G2 outlast ENCE to secure grand finals berth in Malta

G2 have advanced to the grand finals of the Champions Cup Finals after claiming a hard-fought 2-1 series victory over ENCE.

The loss leaves ENCE to end their year without a trophy to their name since the addition of Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi, with the team's last title win dating back to May at BLAST Pro Series Madrid. G2, meanwhile, will look to make up for their lacklustre grand finals showing at cs_summit 5 against a significantly depleted MOUZ side, with Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač now looking to add their first tournament win under the G2 banner to close out 2019.

The Finnish side quickly took control of the series on their own pick of Mirage, garnering an early lead against G2 on the offense. A comeback effort in the second half, helmed by huNter-, saw G2 prevail and narrowly edge out a win on the opening map, a task which they only barely failed to repeat on their own pick of Dust2 as ENCE evened the series score. Another terse battle on Train had the two teams continue to trade blows as the map went all the way to overtime, but it was G2 who came out ahead thanks to strong showings from nexa and huNter-.

Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli helped to grant ENCE a solid start on the T-side of Mirage, with the Finnish side's lead blooming to an 8-3 scoreline before G2 began to stabilize. Multi-kill rounds from huNter- and Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug were the primary driving forces in that effort, seeing G2 bring themselves within one round of their opposition at the break.

The two teams traded blows in the early portions of the second half, with G2 securing the pistol and ensuing anti-eco before ENCE were able to regain the lead with a trio of rounds of their own. A triple kill from huNter- gave G2 the opportunity to answer back, which they swiftly seized in order to build momentum and tie up the match at 11-11. Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila found three frags of his own to briefly keep ENCE in the lead, but the Finns were only able to add a single additional round to their tally from there before nexa's troops took the win, 16-13.

G2 seemed similarly out of sorts at the onset of Dust2 as the start of Mirage, securing a pistol win but only managing one round of the next nine to give ENCE an 8-2 lead. Another late resurgence during the latter portion of the first half allowed G2 to claw back a handful of rounds, but they were still left trailing 5-10 heading into the side swap.

G2's third pistol victory aided them in their effort to push up to seven rounds, but ENCE wasted little time in answering back as they won four of the next five to leave them just two away from a map victory at 14-8. G2 took their ninth, shattering ENCE's economy as a result of consistent damage over the previous rounds, beginning a comeback effort that saw them fight back to even the score at 14-14. ENCE refused to concede however, with Aerial securing a triple kill in round 29 to keep his side in control and edge out a 16-14 map win.

Nine kills over the first three rounds of Train for suNny allowed ENCE to maintain momentum as the deciding map got underway, with Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo locking down B in the ensuing two rounds for a 5-0 start. G2 found five of their own in reply, helped in part by a 1vs2 clutch by Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub, but capitulated the remaining rounds in the half as ENCE once again claimed a 10-5 halftime lead.

G2 almost failed to capitalize on their pistol win in the second half, requiring a quad kill and 1vs2 clutch from nexa against ENCE's ensuing force-buy to put themselves at a 7-10 scoreline. The two rounds were still not enough as four frags from Aerial in round eighteen allowed ENCE to recover a 3vs5 situation, with the team quickly advancing to a 13-7 lead with momentum in their favour. nexa stepped up with another triple kill as G2 began their third comeback effort, with the team winning seven rounds in a row to steal away the lead at 14-13. Four kills from suNny tied up the scoreline, leaving the two teams to trade rounds to force overtime.

nexa and company were on the back foot in OT as ENCE took two rounds on the offense, leaving G2 facing an uphill climb on what had been their worse side in regulation. However, the swap seemed to reinvigorate G2 as they ran rampant across ENCE's defenses, creating openings they had failed to exploit in the first thirty rounds to edge out a 19-17 win to close out the series.