Fnatic triumph over Vitality to win DreamHack Masters Malmö

Fnatic have won DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019 over Team Vitality in a hard-fought best-of-three series across a grueling 94 rounds, winning $100,000 and a spot at IEM Katowice 2020.

Coming into the Grand Final, Fnatic had claimed notable scalps following their initial best-of-one loss to ENCE. FURIA, G2 and Astralis were all taken down 2-0 and domestic rivals Ninjas in Pyjamas took a map, before Fnatic won the series 2-1.

Vitality had beaten TYLOO and ENCE in their early matches, but were bested by Astralis in the Group A upper bracket final. Fighting through the lower bracket, Vitality defeated mousesports and Natus Vincere, looking like a well-oiled machine with the addition of Richard "shox" Papillon. 

As Fnatic and Vitality clashed, DustII saw Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut dominate the server with a 1.40 rating and help edge Vitality to victory despite effors from Fnatic's own sniper Jesper "JW" Wecksell.

Inferno looked to be an easy win for Fnatic, but a comeback effort by Vitality saw a 15-9 scoreline in favour of the Swedes quickly turn into overtime. Maikil "Golden" Selim, the in-game leader previously benched from Fnatic after being bestowed with the entry fragging role instead, was a difference-maker for Fnatic, with many big opening kills going in his favour. 

Mirage was a final close map to close out Malmö. A slight advantage for Vitality going into the second half was soon extinguished by Fnatic's CT side crushing Vitality nine rounds in a row. The final round saw the Swedish pistols best the French rifles and secured the hometown trophy.

This marks the first event win for Fnatic since the PLG Grand Slam 2018 and the first S-Tier event won since Fnatic's back-to-back wins under Golden in 2018 at IEM Katowice 2018 and WESG 2017 totally over $1,000,000 in prize money.

Vitality did not leave Sweden entirely empty-handed, as ZywOo won the MVP award for the event, his fourth such title this year.

The upcoming ESL Pro Tour means Fnatic automatically qualify for the IEM Katowice 2020 event, with IEM Beijing and the ESL Pro League Finals also awarding spots in Poland to the winners.