SK beat G2 2-1, on to the semi's

22-10-2016 15:28

SK Gaming eliminate G2 with a 2-1 win (Train 16-0, Dust2 10-16, Cobblestone 16-11) to move on to the semi-finals of EPICENTER: Moscow.

Following a straightforward A-site hold on the pistol round, SK decided to go with aggression on their CT side, often pushing B halls and ivy to get early picks.

0-7 down and on an eco, G2 punished Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David's push and stole his AWP, making their way towards the A site before Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo bailed his team out with two quick USP-S kills, four in total for the round.

Nothing was working for the Frenchmen - they were getting shut down early in most of the rounds, and when they actually got to the after-plant situations there was always someone from the Brazilian side stepping up to the task and clutching the round.

The first half ended with a crushing 15-0 scoreline in favor of SK, but the start of the pistol round looked good for G2 to avoid an embarassing loss on the first map of the series.

Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon opened the round for his team, G2 got into a 5v2 situation before the duo of FalleN and coldzera, who were on fire for the whole map, clutched out the situation to make it 16-0 on their map pick.

FalleN had a masterclass performance on Train, finishing with a 2.52 rating

The early game on Dust2 was back and forth - G2 managed to get the first three rounds, SK equalized at 3-3, the Frenchmen got another two and then got reset by a fast B-split.

Even though they were on a force buy, G2 managed to steal the following round off SK thanks to Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro clutching a 1v2 after Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo overcommitted in search of eco frags - making it 6-4.

From that point onwards, shox and co. were assertive on the map, ending the half with 10 rounds as Counter-Terrorists, the side they usually struggle with.

The second half followed the pattern of the first, SK got close to equalizing the score after winning the pistol, but despite TACO clutching a 1v2 on an eco, G2 recovered with an eco of their own, winning the round with a B-push.

Due to the rounds being constantly traded, the Counter-Terrorist side was on the losing side of the economy war, resulting in them having a weak buy at a 14-10 scoreline.

G2 did a B-split in the penultimate round to get to match point and ended the map 16-10 to force the third one - Cobblestone.

ScreaM and shox were looking much better on Dust2

Starting on the Terrorist side, G2 got to a 5-1 lead before SK managed to close out two advantageous situations in consecutive rounds to start their comeback.

From that point onwards SK stabilized and were convincingly winning rounds, with the TACO - coldzera combo proving effective on the B defense.

After finishing the half 9-6, Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga got three kills in the pistol round to increase his team's lead even further, with G2's unsuccessful force-buys only making the second half easier for the reigning Major Champions.

At 15-6 Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom stepped up with an ace to keep his team alive for a little longer, but they could only get to 11 before SK closed out the match to take their place in the semi-final versus Virtus.pro.

EPICENTER: MoscowBest of 3

Matchpage

22nd October 2016

Train

Dust2

Cobblestone

SK	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo FalleN	64 - 37	+27	83.4	73.9%	1.39
Marcelo 'coldzera' David coldzera	53 - 41	+12	75.8	75.4%	1.18
Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga fer	52 - 44	+8	88.7	76.8%	1.17
Lincoln 'fnx' Lau fnx	49 - 46	+3	87.5	81.2%	1.15
Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo TACO	46 - 42	+4	71.2	68.1%	1.06

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Richard 'shox' Papillon shox	49 - 54	-5	92.0	65.2%	1.06
Adil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom ScreaM	54 - 53	+1	73.0	66.7%	1.06
Edouard 'SmithZz' Dubourdeaux SmithZz	37 - 50	-13	61.6	62.3%	0.88
Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy RpK	39 - 53	-14	64.7	68.1%	0.84
Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro bodyy	31 - 54	-23	56.0	55.1%	0.69

Coming up next is the second quarter-final of EPICENTER: Moscow, fnatic - Dignitas.

