G2 book BLAST Spring Final spot with dominant win over NAVI

The European combine got their second win over Natus Vincere at BLAST Premier Spring en route to first place in Group C.

G2 are the third team to qualify for the BLAST Premier Spring Final after defeating Natus Vincere in a 2-0 victory. Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen and company dominated NAVI's pick of Inferno 16-6 and then followed that up with another commanding 16-10 win on Nuke. Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač was the star of the show yet again, putting up a 1.61 rated performance to keep his place as the highest-rated player at the tournament.

G2 now join FaZe and Vitality on the BLAST Premier Spring Final team list, with three more spots still up for grabs from the BLAST Spring Groups as the tournament reaches the Knockout Stage.

For Natus Vincere, this isn't the end of the road. The Ukrainian team has a final chance to qualify for the Spring final through the Knockout Stage, where they will face the winners of the North American derby between Complexity and Evil Geniuses on Saturday at 18:30 .

NiKo's 1.61 rating in the series powered G2 to qualification

G2 started Inferno in scintillating form, enabled by Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage's 1vs2 clutch in the pistol round. The European team took the momentum and strung together seven straight rounds, with the Australian continuing his stellar start as he found himself on 13 kills and zero deaths. Natus Vincere needed Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy to step up with a 1vs2 clutch of his own to get their first round, which somewhat revitalized the Ukrainian team. The teams engaged in a back-and-forth with neither team taking control of the rest of the half, meaning the score at the interval stood at 10-5 in favor of G2.

NiKo's P250 dashed all of Natus Vincere's hopes at the start of the second half, with the Bosnian putting his team on his back by acing in the pistol. G2 never looked back after that, losing just one round on their way to a 16-6 victory. NiKo continued his sensational form at the BLAST Premier Groups, putting up a 1.76 rating and 26 kills on the first map of the series to move the series to Nuke.

G2 continued their momentum on Nuke, where they won another pistol round, this time courtesy of Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač's quad-kill. That once again helped them take an early lead before Natus Vincere started their damage limitation from 1-5 down. They showed improvements to their defense and took a 6-5 lead for the first time in the series, despite Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi struggling massively and getting just three kills on the CT side. Their joy didn't last long, however, as G2 soon got back to winning ways and edged out the first half 8-7.

Natus Vincere started their offense by winning their first pistol round of the series and tying up the scoreline in the process, but G2 fought straight back with a forcebuy victory. G2 made the most out of the gift and ran away with the game, reaching match point after losing just one out of eight rounds on their CT side. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev gave his team another lifeline with a 3k that included a knife kill on Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, breaking G2's economy with the round win. The European combine was forced on an eco but nonetheless won the round, as jks stopped Natus Vincere's plant in the dying seconds of a 2vs4 situation to cement G2's qualification for the Spring Final.

BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023Best of 3

G2

Matchpage

2

0

26th January 2023

Natus Vincere

16

Inferno

6

16

Nuke

10

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	53 - 23	+30	102.9	1.61
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	38 - 25	+13	85.7	1.34
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipovm0NESY	28 - 20	+8	59.1	1.15
Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-	34 - 30	+4	76.8	1.12
Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenHooXi	27 - 32	-5	70.8	1.00

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	33 - 38	-5	80.6	0.96
Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto	29 - 37	-8	82.0	0.91
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	25 - 32	-7	55.8	0.91
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t	21 - 35	-14	48.7	0.67
Andrii 'npl' Kukharskyinpl	22 - 38	-16	45.0	0.62