G2 knock out ENCE in BLAST Premier Europe Finals

The current world No.1 team was made to work hard to avoid elimination in a series in which all three maps were one-sided.

G2 move on to the second round of the lower bracket in the BLAST Premier Europe Finals following a 2-1 victory over ENCE, who will now turn their attention to the summer RMR tournament, cs_summit 6, for which Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen will be brought back into the fold.

Having found themselves fighting for their tournament life after losing to Vitality on Monday, G2 started the series off with a bang as they picked up a statement victory on Train, their opponents' map pick. ENCE responded in kind on Mirage to restore parity in the series, but they couldn't keep the pressure going on Dust2, where the French side secured a much-needed win after recording two heavy losses to BIG in the last week.

ENCE went for a Train pick hoping to punish G2 — who had won just one of their previous four games on the map — but they quickly came to regret that decision. They looked flat and out of ideas for the majority of the first half as G2 controlled the flow of the game and raced to a 12-3 lead, with three of the team's players boasting an ADR of over 100.

More misery was heaped on the helpless Finnish team as G2 took the pistol round with ease to get within touching distance of victory. ENCE still attempted a response, but all they could muster was three rounds as the French side regained control of the contest, which was brought to an end by a stunning 1v3 clutch from Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković.

ENCE looked sharper from the outset on Mirage and quickly began to build a solid lead against a G2 team that was off-colour for the entire first half. With 14 frags to his name — twice as many as anyone else on the team — nexa did his best to keep the French side in the game, but they knew they had a mountain to climb when the half came to an end as they found themselves chasing a seven-round deficit.

All hope appeared to be lost for G2 as they lost the ensuing pistol round, but a successful force-buy bought them some time. They began to chip away at ENCE's lead, with Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač finally coming to life after a dreadful T performance, but it was too little, too late as a 4-1 run from the Finnish side saw them put the game to rest and force a decider.

A 35% winrate in the last three months on Dust2 and back-to-back 16-6 defeats to BIG were worrying signs for G2 heading into the final map of the series, but they came out of the gate with all guns blazing. huNter- led the charge with 19 frags as the French team ran all over ENCE, whose round wins in the half were few and far between.

ENCE found a lifeline after switching to the T side as they put some rounds together, but their comeback hopes were left in tatters once their opponents had money in the bank. A quad-kill from Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub halted the Finnish team's momentum and set G2 up for a decisive winning streak.