fnatic eliminate G2 from Paris Major and end NiKo's title hopes

15/5/2023 - 20:23

Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen's men performed well in the Challengers Stage, but felt flat on their faces in the second week of play.

fnatic defeated G2 2-1 in a back-and-forth elimination series, knocking out Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and company from the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. The victorious side will go into the last day of the Legends Stage fighting for the last chance to claim a playoff spot in the 2-2 elimination series.

The defeat means NiKo, one of the greatest riflers ever seen in Global Offensive, will end the game's cycle without a Major title to his name. The Bosnian superstar attended a total of 12 Majors, falling just short on two soul-crushing occasions at LEAGUE Boston 2018 and PGL Stockholm 2021, where he finished in second place.

NiKo leaves the last CS:GO Major without a trophy to his name

The series started well for G2 as they came back from a 4-11 deficit on Inferno (19-16) to steal the map away from fnatic courtesy of fantastic performances from Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov and NiKo. Jan "⁠Swani⁠" Müller's team then conceded early leads on Ancient (11-16) and Vertigo (13-16), but were unable to repeat their heroics from Inferno as fnatic closed both maps to secure the series.

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman was the best performer for fnatic, but moments of magic from Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi late in the series proved crucial for the team's victory in the match. On the other side, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage topped the charts across the series with a 1.30 rating to claim the top spot on the leaderboard despite G2's eventual loss.

BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023Best of 3

fnatic

Matchpage

15th May 2023

Inferno

Ancient

Vertigo

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
William 'mezii' Merriman mezii	66 - 57	+9	75.7	1.12
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi nicoodoz	66 - 53	+13	68.3	1.09
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen roeJ	62 - 62	0	74.9	1.03
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson KRIMZ	58 - 62	-4	67.9	1.02
Dion 'FASHR' Derksen FASHR	52 - 65	-13	70.6	0.96

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Justin 'jks' Savage jks	78 - 59	+19	88.2	1.30
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač NiKo	58 - 59	-1	75.7	1.07
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač huNter-	68 - 63	+5	74.8	1.06
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov m0NESY	56 - 60	-4	73.1	1.06
Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen HooXi	36 - 65	-29	50.6	0.76

G2 will be left wondering what went wrong in the Legends Stage after a dominant performance in the first Swiss group, which saw the European combine cruise through with an immaculate 3-0 record.

A disastrous start to the competition's second stage resulted in losses narrow 13-16 to Vitality and Bad News Eagles, relegating G2 to the 0-2 pool in the first day of play. A win over a struggling FURIA just delayed the inevitable as fnatic eliminated them in the following round.

fnatic will face Into the Breach for tournament survival on Sunday no matter the outcome in the match between GamerLegion and Apeks. It will be the last chance for mezii's men to stay alive in Paris and claim their second consecutive appearance in Major playoffs.

Group Legends Stage

3W - 0L

Heroic

Vitality

3W - 1L

Monte

Liquid

2W - 1L

Apeks

2W - 2L

1W - 3L

0W - 3L

very easy for fnatic

2023-05-15 20:24

1 reply

Another swiss fnatic fan, rare to see 🤝

2023-05-15 20:55

Unluko Niko

5 replies

pain

2023-05-15 20:25

2023-05-15 20:29

worst day ever

2023-05-15 20:41

Skill issue

2023-05-15 21:43

Name checks out

2023-05-15 22:19

Rip

unluko

Damn

Feel so bad... rip niko. Vitality/heroic can still do it tho

Love fnatic!

Richard Lewis typing twitlonger as we speak

3 replies

haha XD

2023-05-15 20:33

rofl

2023-05-15 20:50

I mean... Hooxi did drop the same amount of kills over 3 maps as JKS did in like 1 and this was kind of the point RL was making in the end G2 and their fans only gaslit themselves and hurt themselves so it's kinda funny

2023-05-15 21:44

skill issue sorry niko

Hate to see it for niko... Best star player to never win :(

2023-05-15 20:26

I heckin love this team Especially hooxi

jks deserved this playoffs and major so much for hes latest performances. NiKo and m0nesy always ghosting in all-important high pressure games damn, that's not what i wanted to see.

kek

2023-05-15 21:32

hooxi god tier 0.76 🔥🔥🔥

whopping 0.76 performance, he outdid himself 🔥 feel bad for him tho

2023-05-15 20:36

it seems like he did try his best , in comparison to choko

Worst t1 player in the history of cs.

