G2 stave off NAVI to earn group final berth in Copenhagen

Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač went above and beyond the call of duty with an exceptional performance to allow G2 to remain undefeated in Denmark.

G2 are through to the BLAST Premier Spring Group C final following a 2-0 victory over Natus Vincere. The European ensemble deconstructed the Ukrainian-majority roster on Nuke (16-10), before securing their place in the next round of play following a scrappy and cut-throat victory on Inferno (22-18).

The loss sends Natus Vincere down to the lower bracket in Denmark, where they will need to put up a flawless run, including an eventual rematch versus G2, if they're to punch a ticket to the BLAST Premier Spring Final without going through the do-or-die knockout stage.

The series' biggest highlight came from NiKo, who started the new year in red-hot form with a superlative 1.59 rating — 0.40 points higher than Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, his closest teammate. G2 will also be relieved that they closed out the series after originally sporting a lopsided 14-7 advantage on Inferno. Questionable decision-making and over-zealous behaviour gifted Natus Vincere a way back into the game, one that could have easily been a more one-sided affair than what the final score made out.

The series got underway on Natus Vincere's pick of Nuke, but a stellar 4k pistol-round hold of the lower bombsite by NiKo instantly set the tone of the game as G2 wasted no time in jumping out to a 5-0 lead on the CT-side. An all-important 1vs2 clutch from Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev in the sixth round finally got his side on the board, but NiKo's unrelenting aggression around the Outside portion of the map helped G2 lock in an early first-half victory, 8-1. Natus Vincere's unconventional proficiency with mishmash buys of Galil-ARs and Tec-9s provided the team with some positive takeaways, but G2 showed few signs of slowing down to post a 12-3 slaughter of their opponents by halftime.

The game was flipped on its head at the beginning of the second half. Natus Vincere kick started their comeback with vigour, responding to an opening two-round spree by their foes with five shutdowns of their own to eat into the deficit, 8-14. Regardless, this resurgence in form by Natus Vincere merely served as a consolation, with G2 picking up two intermittent round wins en route to a comfortable 16-10 showing.

The European mix owed the vast majority of their gratitude on Nuke to NiKo's otherworldly performance. The Bosnian rifler's blistering display (32-16 K-D, 130 ADR, 1.96 rating) proved to be the rocket fuel to allow the side to punish Natus Vincere's map pick in confident fashion.

G2 picked up their third pistol round of the series to start Inferno, the multinational outfit going on to exploit deficiencies in Natus Vincere's B-site hold to garner a 4-0 lead to start their offensive effort. Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov's men woke up in spite of the slow start, creating a solid defensive wall to shut out G2 round after round and bring things back to a competitive 4-5 scoreline. The hard-fought nature of the map continued to be felt as the half progressed, G2's successful slow and calculated takes of the bombsites being met by entrenched defensive positions from Natus Vincere in response. Nonetheless, it was Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen and co. who narrowly came out on top, the Danish tactician and NiKo taking it upon themselves to lead their squad to a one-round victory in the opening half with ten frags apiece.

G2 pushed forward once on the defensive side, repeating their aggressive gameplan from the map prior to effortlessly slice through Natus Vincere's tactics like a hot knife through butter and push up to a 14-7 lead. Natus Vincere bounced back despite staring down the barrel of defeat, pulling back-to-back 2vs2 clutches out of thin air to spearhead a recovery and close the gap, 11-14. electroNic and company's rebound picked up momentum once the map entered its dying stages, several scrappy and discombobulated rounds leaning ever so slightly in Natus Vincere's favour to gift the team two four-round sprees and force a trip to overtime from an initial seven-round deficit.

Two sets of extra rounds were required to separate the two teams. A rejuvenated s1mple carried Natus Vincere to map point in the first overtime, but well-executed B hits and sublime calling from HooXi enabled G2 to put up an unblemished showing in response, eventually leading to a 22-18 victory to win the series 2-0.