Perhaps the strongest team in the competition, Fnatic, looks ready to head down to Cologne and hit hard. We take a look at the teams performance and ask them about how they feel going into the finals.
Fnatic went through the competition like a wrecking ball. After being invited into the competition, the team quickly showed their strength in the first cup, finishing in first place. The team would go on to perform well in all succeeding cups, achieving two semi finals and another first place finish. They headed towards the groupstage as the number one seed and with a lot of expectations put on to them.
The groupstage wasn't that much of a difference for the team. Seeded into Group A, they faced up against Team Dignitas, yoki and hashtagFree, taking on the latter in the first matchup. They were able to take down the British team quite easily. In their next matchup, Dignitas stood in their way of qualification. The Finish team couldn't hold much ground against the powerhouse team either and fell to their might.
With a perfect record in the groupstage and an amazing performance in the cups, Fnatic looks to be the top contender for the finals of the EMS One Battlefield 4. We sat down with Tom “Morte” Kerbusch, player for Fnatic and asked him about his team and their chances.
ESL: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, could you please introduce yourself for people who might not know you?
Tom “Morte” Kerbusch: Hey all I'm Tom, probably better known as Morte, and I'm a professional player for Fnatic's Battlefield 4 team.
How is playing for FNATIC, how much support comes from the team?
Playing under the FNATIC banner is great, I've never been in an organization that's so involved with their players and is always available to help.
As the first place finisher in both the cups as well as your groups, the team has a lot of expectations put on them by the community. Does this pressure affect you in any way?
We like pressure and I feel it makes us play better, I think it's actually a bigger pressure for others to play against us. The only thing is there are no real easy opponents this event, we can't lose our focus at all and we need to go all-in on every match.
Were there any though moments during the cups or the groupstage where you had it though or things didn’t go as planned?
A lot of times, we aren't great online and never have been. Hitreg, motivational and hardware issues have always been present, so we really need to try 100% if we want to win online.
Who do you think your biggest competitor is for the title and why?
It's actually hard to predict at the moment but I feel too many teams have been changing line-ups lately. I also think a lot of teams will perform way worse offline then they do online. With that being said uMAV, Pyro and MYM will probably be our main competitors for the title.
One of the most amazing aspects of your team is that you’ve stayed together through so many games, what’s your secret for staying together so long?
A great atmosphere and friendship, I guess winning everything helps as well.
How do you think the other teams will perform at a LAN event? Who will have the harder job?
There is a lot of teams currently relying on a lot of things like sound and hitreg. On LAN it will be way harder to rely on sound seeing as you have to play with in-ears and there is so much going on around you. Besides that I think the playing field will be level with same hardware/connections and I think some teams will have a hard time adjusting. There will be some players that thrive but I feel most teams will drop in skill where we will become better.
What does your practice schedule look like? What special kind of preparation are you doing for the EMS One finals?
We basically play every day besides the weekend at the moment. We aren't doing anything yet but when we start coming closer to the event I think we will make some new tactics, openings and improve our positioning.
Thank you for your time, anything you’d like to say to all of your fans out there?
Of course, it's great to have such a big fan base as a team but it's also nice to actually see people tuning into streams on a weekly basis because they are really interested in Battlefield's eSports scene. Thanks and see you in Cologne! Last but not least I would like to give a shout-out to Fnatic and our sponsors for their continued support: SteelSeries, Winamax, King of Shaves, MSI, EIZO and Fragnet!
If you want to join Fnatic at the season finals be sure to buy your ticket soon! You can find more information about the finals here. To keep up to date with the latest news in the Battlefield 4 EMS One, you can follow @BattlefieldESL on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
