The second match of the day saw G2 face Vitality in a battle of two teams that are yet to hit the heights expected of them. It was the Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen led team that prevailed in three maps, first losing Dust2, but then coming back by winning their map pick of Inferno and finishing the series on Mirage.
G2 have already secured at least a quarter-final appearance at BLAST but are facing off against FaZe next in an attempt to secure a direct berth to the semi-finals. Vitality are heading into an elimination match against paiN, meanwhile.
NiKo was once again the star performer of his team
The series began on Dust2, the pick of Vitality. Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač started off the game with a 3k in the pistol round, which his team managed to convert into a 5-1 lead to start off the map. Vitality got themselves back into the game after that, winning all but two rounds that they dropped to pistol buys, with G2 not winning a gun round for the rest of the half that finished 8-7 in the favor of the French-Danish team.
G2 won another pistol round to begin their T side, but faltered against the Vitality force-buy right away. That enabled the Dan “apEX” Madesclaire led team to get up to a 14-8 lead, and after Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut put his team up on match point with a 1v2 clutch, the Vitality star player finished off the job at the next time of asking with another multi-kill, giving his team a 16-10 win.
Next up was Inferno, a map where G2 have a 100% win rate in the last three months. They didn’t get off to the best start however, as Vitality won the pistol and stayed in the lead for the first few rounds. The turning point of the game was yet another force-buy win by G2, which put the scores at 5-4 and completely switched the momentum of the half, as the European combine won every remaining round of the half, winning it 10-5.
A pistol round for Vitality looked to make things interesting, but the French-Danish team lost the following round with G2 dominating the remaining rounds of their CT side, getting a 16-8 win and moving the series on to Mirage.
The deciding map kicked off with a G2 pistol round win, but Vitality immediately struck back, winning four rounds in a row. G2 were able to shift into a higher gear however, as they started to dominate proceedings and shut out anything the French-Danish team had to offer as they won ten rounds in a row, not allowing their opponents to get a single bomb plant.
Vitality gave themselves a chance with a good start to their CT half, getting within two rounds of their opponents. The Kovač cousins combined for a round win on B, getting all five kills and giving their team the first round of the T side. Next up it was Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov‘s time to shine, winning a 1v3 clutch as the scoreline read 14-9. G2 avoided their usual trouble with closing out games, needing just one match point to win the series and move on to the winners’ match.
