OG LDN UTD vs Fnatic Prediction: Fnatic go for their second win

On Friday, May 20, the second leg of VCT Stage 2: EMEA Challengers will take place. This showdown will pit OG LDN UTD against Fnatic.

VCT Stage 2: EMEA Challengers is the second major regional tournament on the Valorant Champions Tour. The top 12 teams from three regions will battle it out for 3 slots in the second Masters' tournament and a combined prize pool of €200,000. This tournament takes place from May 13 to June 27. The group stage will run from May 13 to June 12.

Let's start straight away with the trumps. This squad plays so well that they never made it to the main stage of the VCT last season, but in tournaments outside of the Valorant Champions Tour, they have shown excellent results against the European and CIS teams in Tier 2 and Tier 1.

They failed to qualify for last year's closed qualifiers, but in a fairly close game, they lost to BIG this match to qualify for the next stage. These open qualifications were no less easy for LDN UTD as they had to face KOVA and Wave Esports teams on the way.

The closed qualifications themselves began with a match against last week's most unlucky team, Team Vitality. This time, the French organization couldn't afford to lose, so things got tough for LDN UTD from the very start. The first map was lightning fast, but on the second map, the real war started. LDN UTD could even clinch the match at the 12:11 mark, but Vitality took 3 rounds in a row and finished this match 2-0. LDN UTD then went undefeated, beating teams like Rebeld Gaming, TENSTAR, Team Vitality, and EXCEL. Having got to the EMEA stage, their first opponent was Natus Vincere, whom they should have easily passed, but 2-0 at the end of the meeting broke all their plans. The meeting with BIG was held on a high note, but LDN UTD clinched the match with a 2-1 win. After that, they could only beat FunPlus Phoenix in the remaining three matches, finishing 5th in the group. As the boys had secured their place in the next tournament, the focus turned to train. On May 6, OG had merged with LDN UTD and would play under the name OG LDN UTD. Also, hype, who had previously played for Alliance, joined the team (Alliance finished 4th in VLR Northern Europe: Polaris, thus not getting to the Promotion stage). The first game of OG LDN UTD was against Acend, where the guys lost 2:0, but they didn't give up the map without a fight. This week OG LDN UTD will meet Fnatic, who look much stronger than Acend.

Throughout the Valorant Champions Tour 2021 season, Fnatic's journey has not been the easiest. With Derke coming in during VCT S2, Fnatic made it to their first world tournament, Masters Reykjavik, where they finished second in a very close game against Sentinels. The path to Masters Berlin, on the other hand, was very problematic. One step away from reaching the EMEA Challengers playoffs, they were stopped by Team Liquid. In the end, the victory of Gambit Esports at Masters Berlin allowed the Fnatic a direct ticket to the VALORANT Champions. The Valorant Champions themselves were an excellent showing by the boys. Fnatic was preparing to fight in the playoffs for first place, coming from a first place out of the group, beating the Koreans from Vision Strikers and the Americans from Cloud9 Blue. However, CRU Esports unexpectedly sent the European team home 2-1 on the maps, thus ending their season in 2021.

Fnatic decided to move in 2022, replacing doma (currently playing in Tenastar in the Valorant Regional League Northern Europe: Polaris and performing well) with braveaf, who has been in the inactivity for a long time after being replaced in the CIS region. Fnatic blew out their group at VCT S1: EMEA Challengers with their new lineup without losing a single match. The playoff began with a victory against M3 Champions (former Gambit Esports), where the European team took the given meeting in a hard-fought battle on three maps, immediately securing a ticket to the first international tournament this year. And everything seems to be going well, but there is 2 unexpected news. Derke and braveaf will not play the first matches. Fnatic played the first 2 matches against H1ber and Enzo, but that didn't help. A 2-0 loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas and ZETA DIVISION sent Fnatic home instantly, not even making the playoff stage. It was then officially announced that braveaf was leaving the team and MAGNUM was going inactive. They were replaced by Enzo and Alfajer, who played in their regional leagues. Alfajer was even close to qualifying for the Promotion stage in Turkey but was beaten 3-0 by BIG. The first match for Fnatic will be against FunPlus Phoenix, where in the close three maps, we saw a win for the revamped squad, which gives a lot of confidence to this replacement. This week, Fnatic will face OG LDN UTD, whom they should pass without too much trouble.

I see an easy victory from Fnatic in this match, so I will take their win for 1.40.

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