PGL Major Antwerp 2022m0NESY pulls G2 out of trouble vs. Imperial; NIP beat Cloud9 to go 2-0
A dramatic end to the first day in Antwerp saw G2 go 1-1 and NIP come within one series from a spot in the playoffs.
Day one of the PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage came to a close with G2 and NIP picking up victories in the Swiss format.
The European side around Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen has sent Imperial into elimination matches going into day two after a narrow Mirage affair that came down to a Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov show, while Hampus "hampus" Poser's squad edge ever closer to a spot in the playoffs after taking down Cloud9 in another barn burner on Inferno.
Having beaten Vitality in the opener, NIP looked to do one better and securing an even bigger scalp in the form of the former Gambit side recently picked up by Cloud9, and they did after a hard-fought and streaky battle.
Going down 0-5 early on the CT side NIP fought back with eight out of the next nine to make it a one-round half in the end, and their success continued once sides switched. Cloud9 picked themselves up again on the back of triples from Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov and Timofey "interz" Yakushin and retook their lead, but NIP struck back, winning some nail-biting afterplants thanks to a couple of impactful doubles from Fredrik "REZ" Sterner to drag themselves across the finish line at 16-14.
 Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 - 12 | +8 | 80.7 | 1.38 | |
| 20 - 12 | +8 | 45.8 | 1.18 | |
| 20 - 15 | +5 | 70.9 | 1.15 | |
| 14 - 19 | -5 | 77.3 | 0.90 | |
| 15 - 20 | -5 | 57.0 | 0.82 |
  NIP |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 - 17 | +1 | 74.6 | 1.21 | |
| 21 - 21 | 0 | 79.6 | 1.07 | |
| 14 - 16 | -2 | 59.0 | 0.90 | |
| 12 - 19 | -7 | 52.7 | 0.82 | |
| 13 - 16 | -3 | 36.3 | 0.81 |
The 0-1 pool match between G2 and Imperial looked like it was heading the way of the European team in a convincing fashion at first, but Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and company had to sweat for the victory after all, facing a resilient opponent in the Brazilian side.
From 1-6 down Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's team brought themselves back into contention after breaking through a couple of well-timed stacks from G2 on the B bombsite, stringing together six rounds to make it a competitive half in the end.
Switching over to the defense, Imperial started putting pressure on G2 again as they took their second lead of the game at 12-11, undeterred by a flashy 1v3 clutch from m0NESY. The young Russian continued to put up impact kills, however, pulling his team out of trouble with several critical opening and closing shots and leading the way to a 16-12 win.
 G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 - 13 | +15 | 99.8 | 1.68 | |
| 24 - 19 | +5 | 90.8 | 1.26 | |
| 16 - 15 | +1 | 55.8 | 1.00 | |
| 18 - 20 | -2 | 72.1 | 0.86 | |
| 8 - 15 | -7 | 35.5 | 0.68 |
 Imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 - 19 | 0 | 83.3 | 1.09 | |
| 20 - 19 | +1 | 72.2 | 1.01 | |
| 16 - 18 | -2 | 57.4 | 0.93 | |
| 15 - 19 | -4 | 52.9 | 0.87 | |
| 12 - 19 | -7 | 48.8 | 0.74 |
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