G2 defeat BIG to advance to DreamHack Masters Spring grand final

After three one-sided maps, G2 took down BIG in the upper bracket final of DreamHack Masters Spring to clinch a spot in the best-of-five title decider, where they will have a map advantage.

Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković's squad stopped BIG's undefeated streak at the tournament, but the German side will still have a chance to join them in the grand final as they've fallen to the consolidation final, where they will spend the next two days waiting for their opponent.

G2 clinched the grand final spot after convincing scorelines on Nuke and Mirage, but it was far from an easy best-of-three as they dropped their rather controversial home map, Dust2, in a just as one-sided fashion in the middle of the series.

BIG opted to pick Nuke again after finding great success on the map against FaZe on Tuesday, but it turned out far from as fruitful against G2, who turned up with an immensely dominant defense. With Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug's Deagle double putting them on the board in round three, the French-Serbian side ran away with the economic advantage and BIG started running into a wall everywhere they went.

It was only thanks to Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische's solo ace that the German squad managed to scrape two more rounds together at the end of the half, and it changed very little. G2 went on to clinch the map with ease at 16-5, with just another one of the German sniper's spectacular Scout plays standing in their way.

Perhaps encouraged by their latest victory on Dust2 when Natus Vincere picked it against them in the upper semis, G2 chose their not-so-successful home map as the second of the series and soon came to regret the decision. BIG's complete U-turn from Nuke saw them dominate as they went up 10-1 as T, with G2 only catching on at the end of the half, and rally to a quick equalizer once on the CT side.

Mirage started off with the Germans securing an easy pistol round on B, but they had no time to pick up speed as they were immediately stopped by a forcebuy in the next round and G2 began running away with the half. After several failed attempts, BIG finally found a way to break through the stellar defense with a couple of B attacks.

However, they were still trailing by three rounds at halftime and things soon turned worse when they also conceded the next pistol round to a spectacular turnaround by nexa, whose quad-kill in a 2v5 completely negated Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş' earlier triple on B. With that, G2 seized control and never let their opponents back into the map, concluding the series at 16-7, 2-1.