G2 overcome OG to progress to BLAST Premier Spring Showdown semi-finals

The French-Balkan team relied on an influential performance from Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač to get them over the line.

G2 are through to the semi-finals of the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown with a 2-1 victory over a stubborn OG and now need just one more tournament win to book their place in the Spring Finals. Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković’s team will face the winner of Dignitas and Spirit in the all-important match on Sunday at 18:30 .

The French-Balkan side won Nuke in a 25-23 thriller but collapsed on their own map pick of Dust2, overwhelmingly losing out 16-3 to an unrelenting OG. G2 recomposed heading into Inferno and took the map 16-12 off the back of a standout performance from huNter-, who posted a 1.18 KPR and numerous multi-kills to be the difference-maker.

"Honestly, I think we need to work a lot more and we need some more time to see who fits on which role the best because we are still improvising, we are still trying to improve our game," huNter- said in the post-match interview. "We are trying our best to be in the best shape as soon as we can".

OG kicked off their map pick of Nuke promisingly on the T side, with a Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan 1v2 clutch and subsequent multi-kills helping the team to a 5-1 start. However, after trading a round apiece, nexa and co. took control of proceedings to run away with the half 9-6 off the back of a seven-round streak, with François "⁠amanek⁠" Delaunay finding consistent impact with the ‘Big Green’.

The French-Balkan squad set to work on the offence looking to close out the map promptly and won four out the five opening rounds to reflect their effort, but OG regrouped and tightened up their CT setups to reduce the deficit, ultimately forcing overtime after denying G2 four map points. The two teams couldn’t be separated for a while as three nail-biting overtimes went by before G2 eventually overcame OG 25-23 and a red-hot flameZ, who posted a 48-31 K-D and 104.6 ADR over 48 rounds.

Dust2 was a completely different story. After a 2-2 start to the map, OG ran riot. G2 could find no holes in their opponent’s defence and were pulverized on the way to a daunting 2-13 halftime scoreline. nexa won a 1v2 in the second half pistol, but OG hit straight back to comprehensively close out the map 16-3, with the in-game leader Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen posting a 2.05 rating.

An Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug triple kill on the T pistol briefly gave G2 the lead before OG responded with a series of rounds, including a 1v2 clutch from Aleksib, for a 5-1 advantage. G2 went on to enjoy a period of success, racking up five consecutive rounds to pull ahead by one, but it was OG who went into the break smiling after winning the majority of the remaining rounds. Yet another JACKZ pistol round 3K levelled the score when suddenly a lengthy technical pause occurred. After an extensive break from the action, huNter- was unleashed. The Bosnian rifler stamped his authority on the defence to spearhead his team to a 16-12 victory with a 126.1 ADR to his name.