FnaticRaidCall Summary: June

June has come to an end and we, here at Fnatic, are looking back at a really successful month. We hereby present you the FnaticRaidCall Summary for June.

The month started with a bang for the FnaticRC Counter Strike team who faced the Danish side of Anexis eSports in the Grand Final of the FnaticRC Counter Strike League on June 4. FnaticRC won tournament after winning both maps thus grabbing a total of $2,500. Dreamhack was June's main event for the team, but before they could jet off to Sweden, it was announced the Patrik "cArn" Sättermon would return for one last stint of glory as he would, temporarily though, replace Finn "Karrigan" Andersen at the EsportSM group-stage due to Finn having exams back in Denmark. After the group-stage, karrigan joined up with the rest of the team and went on, to win the entire EsportSM also known as the Swedish Championship in Counter Strike 1.6.

One day after the EsportSM victory, FnaticRC continued their dominance at the main tournament at Dreamhack. Just like in EsportSM and FnaticRC CS League tournaments, the team ended up in a grand final, this time versus Natus Vincere whom Fnatic edged 2-1 and could therefore raise the Dreamhack Summer 2012 trophy in front of the massive audience as they once again had proven to be the best team.

After Dreamhack, Fnatic.com's Editor-in-Chief, Alexander "Lexx" Zavoloka sat down with Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl for an interview which was published in two parts. In the last part of the interview, Gux revealed that he would be leaving FnaticRC. In the official statement at Fnatic.com, the Chief Gaming Officer and Gux's former captain, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, stated that Rasmus would "[...] go down as one of the most successful players".

On June 26, three days after Gux's announcement, Fnatic revealed former eSrael and mTw-star, Martin "trace" Heldt as the new fifth. With trace joining the team, the FnaticRC Counter Strike team is not only back with a full line-up, but the majority of the team is now also coming from Denmark. With a complete line-up, the team is now looking to attend GameGune in the end of July in Bilbao, Spain.

June was a very long month for the Fnatic Starcraft 2 squad. We kicked off the month with the airing of Fnatic Gaming House: Episode 1, a short video, peeking into the personal lives of the Fnatic players (both Starcraft 2 and League of Legends). The beginning of June also marked the end of Group Play for EG Master's Cup Series Season VII. Fnatic did particularly well in this clanwar, finishing the season in 3rd position out of 12 teams and advancing to the Playoffs, which were scheduled for early July.

Fnatic played four GSTL matches in the month of June. They played in the first round and lost against TSL and  but won against IM-SK and were promoted to the second round. Once there, Fnatic beat Prime before losing to MVP. Round Two isn't over yet, and Fnatic will face SlayerS-EG in July.

June 8-10 was MLG Spring Championships in Anaheim, California and four players flew out to compete - Oz, aLive, Rain, and ByuL. Out of more than 200 players, all four Fnatic players made it to the Championship Bracket and finishing in the top 32. Oz and aLive performed the best, Oz placing in the top 12 and aLive ending in the top 16.

DreamHack Summer 2012 was the only real disappointment for Fnatic. NightEnD intended to go but was too ill to travel, so ToD was the only player who could make it. Once there, ToD advanced to the second round but did not progress further despite a 2-1 record in his group. Once NightEnD got better, he flew to Cologne, Germany and competed in the World Championship Series: Combined European Nationals, taking second place on 23 June. This got him a paid trip out to the 2012 Battle.net European Championships hosted by Blizzard which will be played in September.

June also marks the end of NASL Season 3, in which aLive finished in the top 16. He made the Playoffs by defeating Polt, but lost a tight series against two time NASL champion PuMa. aLive and NightEnD are already qualified for NASL Season 4, but perhaps some other Fnatic players will be seen in the next season.

Near the end of the month, Fnatic was pleased to announce that we have acquired Jo "Luvsic" Chang Ho, formerly a member of the Korean team oGs. Luvsic is a great Zerg player with a strong resume, and everyone is excited to see how he will progress in the Orange and Black. HomeStory Cup V will be played in the early days of July but both ToD and NightEnD were invited out to participate.

July is going to be a big month for Fnatic's Starcraft 2 players, with upcoming GSL matches for Oz and aLive and a number of large foreign tournaments. Keep an eye out for Fnatic players flying across the world to compete in the coming month!

June was a very intense month for Fnatic League of Legends. It started off with the announcement of sOAZ joining the squad to replace Shushei. This was a huge move the for Fnatic as a whole and the team is still adjusting to the new line-up. They then took off to Los Angeles for the MLG: Anaheim event where they finished in the Top 8. They lost to Team Dynamic in the Loser-Bracket in a match that they felt they should of won and reach the next round.

After MLG they went straight to bootcamp in Sweden where they prepared for DreamHack Summer. Whilst at bootcamp they won the MMO Champion's Tournament where they obliterated Moscow Five in the Final. However, DreamHack was the more important event. They finished in fourth place, a tough loss to CLG.eu, put them out in the semi-finals. CLG.eu are a team that Fnatic just can't seem to overcome as of recent.
Once everyone was home, it was time for the Warsaw Qualifier's from which there were four of them in total. Unfortunately Fnatic were unable to advance from any of them, meaning they now miss the ESL: Warsaw event at the end of July.

July is just as big for the team, and they have a lot of work to do. Progress is being made and they are on their way back to the top, stay tuned.

This proved to be very successful month for our Dota 2 division, even though Dota 2 wasn't the only game our team played. In fact, our guys took the fourth consecutive DreamHack trophy in HoN. They proved once again that, even though they had their full focus on Dota 2, they can do great things in HoN with not more than a week of bootcamping. Newcomers in the team, Era and H4nn1 fit in very well, and made an immediate impact with their new teammates, winning DreamHoN competition by beating TT eSports in finals with 2:0. They earned themselves approximately $32,000 and  a fourth consecutive title of DreamHoN Champions.

As for Dota 2, our guys are currently sharing the 5th place in The Defense tournament, and they reached the playoffs in Starladder Pro Series. They already faced Power Rangers from Belarus, and took a 2:1 win, now they will have the Danish GU as the next step towards finals of Season 2. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to one of the oldest members on the team, Jascha "NoVa_" Markuse, more about this you can read here. Our former player, Trixi stepped in as standin in various matches, in which our team played brilliantly, although they lost the match in the end. FnaticRaidCall will put their full focus on Dota2 now, but as for the fifth player - nothing is certain about this yet.

Our guys have been successful in online HoN competitions, such as CSN HoNor Cup, where they reached the finals and will fight for the prize of $3,000 once the second finalist is known. Second place will earn them $1,500.

JUNE ISSUE WRITTEN BY:

Corin Porter
Casper Ackermann
Harry Wiggett
Andreja Mahovic