FURIA dropped out of IEM Katowice 2022 after a loss vs G2 esports in the lower bracket. NiKo and co. beat the Brazilians 2-1 to remain in contention for a quarter’s berth. Earlier they had lost to fnatic to drop down to the lower bracket but beat Liquid to stay alive. FURIA lost to NaVi yesterday and needed to win today if they were going to make it to the Spodek. G2 will now face Astralis in a Bo3 LB final to fight for a playoff spot.
MAP VETO
- FURIA removed Dust2
- G2 removed Overpass
- FURIA picked Nuke
- G2 picked Mirage
- FURIA removed Ancient
- G2 removed Vertigo
- Inferno was left over
MAP 1: Nuke (G2 16-13 FURIA)
MAP 2: Mirage (G2 13-16 FURIA)
MAP 3: Inferno (G2 16-10 FURIA)
The G2 vs FURIA game was close throughout the series. There were no lopsided scores and either team could have taken the series had a few swing rounds gone their way. On FURIA’s pick of Nuke, G2 lost to Glocks in the second round and had to come back from a 5-1 deficit. The Kovac cousins then helped them get back into the game as they salvaged a 7-8 half. G2 then turned the tide on FURIA with a string of T rounds to lead 12-9 and then 14-10. They eventually closed it out 16-13.
We moved to G2’s home map of Mirage and their T side fell flat as arT’s and saffee’s aggression on Mid and underpass caught G2 off guard. They did find 6 T rounds but that was again down to NiKo’s heroics. After losing the pistol FURIA strung together 6 T rounds and got 7 match points. The inspired CT comeback lasted 5 rounds but the Brazilians needed just 1 and finished it with a 16-13 score yet again.
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Like every good series, Inferno was the decider and G2 started off on the right foot for the first time in the series. Aleksib’s calling was on point and NiKo and m0NESY were popping heads to give G2 a 10 round T side and were in prime position for an easy win.
But arT and FURIA had plans of their own and they fought back after a pistol loss to find 3 on the trot. But G2 kept finding rounds and kept FURIA’s aggression in check. They traded 2 rounds each and G2 were already up by 4 and did the needful to end the map 16-10.
NiKo’s performance was a cut above everyone else as he posted 80 frags in the whole best of 3. The closest to him was KSCERATO with 62 but that was still almost 20 kills less than the Bosnian aim god. G2 will face Astralis in the lower bracket final in the hopes of making it to the next stage of IEM Katowice 2022.
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