How M80 & Fnatic shattered the CS2 round record in an 100-round slugfest

The battles to make the ESL Pro League Season 20 playoffs have proven to be remarkably entertaining, with teams on both fronts putting on masterclass performances day in and day out. Not long after Donk broke the kill record does M80 go out and break a record of their own in a hard-fought slugfest vs. Fnatic.

M80 and Fnatic recently had to battle it out in one of the ESL Pro League matches to determine who would make it into the playoffs. M80 have been a team on the up and up lately owing to their improved, consistent performances that are always a pleasure to watch. The 27^th-ranked team got into it with the 25th-ranked Fnatic in a spectacular match that boiled over into octuplet overtimes and broke the record for most rounds played in a single map.

The hard-won battle was settled after a total of 100 matches between the two titans that saw M80 walk away victorious after beating Fnatic 2-0 in the Best of 3 matchup. The match proved to be absolute cinema as both sides unrelentingly went at each other, forcing their Anubis round to feature eight overtimes.

It’s the Anubis round that gathered the most attention, as this is where the teams found themselves in the unfortunate situation of matching each other strides for multiple consecutive rounds culminating in a match that ended with an unreal score line of 37-34. This is the match that broke the record for most rounds in a single map, with the total rounds being played on Anubis being a staggering 71 rounds. The match dragged on for so long that for the first time ever, the teams had to be excused to use the restroom before continuing.

This record-breaking display came just two weeks after it was initially broken at the online Elisa invitational match that saw team Rhyno and team Zero Tanicity battle it out on August 28^th. The two teams were also fairly matched and dragged out the game for 64 rounds, which two weeks ago was still a massive feat.

Prior to that, TYLOO and The MongolZ also had a record-breaking LAN match back in 2023 at eXTREMESLAND 2023, where they played 54 rounds in a single map. In this ESL Pro League season, only one match has come anywhere close to this, and that was the match that had MOUZ face off against Cloud9 in a 42-round squabble.

The decider match following Anubis was more clear-cut, with M80 pulling off a decisive win over Fnatic in Inferno. The match ended with an M80, 16 to a Fnatic, 13, sealing their 2-0 victory over their opponents in a solid win for them. With their playoff fate already sealed, the M80 roster still has all to play for when they face off against Imperial in a match that could see them go straight into the quarterfinals.