G2 move past MIBR in ESL Pro League

G2 have opened up their ESL Pro League Season 16 group with a 2-0 victory over MIBR, easing past Jhonatan “⁠JOTA⁠” Willian‘s troops on Dust2 before clinching a win on Ancient by putting a halt to a brief comeback effort in the second half. The early victory is an important one for Rasmus “⁠HooXi⁠” Nielsen and company if they hope to advance to the playoffs, with the likes of FaZe, BIG, and Outsiders awaiting in upcoming matchups.

Dust2 kicked off with G2 getting off to a hot start, decimating MIBR with a strong defensive showing for a 5-0 lead. The Brazilian team showed some life off the back of triple kills from JOTA and Matheus “⁠Tuurtle⁠” Anhaia, but were left wanting for the rest of the half as their slow, methodical attempts to attack bombsites were shut down repeatedly, the duo of huNter- and Justin “⁠jks⁠” Savage unwavering on the B bombsite and NiKo patrolling the rest of the map, finding multi-frags.

A pistol win following the side swap offered MIBR little respite as an immediate answer came through from G2, and the map was brought to a swift end shortly afterward as huNter- grabbed two kills in each of the remaining five rounds to bring his team over the finish line.

Ancient was slightly more contentious, a T side start from G2 on their own map pick proving fruitful as they tallied a handful of early round wins. MIBR managed to stabilize slightly and prevented the half from spiraling out of control, fragging from Breno “⁠brnz4n⁠” Poletto and JOTA helping their side edge out a 7-5 lead. However, G2 quickly got back on the horse and pulled ahead by one round by halftime, a lead which they extended after the break with a pistol win to sit upon a 11-8 scoreline.

A last-ditch effort to fight back from MIBR kept things contentious, brnz4n outdueling G2 members in a handful of key rounds to close the gap to 11-10; however, an eco win from G2 completely shut down that momentum and turned the tides, with the European combine wasting little time in closing things out from there, 16-10.