After a shaky start in the MDL Chengdu Major Group Stage, Southeast Asian squad Fnatic took care of business in their best-of-one matchup against South American Team Unknown in the Lower Bracket of the Playoffs.

Fnatic drafted a tri-core of Faceless Void for Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon, Gyrocopter for Kam “Moon” Boon Seng, and Timbersaw for Daryl “iceiceice” Koh Pei Xiang, against Unknown’s own tri-core of Lifestealer for Berna “Berna” Rocca Alarcón, Viper for Juan “Atun” Ochoa, and Axe for Alexis “Greedy” Ventura.

Fnatic came out of the laning stage with a significant lead and used that advantage to win the early clashes, thus letting them exert control over Unknown’s side of the map.

The Southeast Asian squad were looking poised to take an easy win, but Unknown were able to claw their way back into the game. In one of Fnatic’s attempts to break into Unknown’s base, the scrappy South Americans were able to force a buyback from Moon then kill him again — which gave them the chance to take Roshan and mount a comeback.



That window of opportunity seemed to have gone to Unknown’s heads, however, as they took an ill-advised teamfight in the bottom lane that Fnatic handily won. Despite Unknown’s best efforts to defend, Fnatic was eventually able to force the GG call from them after 48 minutes.

While Fnatic survive the treacherous best-of-one elimination round, they cannot rest on their laurels as they will be facing off against the loser of the Upper Bracket match between Evil Geniuses and Invictus Gaming next. Both are among the strongest teams in the Major, Fnatic will have to find their form fast if they hope to make a deeper run.

Meanwhile, Unknown bows out at 13th-16th place with US$12,500 and 100 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) points in consolation.

READ MORE: MDL Chengdu Major: Day 2 recap, EG secures Upper Bracket slot despite shaky form