MFAM Gauntlet: NRG take title with explosive performance

The MFAM Gauntlet title was taken by NRG, who shook off a sub-par Pro League to resume their hot streak.

This was the first tournament to ever feature the latest map to join Apex, Broken Moon. 20 invited teams went head to head across 6 games, featuring all 3 of Worlds Edge, Storm Point and Broken Moon.

Teams competed for a share of the $50,000 prize pool. Additionally, $2.5k of the prize pool was also awarded to Knoqd as the top kill leader.

An inspirational grenade from Nafen helped NRG to a big victory in the MFAM Gauntlet. After a slightly disappointing Pro League performance on Sunday, the trio of Sweetdreams, Nafen and Gild have resumed their hot streak that has seen them dominate the off-season.

Crucially, they performed strongly across all 3 maps. They adapted well to Broken Moon, and racked up a strong 2nd place in game 5. They were set to close out the tournament in style but were unexpectedly landed on by E8, who seemed to seek to deny NRG the victory.

Undoubtedly NRG's best play throughout the MFAM Gauntlet came from Nafen.

He showed the true power of Horizon's ultimate ability when combined with grenades. Spotting Atlanta Premier in the water he lined up an inch perfect Black Hole and Grenade combination. This was so devastatingly effective that he wiped the whole team on his own, using only 1 magazine of his R301 and 2 grenades. When caught in this position, there was literally no chance of escape for AP.

On Worlds Edge, NRG also exploited the weaknesses in Catalysts ultimate ability against a Seer. While many expected Catalyst to be a full counter to Seer, NRG proved that she can do nothing to deny a Seer team information. FURIA used Catalyst in the Oversight playoffs last week, and continued that experiment in the MFAM Gauntlet.

Using a Seer ult, Sweet was able to track all of FURIA and close the gap between the two teams. The use of Catalyst wall probably hurt Furia here, as they cannot see through it.

When this NRG team are engaged in team fights, they are undoubtedly the best team in the world right now. They will look towards Pro League later this week and hope to find their best form.

Elsewhere, OpTic missed the chance to steal the MFAM Gauntlet from NRG. Seeking to capitalise on E8 landing on NRG, they pushed hard to close the 14 point gap in the final game.

Potentially with kills too much on their mind, they dropped from the game winning spot and ended up losing their chance to win the game. They missed out on victory by just 5 points.

In such a strong spot, OpTic reflected that they should have maintained their position and played for victory. Just the placement points for reaching the final 3 teams would have secured them the win.

However, OpTic can still be incredibly pleased with their performance across the MFAM Gauntlet. They have been steadily improving in recent weeks, having put in a slightly disappointing performance at the ALGS Championship in Raleigh. Their Pro League campaign starts on Thursday, and they will hope to recreate this form.

The key to their success is going to be team fighting and crucial split second decision making. With more teams swapping to an aggressive edge style since the Championsip, OpTic have had to adjust their playbook. At their core, they have all the ingredients to drop the huge games that saw the roster attract the attention of the Green Wall. But, they will need the level of execution that we saw today in order to repeat performances like this.

Knoqd was the stand out star in the MFAM Gauntlet today, he took home the top eliminations trophy. The controller fragger is key to OpTics success.

For full standings and prize money details, click here.

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