2023-05-15 22:20

JKS tried his damndest

2023-05-15 20:27

Ez for Vita Zywoo gonna be a major winner in csgo. Vita looks unstoppable. Zywoo looks in form.

2023-05-15 20:28

Totally agree. G2 fans really thought they will surpass groups stage. Lmao

2023-05-15 20:44

youtube.com/watch?v=Bw9H1ECucdI aged well

big sadge

It wasn't meant to be, but he will win a major in CS2 for sure

2 replies

Lmao retirement coming soon for choko

Definitely isn't a sure thing, he's only decreased in performance since the major Na'vi won, there's no guarantee he will come back better in CS2 and with drag factor like Hooxi no way will he be winning when other teams have at least competent players

2023-05-15 21:47

rip major viewership

save jks

deserved

Hooxi fanboy can't cope more now Every game the stats are war criminal.

I called Niko never winning a major right after the loss to Cloud9 in Boston 2018. Imho (feel free to disagree), but Niko has been truly cursed because of Boston Major choke and robbing Guardian of his deserved Major trophy. Boston major final is on Niko as are all his fails in majors over the years. He never carried his team like Guardian did in finals and lost by close margin. He went missing in many finals and was the reasons his team lost very closely. When your “best star player” of the team plays like bot in final and you lose 15:11 lead in final map. Yes it’s his fault. Not to mention Niko cried to karrigan to pick Overpass map Cloud9 were playing a lot and beat some of the best teams on it instead of Cache which was Cloud9 permaban just because Niko “doesn’t like to play Cache”. BOSTON MAJOR LOSS IS FULLY ON NIKO. Stockholm he had chance for redemption by carrying G2 to final but choked yet again not being able to kill still standing s1mple from behind with deagle. And this run on Vertigo? 14 kills in 29 rounds and bottomfragging excluding IGL? People who say Choko deserved Major are just stupid or his diehard fans. One of the best players to not win major? Sure. But DESERVED to win? Not even slightly, only player in history of CSGO who truly deserved that trophy was, is and will always be Guardian.

2023-05-15 20:38

11 replies

Why man, why? Why do you have to shit on someone. Just say good game to fnatic. Nt to g2 and go to sleep. He tried his best and something's are not meant to be. I and millions of people still consider his the best rifler and just wish him good luck. Lets spread good vibes my good man. 😊

Shit on someone? I just expressed by opinion, because I will never get over Boston Major loss and especially fact that Guardian will never win major, props for Niko for being one of the best riffler in history I agree, but at the same time he will always be known as one of the biggest tilters and chokers

2023-05-15 20:42

+1 there is already too much hate in this world. We dont need people like him to make it worse.

2023-05-16 00:41

2023-05-15 20:52

It's funny how Niko's most famous clip (now 2nd most famous after stockholm incident) is from Cache with his iconic deagle play

2023-05-15 21:09

Both guardian and niko could've (and should've) had a major trophy if niko didn't choke that final. #neverforget

2023-05-15 21:14

I disagree Niko could have major, Guardian should have. If Faze would actually closed out that Inferno in Boston, Niko would be carried over the line by his team mates and some could even call it an undeserved Major for Niko. While Guardian was best performer on the server playing his heart out and would get a Major MVP.

2023-05-15 21:28

"Should have" i meant overall, before that final game happened, not that he should've won with that performance.

2023-05-15 21:29

If you mean before Boston final, then in that case you are right.

2023-05-15 21:34

I kinda feel you about guardian not winning a major man :( He fell after the whole NiKo igl phase as well. Tell me something tho. " Not to mention Niko cried to karrigan to pick Overpass map Cloud9 were playing a lot and beat some of the best teams on it instead of Cache which was Cloud9 permaban just because Niko “doesn’t like to play Cache”. " Where did you hear this?

2023-05-15 21:46

The part about the bans is kind of nonsense. C9s permaban was Nuke, and they looked kinda shit on both overpass and cache while faze was good on both (and beat them like 5 times on overpass prior) It was just choke in the server

2023-05-15 22:12

Why was this reposted?

flook0

r.i.p NiKo

2023-05-15 20:30

Goodbye Hooxi Votekick Yes: 5 No: 0

rip pickems

Confirmed brit in playoffs, good day to be ukcs

2023-05-15 20:31

THE SUN NEVER SETS ON UK CS

The pressure crushed them. The only one with ice in his veins was jks but the rest crumbled hard… good game by fntic, especially at the end on vertigo, exploiting A over and over again

Rip this team Fuck

2023-05-15 20:32

Well deserved. Would even be 2-0 if not lucky jks smoke spam

Such a shame for NiKo but with a below-average IGL, G2 is doomed in the majors. Just look at FaZe, similar situation and struggling mightily right now but at least karrigan can have some of those rounds when he went crazy and secured the rounds for his team. Can’t say for the same for HooXi.

