeries Season 8 was a backbreaker for the French side, and an indicator of Fnatic’s recent return to form.

The rare ace in a CSGO match is a testament to individual skill and strategy. But one player wiping out an entire team in one round is an even rarer occurrence when it comes from a team’s master strategist, the in-game leader.

While in-game leaders in CSGO are no slouches when it comes to collecting kills and clutching rounds, a five kill performance from the team’s IGL is an indicator that the team is firing on all cylinders.

And in the eighth round of the Inferno map that pitted Fnatic against Team Vitality, Golden made quick work of the French team’s attempt to take the B bombsite.

None of Vitality’s smoke or flash grenades did anything to get Golden out of the corner, as he used his Krieg to notch all five kills with a mix of scoped and non-scoped frags. That ace tied the map at 4-4, and Vitality could barely do anything to gain any momentum for the rest of the map, falling 16-7 against a rolling Fnatic.

Since returning to the Fnatic lineup on loan from Cloud 9, while he sits on the inactive bench of the North American organization, Golden has experienced a return to form when it comes to leadership and fragging. His stats have improved over the course of Fnatic’s DreamHack Malmo and StarSeries 8 runs.

• Read more: TenZ reveals why Cloud9 CSGO benched him

Even on maps when he’s not having the best statistical game, his leadership shines through the server, as Fnatic as a whole look crisp, while their individuals excel.

flusha lifts the Malmo trophy in his first event back with Fnatic

Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist looks refreshed after returning to Fnatic after a half year’s break. The young Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin is living up to his potential. Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson is as consistent as he’s always been. And Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell is playing some of his best CSGO in a while.

Once upon a time, in 2015, Fnatic were a ruthless Counter-Strike machine. The core of JW, KRIMZ, and flusha, alongside Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson and Markus ‘pronax’ Wallsten, won two majors that year along with a slew of other impressive victories and performances.

Since then, the successful results became more sparse and the roster changes became more frequent, until this past August when they failed to qualify for a major for the first time in their illustrious history. 

Former IGL Xizt during the EU Minor, where Fnatic failed to qualify for the major for the first time ever

But since the loan acquisition of Golden and the return of flusha, Fnatic have experienced a resurgence, with an impressive and gritty performance at DreamHack Malmo, where they had to play through lower brackets in group stage and playoffs on their way to an amazing three map series against Vitality to win the title in front of their home crowd.

• Read more: Stuchiu’s Standpoint: Reflections on Swedish CS and Fnatic’s Victory at Malmo

With this recent victory over Vitality yet again, Fnatic have secured a semifinals spot in StarSeries 8, and look confident enough to make a second straight championship run.

Keep track of all the action at StarSeries Season 8 with our coverage hub.