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.

nice

2016-10-22 15:28

3 replies

2016-10-22 15:35

2 replies

fk sample

2016-10-22 16:01

bit.ly/2egVr3j - all highlights

2016-10-22 17:01

go eat a burger

feelsbad

gj SK now pls 2-1 VS VP

Deserved for SK, G2 woke up way too late. I really hope french shuffle will happen, -SmithZz need to happen, I really like the guy but he's clearly the weak point of the team.

2016-10-22 15:29

BOT SMITHZZ

GG to SK

GOD Whiffz

lol

sad

WHIFZZZ WAS THE PROBLEM

Expected. G2 have no idea how to defeat tier1 teams on mirage, cbble and train when it matters. Now they also have nuke as an undesirable map to play on. Haha 4 weak maps out of 7, what do they rely on?

13 replies

They rely on shox and scream popping hs's left and right. When they can't they just flat out lose

5 replies

It's not enough to compete on the highest level - just shox and ScreaM. bodyy and RpK should also step it up.

2016-10-22 15:30

4 replies

or maybe its just because they are playing against the team that won the previous 2 majors

2016-10-23 12:23

At the last major qualifier they managed to lose on train to fucking Gambit. I know the main problem - I want to see G2 defeating tier1 teams, while the rest regard them as a tier2 team, that's why their results for me aren't good enough, while for you they're cool. With that taken into account, we pretty much argue about it from different point of views. For me, G2 should learn to play on 2 maps out of the following 4: mirage, cbble, train, nuke, otherwise they will always be eliminated in the groups at majors - their opponents almost always ban dust2, cache and overpass - G2's only good ones, and then G2 are doomed. I still can't get it - why G2 are so much afraid of playing mirage, it's like VP raped them at EMS Katowice 2014 and they got scared of the map...

2016-10-23 13:15

nope, g2 is my fav team and since they won that international lan last june i expect a lot from them i'm just not dellusional "G2 should learn to play on 2 maps out of the following 4: mirage, cbble, train, nuke" ofc they should and guess what they spend 6 hours everyday trying to master those maps. you just don't realize how great the competition is in csgo now wtf are you talking about mirage in katowice 2014 ? in katowice 2014 you have only 2 players from actual G2.. pls don't say bullshit. And french teams avoid mirage because ex6tenz hates it and since he lead almost every good french players at least once, it matters

2016-10-23 14:07

1 reply

I'd not talk about bigger competitiveness. In the past we had fnatic, EnVyUs and TSM (Astralis) as usual favourites/extremely strong teams, nowadays they're just tier2 teams that can take 1 map in bo2/3 from tier1 teams. They were "replaced" by SK and VP at tier1 level. So we still have like 2-3 tier1 teams and the others just can't overcome them, but dignitas, nV, fnatic at least have more good maps, while G2 are pretty much 3-maps heroes, ban those maps in bo1 and G2 are doomed, ban 2 of the 3 in bo3 - and G2 are doomed again.

2016-10-23 14:15

Cobble's a good map for G2, just not against the best team in the world (up in the air at the moment). Mirage has been their perma ban, not uncommon from any team, almost every team has a perm ban. Train needs work. They can play Nuke, but similar to the large majority of teams, it's not played so why put work into it when other maps (Train) need a lot more work.

6 replies

Well, if we regard G2 as a tier2 team - then yeah, cbble is a good map for them. But if they want to become tier1, they should be able to defeat tier1 teams on the maps I mentioned, at least on 2 of them, because 4 weak maps is a bit too much. If they don't need to be tier1 - k den.

2016-10-22 15:32

Recently beat Na'Vi at this tournament here, maybe not the best map for Na'Vi but it's Na'Vi. On top of that, they've won the last 6/8 in the recent two months, losing only to NiP and SK. The fact you'd say they are tier 2 is absurd

navi sucked it to everyone on cbble. I mean fucking SK, VP, old fnatic - all of them raped G2 when G2 needed the win. In bo3, when you can ban only 3 maps at best, you should be able to defeat tier1 teams on at least 4 maps, now G2 can do it only on 3, namely dust2 cache overpass. They fucked it up at the least major and placed 4th as usual only because they lost on TRAIN and COBBLESTONE. Tell me about at least 1 case when they defeated a tier1 team in an important bo3 with a win on train or cbble - you just can't cuz they didn't.