8 replies

14/23 on deciding map and Niko has all the freedom in the world to do what he wants, hooxi deffo doesn’t restrain him. Map ended 16:13 with Niko with zero impact had he played a little but better they could be tomorrow fighting Navi for that playoffs spot. Sure hooxi isn’t ideal, but there were not many options for G2 at the time. Both of your biggest star players bottomfragging is the problem. Understandable with unexperienced 18yo Monesy, but Niko with 12 majors played and two final? What is excuse for him?

2023-05-15 20:46

7 replies

I'm not gonna make excuse for NiKo on his performance on vtg but overall he has been top 2 G2 players. More often than not, he was the key factor for G2 to win vs whoever. You can't count on him every map. As a team, I consider FaZe is much better when some of their star players don't show up. They always manage to compensate or at least karrigan does a decent job as stepping up when one of his players is not having a great day. A few key frags here and there that karrigan can muster sometimes were crucial. I can't say the same for G2. HooXi is useless frag-wise and the rest of his team is just clueless when things don't go their way. If NiKo is not having it, you need to move him around so someone can compensate. You can't just make NiKo doing the same thing over and over again without success. That's IGL's fault IMO. However, I gotta say NiKo is stubborn so he might just have forced his way to do what he wanted. So I can't always blame HooXi there.

2023-05-15 21:04

6 replies

Your theory would be valid and I would probably agree with you, but there is a fact that Niko played under karrigan and he had exactly same problems as in G2 and karrigan (imo one of the best IGL in csgo history) was not able to fix Niko’s bad performances in crucial games by moving him around as you said, which proves Niko is probably doing what he wants. It is just crippling when you have certain game philosofy and it is working, but once finals come around, you have to change it because your star player is sleeping and leaving you in 4v5. Sure I agree with you Niko being top2 player of G2 overall when we include all matches (groups, playoffs etc), but when it mattered and pressure was on and G2 were actually about to win trophy in both Abu Dhabi and Katowice, Niko was actually the worst player on team besides IGL and had to be carried over the finish line by jks, hunter and monesy. There is clear pattern of Niko being much worse in pressure situations, there was article “Big Game Players” (hltv.org/news/36168/who-are-the-modern-d..) and it showed that Niko drops his performance the most comparing studio vs arena games by more then 0.1 rating which is massive. Other players who joined Niko in that worst category were monesy, stavn and ax1le. All of them unexperienced post covid young players who probably still had no chance to adapt to the pressure. So Niko is truly one of the kind in this regard considering is age and career he has behind him.

I do agree with you that NiKo does have a bit of mental block when it comes to the critical stage of a tournament. I genuinely believe the Boston Major was the one that got away from NiKo (and Guardian) due to pressure. I recall one time I called him and FaZe out for not seeking out help for mental block on Twitter and NiKo replied to my tweet with a shrug basically. At the end of the day, CS is a team game. You rise to the occasion as a team in order to win. A flash of brilliance in term of individual performance is as worth as a headline on HTLV. I never see G2 would rise to the occasion as a team, more like some firepower from NiKo or Monesy or whoever.

2023-05-15 21:48

4 replies

I said same thing with Faze and Niko not getting professional help after those crushing lost finals, olof himself said that Boston was brutal but they threw that one out of the head and reset, but lost in Katowice vs Fnatic broke them mentally and they never recovered neither seeked help from what I know, I can’t imagine anyone withstanding that. 2016 Astralis did seek help and they went from state that Faze were in 2018 to winning 4 majors. And honestly 2018 Faze was imo team that had potential to be better than prime Astralis, but sadly history unfolded in different direction.

Well, if NiKo stayed around with FaZe, maybe he would have won the major with karrigan instead of Twistzz. In a weird way, it was never meant to be for NiKo. That's life.

2023-05-15 22:23

I just watched post game interview of him and damn even tho I was never his fan and either I was neutral to him or he annoyed me with his tilts and chokes, I felt so fucking bad for him and huge respect to him for admiting he didn’t deserve to win Major, which is sadly true but it takes balls and you have to be really big man to admit such thing.

2023-05-15 23:02

I have seen NiKo in person but never talked to him directly. He looks like a nice guy. I do admire his talent and I hope he will win a Major someday. One thing I hope he will change is to make a better choice (roster-wise) and know what he is the best at (rifler and not an IGL) and sticks with it.

