G2 defeat NAVI 2-1; set to face Vitality in ESL Pro League semi-finals

G2 defeated Natus Vincere in a three-map series to secure a semi-final place at ESL Pro League Season 16. They narrowly lost the first map of Dust2 (13-16), before coming back to win Inferno (16-9) and Mirage (16-9). Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač and Ilya “⁠m0NESY⁠” Osipov were the stars of the show, combining forces to shut down Oleksandr “⁠s1mple⁠” Kostyliev, who was the only Natus Vincere player to finish with a positive rating.

G2 lost their first map in ESL Pro League during the series against Natus Vincere, but will now move on to face Vitality in the semi-finals after the victory. Natus Vincere‘s focus now switches to their upcoming RMR campaign which starts on October 4 against Illuminar.

G2 started Dust2 with a pistol-round win, which gave them a lead that they kept throughout the first half. Natus Vincere came close, however, but lost against a full eco to put the scoreline at 5-3 and let G2 get to eight rounds. Justin “⁠jks⁠” Savage had several impressive holds on the B site, which gave his squad confidence to move around the map more freely, but a late resurgence by Natus Vincere meant the half finished 9-6.

A triple-kill by s1mple in the second pistol round set up Natus Vincere for a good start to the half, eventually tying up the scores at 10-10. They took the lead after an impressive retake on the A site with several of their members on low health, before a 1vs1 clutch by s1mple against m0NESY put the scoreline at 13-11. G2 almost tied up the game, but m0NESY ran out of bullets in his M4A1 to allow Valeriy “⁠b1t⁠” Vakhovskiy to complete the defuse, putting Natus Vincere up to match point, which they converted at the first attempt.

Inferno began with a hot start by G2, they won and converted on the pistol round to get an early lead. Just as Natus Vincere started to claw back at the deficit, jks came up huge with two 1vs3 clutches which gave his team an 8-3 lead. Natus Vincere‘s economy stabilized after that and G2 only managed to tally one more round in a half that ended 9-6 in their favor.

A dominant pistol round win for G2 set the tone of the second half, with Natus Vincere getting just three rounds on their Terrorist side. Every member of the G2 squad had their moments, with HooXi particularly impressive on the CT side to close out Inferno with a 16-9 scoreline, moving the series on to the decider map.

G2 put together another stellar defense on Mirage, overturning Natus Vincere‘s pistol conversion to go on an eight-round streak. While the CIS squad got two more rounds on the back of s1mple‘s 1vs1 clutch, they simply looked outmatched as the half finished 10-5.

Once the sides switched, Natus Vincere quickly found success in the early exchanges to reduce the deficit to two rounds, but m0NESY stepped up to the plate and clutched a round that put Natus Vincere‘s economy at breaking point. That enabled the HooXi-led team to once again run away to a five-round deficit, which proved too much for Natus Vincere to overcome as G2 closed out the map 16-9.