2016-10-22 15:39

I already had the same discussion with him he wont get it

2016-10-22 15:42

Agreed. SK, NaVi, VP and NiP can play at least 5 maps against each other without doing dumb mistakes, like G2 usually do.

2016-10-22 15:46

Finally someone with a brain and common sense.

2016-10-22 15:49

UUHUL

16-0

SmithZz is the worst player in the pro scene.

my eggs

2016-10-22 15:44

good game

sk is unbeatable whenever they feel like winning.

eZ for SK

smithzz just retire plz he is so bad

gg sk played very well :]

"My tactics are bad When shoots all miss You got it right I miss ex6" - Shox 22/10/2016

lets goo

Rip bagguettes

KICK SHITZZZ, PLEASE, USLESS PLAYER IN TEAM

Because of smithzzz

ban train and ez game

16x0 and +27 for Fallen.

SmithZz time to retire

Sk to win the epicenter

Sk win epicenter

2016-10-22 15:31

tomorrow VP beat favela ez;))

Tomorrow VP will clean toillet in the premier league again =d

2016-10-22 15:33

so fanboys from Brazil... IQ your country is 86, stupid peapole,stupid fanboys.

2016-10-22 15:34

peapole ex-dee

2016-10-22 16:16

16:0 phucking french noobs

G2 Aim is nothing... rpk-bodyy-smith very lov aim so ez favela.

Smithhzz

Sk best team in the world. We loyal we smart we friendly. We are from brazil.

16 8================D 00

ez baguettes

G2 loses "KICK SMITHZZ" SmithZz RATING 0.76 RPK 0.75 Bodyy 0.65

Boddy 0.97 RPK 0.95 Smithzz 0.88 In past 3 months.

2016-10-22 15:45

+27 is juat insane. Pasha, these biceps are waiting for you, my friend.

ffs smithz again

16-0---------16-0---------------------------------16-016-016-0 16-0-------16-0----------------------------------16-0---------16-0 16-0-----16-0-----------------------------------16-0-----------16-0 16-0-----16-0-16-0-------16-016-0-------16-0-------------16-0 16-0----16-0---16-0------16-016-0-------16-0-------------16-0 16-0----16-0----16-0-------------------------16-0------------16-0 16-0----16-0---16-0----------------------------16-0---------16-0 16-0-----16-0-16-0------------------------------16-016-016-0

2016-10-22 15:40

coldzera 1v3 for the 16-0 youtu.be/zvZ9o38i9yM coldzera knife bodyy youtu.be/bKGjRhKxXG0 coldzera csgo'd youtu.be/GQ5mhkWryEo bodyy 4k youtu.be/IrSMXXTFm2A

G2 needs an IGL that can frag, like Fallen does for SK.

g2 needs someone who will not whiff in critical situation like smithzz did a lot in cobblestone

2016-10-22 15:47

They need an IGL and more firepower, but it doesn't mean the Smithzz necessarily needs to be kicked. Every team has 1 low-rating player (TACO, Pasha, Seized, Friberg...), but the other 4 need to step up when needed. G2 has 3 average players that are usually carried by Shox and Scream. If G2 gets 3 good aimers, one of them being a good IGL, they can maintain 2 of the other three (bodyy, RpK and SmithZZ) and keep their tier 1 status.

2016-10-22 15:55

I mean expected the 2-1. I didn't think first map was gonna be 16-0. Expected Dust 2 as the 2nd so G2 had a real chance there. Then Cobble only other map G2 could do anything vs top teams but if your 2 gods are not on fire, which is what was happening coming into this event, you just lose.