So we did the impossible, while it was an uphill sight in our eyes it was only as far away from us as we wanted it to be. It wasn't easy I can tell you that, and am sure some managers who have been part of things for a few seasons/years will tell you how much of a mental struggle it is.

For me personally, it's a career high. I've been in just one professional team aside from fnatic and that was/is/always will be Nordahl's team by far. To take a chance which fnatic did with a younger more inexperienced team (FoCuS is the only one to have gone to offline finals for any team event) a lot of people speculated that we'd not be able to do anything noteworthy.

I'll take you through our matches during the season and give you my personal take on them:

PD 1: fnaticMSI vs SK - 2:3

I remember this match really well, we had a bad lineup as one of our gambles didn't pay off and it ended up really badly for us. Shy lost to Lyn very convincingly and that was something that scared me for the most of the first half of the season. A postponed match between FoCuS and Miou took place and we ended up winning it. The 2on2 loss was a real shocker for me, but perhaps it was the first game and the season was young.

PD 2: fnaticMSI vs nGize.FSP - 4:1

There was some amount of pressure going into this game, nGize was at full power with Demuslim, Satiini, D.C and their American players still in it. We won the game fairly easily which was a bit surpising since I expected some more damage from them. FoCuS losing his bo3 kinda hurt and I was wondering if this would come to haunt us at the end of the season. I remember leaving for London before the games got over and I felt bad because I have always made it a point to be there for all clanwars, after this match I did everything to attend all games.

PD 3: fnaticMSI vs ieS/nWo/yDK - 5:0

Many names for the same team, but same lineup since then. I remember some people predicting FoCuS and MinHyuk were going to lose in mirrors. After the 10-0 map score win/loss ratio we had in this game no one dared to say that comment again. It was also one of the first occassions that we realized what skill Min had and that perhaps his win against DemusliM wasn't all luck.

PD 4: fnaticMSI vs Raptor - 4:1

We had some steam going into this game and with the lineup and circumstances I think we'd even fancy a 5-0 win for us, we came close but by a map we were denied our second 5-0. In all honesty this was an "easier" phase in the WC3L in comparison to the schedule that was coming up in the next few weeks and heaven knows what that would bring. HLA denied us a 5-0 and our 2on2 was starting to gain its confidence that we would require for the remainder of the season.

PD 5: fnaticMSI vs Gravitas - 1:4

This was our worst loss of the entire season and as close as the solo's got, the 2on2 wasn't even close. Game 2 for 2v2 looked good for us and then elfi just pretty much solved the whole equation for them. It was a really bad blow and with World elite coming up, things weren't shaping so nicely (mentally) for us. We always had a "4th top soloist" problem and with the 2on2 finding some losses more than wins, we were looking really bad.

PD 6: fnaticMSI vs World Elite - 2:3

Our 3rd and final loss of the season, at that time we had a bad score but our wins against the lower teams helped us keep afloat in the top 6 region. We had good lineups but Space and FoCuS were the guys we counted on to win, Shy wanted to play against a human opponent but failed pretty badly. We were down 0-3 and LiKe crushed MinHyuk in game 1, game 2 was also looking really bad, all hope was lost until something happened on game2 and Min won, he then proceeded to pretty much devastate LiKe on SV which meant he won. This was probably Min's first huge win in an important game and then the 2v2 came out brightly, shining and taking home the win for us. I was pretty dejected but after taking 2 points off World Elite, we knew something special could happen in our later games, if we tried.

PD 7: fnaticMSI vs KoD/H20-PMS - 5:0

Despite our recent losses we felt confident ahead going into this game, the only thing to "worry" about was the 2v2 from their side which had beat quite a few Korean teams like mTw's and MYM's and they also in general are really good. Shy/FoCuS played really well and won the games pretty nicely. Was a good sign for us and while FoCuS couldn't make it a 10-0, it was still 5 points we were happy with considering I had to wake up at 3 am for this game :P.

PD 8 fnaticMSI vs Alternate - 5:0

This was my most favorite 5-0 from the entire season, not because the opponents were good but because of the conditions in which we won it. Shy was to play from China and with lag it would seem impossible. SaSe was quite mannered offering Shy host choice and since we had them (thanks Augury!) it worked out well. We had really good lineups in this one too, forcing xlord to play human and space doing really well in his final postponed game taking the 5-0 for us.

PD 9: fnaticMSI vs wNv - 5:0

From all the 5-0's this was the least liked one for me since we didn't really get to fully beat their lineup. TH000 forfeited his games against Shy but it was already a 3-0 win for us with FoCuS leading 1-0 before MacSed gave up too. Nothing too special about this match.

PD 10: fnaticMSI vs MYM - 5:0

This was the kicker, we knew we had to out smart and out play MYM to completely beat them, they were coming off a loss to mTw and we were on a 5-0 match winning streak (similar to SK's last season). We risked it all with our lineup and it paid off so well. Everyone did an awesome job, this was a total team effort and I am proud to say we won this match with such a huge score line. We knew they would bring their best and that makes the game even better, well aside from SocceR playing Orc but am sure he will not do that mistake again. After this win we fancied our chances even against a team like mTw who people will know have some of the best soloists in the game.

PD 11: fnaticMSI vs mTw - 3:2

It all came down to this, we needed 2 points to get to lan finals and anything more than that was a bonus. Shy and the 2v2 quickly got us to the finals and with Check and Who coming out victorious it was all down to Space's last map on TR. He won it in style and for him personally too it's a come back to form considering he had a hard time adjusting to the new hardware from the sponsors. We knew we could beat mTw's 2v2 and while the lineups weren't the best Shy also showed his return to form.

After our mid-season I'll have to say we were struggling but we overcame so much pressure from the mental side of things that we were really happy. Going into a game with just 4 players for 4 solo maps and no options. It's a pretty awesome feat which we achieved and we believe this isn't the end. We are here to win and come WC3L finals, we will do everything in our power to make this possible. I always wondered about how fnatic can have a legacy considering the wc3 team got in so late in comparison to the other teams, then it occurred to me. We will create our own legacy.

Thanks to anyone who stayed through my long blog :P