The new, revamped FNATIC roster triumphed at DreamHack Masters Malmoe and joined Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses in the race for the Intel Grand Slam.
The Swedes started the tournament with a poor loss to ENCE, with their star player Jesper "JW" Wecksell calling the performance embarrassing. FNATIC then fought through the lower bracket in group play beating TyLoo, G2 and Furia. A 2-1 victory over Ninjas in Pyjamas and a famous 2-0 over Astralis followed in the playoffs on stage, with a 2-1 final against Vitality on Sunday.
It is too early to say if the new look FNATIC have become perennial contenders for titles, but the fact remains that they are now tied with Liquid and EG with a Masters trophy each and have the longest amount of time to complete the Intel Grand Slam. Liquid have seven and EG have eight tournaments left to finish the job before their wins at IEM Chicago and ESL One New York, respectively, expire.
Under the current rules of the Intel Grand Slam, the first team to win six ESL Pro Tour Masters events inside a span of ten events will collect a $1,000,000 prize. It can also be done with four Masters wins, but one of the trophies needs to be a Championship event (IEM Katowice, ESL One Cologne or a CSGO Major by ESL or DreamHack).
The next stop of the ESL Pro Tour will be Intel Extreme Masters Beijing-Haidian on November 9-10.
