Fnatic’s Magnum unfazed by VCT loss to NIP: “Lower bracket run here we go”

Fnatic lost to Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in their first match at VALORANT Champion Tour Stage 1 Masters: Reykjavík, but despite their lackluster performance Martin “Magnum” Peňkov and his teammates don’t seem too down on their performance.

“It’s our first match together, mainly for the two other boys and even they did a great job, but a lower bracket run here we go,” Magnum said in a post-match interview. “I think we’re going to be prepared better for next time.”

Fnatic played their match with two substitutes, Joona “H1ber” Parviainen and Enzo “Fearoth” Mestari, as the team’s star player Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev is in quarantine and cannot compete with the team yet, and Fnatic suspended their most recent signing in Andrey “BraveAF” Gorchakov two weeks ago.

Magnum chalked up Fnatic’s loss to the new additions, saying that the team was struggling after the most recent patch in their qualifying tournament and adding substitutions on top of that made this first game even harder. He said the team had to remake their compositions and that they didn’t play much of their set strategies in this match which “didn’t feel well, but it is what it is.”

Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games

Derke is unable to play, meaning Fnatic are playing with replacements.

Mistic chimes in on Fnatic’s performance

Fnatic’s James “Mistic” Orfila said in a post-match press conference that he is overall happy with how the substitutes performed. He pointed to their statistics as proof of their good performance – both players were top two in terms of kills, kill assist survive and trade percentage, and average damage per round for the team according to VLR.gg.

“It really comes down to ironing out the details and making sure we head into the rest of the tournament with our heads held high and full confidence,” Mistic said.

• Read More: Fnatic Mistic Issues Update on Derke Absence

Fnatic themselves are not unfamiliar with lower bracket runs at tournaments. In their qualifying tournament for Masters the team went to the lower bracket to face G2 Esports for a seeding match into the event and around the same time last year, Fnatic ran through the Masters lower bracket to face Sentinels in the finals at VALORANT’s first international LAN event.

“We’ve got nothing to lose now,” Mistic” Orfila said. “We are the underdog in most of these tournaments. We tend to bounce back in these situations, we’ve seen it before.”

Fnatic will play against ZETA Division Tuesday in an elimination match for Group A.