G2 snatch the last ticket for Fall Finals
G2 managed to take their revenge against Vitality and secured a spot in the Royal Arena.
For the second time in a row, G2 was tasked with the job of playing Team Vitality at BLAST Fall Groups. This time it was all or nothing for both rosters, who had the chance to qualify for the Fall Finals with a win.
Again Vertigo was picked by G2 as the first playground of the day despite being kicked out of the server 16-4 on Friday. This time around the plan was much better for G2, who could also enjoy some much-needed improvement from in-game leader Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen, who equaled NiKo with 19 kills during the map. It ended as close as it gets with a 16-14 win for G2.
Vitality was confident going into Dust2 and quickly proved that it was justified. A 13-5 lead saw them in prime condition to seal their own map pick. And although G2 did well in the second half, the deficit was too much to handle for the roster, who were missing their key player Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, who could not deliver the impact, that his team needed.
Epic decider
Mirage was the decider map. The clock had passed midnight in Copenhagen when the two teams joined the server. But this time NiKo was tuned in. The Bosnian woke up and helped his team to an excellent start on the map going 7-1 up. On the other side, it was suddenly Lotan "Spinx" Giladi who had a hard time hitting his shots. The end of the first half was insanely intense with several clutches either way. Vitality did make a nice recovery and trailed only by 6-9 before the second half.
Vitality quickly came up to par during the first rounds of the second half, but then G2's defense kicked in. The B-site was locked down with m0NESY on the AWP and Hooxi doing well on catwalk. G2 pulled through in the end and won the match 16-13 to clinch the last spot at the Fall Finals. Team Vitality will have to go through the BLAST Showdown to make it to Copenhagen.
G2 Esports - Vitality 2-1 | BLAST Premier Fall Groups
16-14 (Vertigo) | ZywOo – 1.53 Rating / 27-16 K-D / 94.9 ADR
13-16 (Dust2) | Magisk – 1.61 Rating / 31-17 K-D / 104.1 ADR
16-13 (Mirage) | NiKo - 1.59 Rating / 28-16 K-D / 110.0 ADR
MVP: Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov - 1.35 Rating / 75-49 K-D / 87.9 ADR