2023-05-15 23:06

poor jksex

byebye g2 xD good performance

loser forever. glad for him

CSGO top players and Major winners tier list. Tier 1. Full gods. Won both a Major and HLTV #1. S1mple, Coldzera, olofmeister, Get_Right. Tier 2. Lone warrior. Won HLTV #1 but no Major. Zywoo. Tier 3. Team workers. Won a Major but no HLTV #1. dev1ce, rain, flusha, shox, Neo, etc. Tier 4. NIKO CHOKO LUL LUL LUL.

2023-05-15 20:43

I agree with all before tier 4. Niko is choker but express it without mockery and backed with facts. This way with you laughing and mocking over him, it actually degrades your comment

2023-05-15 20:48

Zywoo will win somrthing in cs2. For this major my bets are on heroic

2023-05-15 20:49

2023-05-15 21:19

twitter.com/G2CSGO/status/16578096816901.. Don't worry FURIA Fans this plane is heading back to pick up G2.

Man when I heard the pre-game interview where NiKo was saying they're better than fnatic so they should win if they play at least decently, I knew the karma will do its things. There is a difference between saying "I think we are better" and "we are better", the first involves your opinion and the second is a fact. If it's a fact you should win no problem.

how have Ji Tu managed to lose to grandad Krimz? Should have been ez win. All S-tier teams losing to mid teams. I say cancel the major

2023-05-15 20:56

they're cancelling the whole event and packing up as we speak. why did u have to post that comment man? can't have good things. 1 guy on HLTV says it's fluke major and it's all over.

2023-05-15 21:21

THANK GOD. COULDNT WATCH THE GAMES FROM THENIKO DICKSUCKING CASTERS/ANALYSTS WERE DOING

2023-05-15 20:57

they were trying to calm Niko down so he wouldn't beat them up xd

2023-05-15 21:22

Based

Yeah CSGO 2 is a brand new game. Who cares rly, its basicaly the same game

Lesgo fuck my pickems but EZ fo fnatic

Vitality v Heroic final confirmed

2023-05-15 21:16

cadiaN win the major before Heroic gets sold out for 6 mil $ challenge

2023-05-15 21:59

sad

I'm looking at this hltv.org/player/3741/niko#tab-achievemen.. and this esportsearnings.com/players/5783-niko-ni.. and this youtube.com/watch?v=GizvKd5TMSc And I just do not bloody care. This guy has earned enough to relax until the end of his life starting from today. Casters, players, people want to create a storm in a teacup. Even during the final post match interview it was clear that NiKo simply did not give a fuck. This is not chess. There's a lot to chance and as a single person he cannot win games. JKS did everything and beyond and still they lost.

2023-05-15 21:18

yeah people keep forgetting that it doesn't matter whether he won the major or not. he gets paid somewhere around 30k$/m + ton shit of sticker money and winning major is just a flex. he has more than enough personal trophies to back up himself. but he does care about winning to some extent tho, enough to make him close to crying.

2023-05-15 21:25

And he's probably the most handsome guy on the scene (and I'm not gay).

yeah he's such a good looking guy, i'd suck him off, as a man to man, not as a gay to gay (because that'd be gay) XD

2023-05-15 21:56

Device clears him

2023-05-15 22:24

and ends my pickems

Last NiKo major playoffs highlight for CSGO, ever. pbs.twimg.com/media/FwL-nrIWYAMhY2a?form..

2023-05-15 22:04

Men how it is even possible... I think G2 made them selves look like that they were the best team so hard and that the major was already won by them so this cost their engagement to win. Really sad for NiKo and jks would be amazing see they win a major on the same team. Maybe next year...

packwatch rip bozo rest in piss

o see 1.50 > mo no see 1.06

2023-05-15 22:37

Save my boy jks

2023-05-15 22:42

Wondering were have all 2_months_alive_fanboys of g2 disappeared? They were sure it should be a neverending era.... with goat hooxi... I said it was for few tournaments only, but they already made tatoos on their faces. It's time to change the favourite... again. And again :)

2023-05-15 23:15

Told ya. The one who will destroy g2 is choko

2023-05-16 00:28

Thank you fnatic :D G2 so baaad lololooo

2023-05-16 08:18

Cursed team just like NIP nothing special, but it's a bit sad for Niko when you think about it

2023-05-16 08:20

G2 are still doing better than I expected to be fair, but if you're gonna carry a bot you can't afford to choko. WP Fantic, too strong.

Krimz on top

2023-05-16 09:58