G2 secure semi-finals berth; Vitality through to quarters

4-12-2021 21:41

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's squad was not able to overcome their French rivals.

G2 have secured the top spot in Group A after defeating Vitality 2-1 in the upper bracket final. The two French cores went toe-to-toe on Vertigo and Mirage before Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and co. were able to close the series on Inferno after a thrilling series.

The Franco-Balkan squad has been rewarded with a ticket to the semi-finals after going undefeated through the group while Vitality will have to start their playoff adventure in the quarter-finals, facing the winner of fnatic vs Gambit.

NiKo displayed a 68-56 K-D at the end of the series

Vitality failed to build on their pistol round victory on Vertigo, losing to a second-round force buy from G2 as Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač denied entry to the sites with 15 frags across the half. As Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut began warming up, Vitality started to make their comeback with several hits on the B bombsite to cut down the deficit before Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub closed the half 9-6 in favor of the Franco-Balkans.

NiKo's boys seemed to have secured their advantage after converting the second pistol but they were unable to sustain their challenge when Vitality brought out the rifles on the defense. apEX led his team to an eight-round winning streak before edging the half 16-14 after a lengthy technical pause.

Going into Mirage the boys from G2 needed a good performance on the T side to keep their hopes alive and they delivered. The offense took the early lead after converting the pistol round and saw NiKo and kennyS combine to extend their advantage to 10-5 before halftime. In a similar vein to the first map, Vitality came alive in the second half, fighting from behind to force the game all the way to 30 rounds but this time they were unable to complete the comeback with G2 edging the map 16-14.

Inferno hosted the two squads as the decider map of the series. G2 converted an early force buy which enabled them to take a 5-1 lead as Vitality's T side struggled to make a dent in the G2 defense. kennyS and NiKo once again topped the scoreboard but their performance was not enough to prevent their opponents from keeping the half competitive, seeing only a 8-7 advantage at halftime. G2 only dropped two rounds in the second half before comfrotably closing the map 16-9 and with it, the series 2-0.

IEM Winter 2021Best of 3

Vitality

Matchpage

4th December 2021

Vertigo

Mirage

Inferno

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut ZywOo	60 - 54	+6	75.0	67.1%	1.06
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire apEX	50 - 60	-10	77.5	63.5%	0.94
Jayson 'Kyojin' Nguyen Van Kyojin	50 - 60	-10	66.6	67.1%	0.93
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier misutaaa	47 - 61	-14	60.4	67.1%	0.90
Richard 'shox' Papillon shox	51 - 58	-7	59.7	64.7%	0.87

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač NiKo	68 - 56	+12	91.7	72.9%	1.24
Audric 'JACKZ' Jug JACKZ	57 - 45	+12	72.7	75.3%	1.17
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač huNter-	61 - 52	+9	78.8	72.9%	1.12
Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub kennyS	57 - 51	+6	68.6	68.2%	1.06
François 'amanek' Delaunay amanek	50 - 55	-5	60.7	64.7%	0.87

I think by amount of trophies/mvps shiro deserves top-2, but when counting only pure skill, game impact and team carry role - NiKo is the real top-2 of 2021, never seen a rifler / IGL, who can constantly carry a team without S-tier awper to a level when only NaVi superteam is better.

2021-12-04 21:41

42 replies

It's pretty insane how much better Niko is compared to any other rifler in the game

2021-12-04 21:42

18 replies

+1 It's so insane

2021-12-04 21:43

Electronic is on par with him

2021-12-04 22:26

16 replies

🧢 not even close

2021-12-04 22:29

4 replies

Electronic on nuke destroys niko everytime they face each other outside

2021-12-05 00:52

3 replies

he probably does On Nuke

2021-12-05 00:42

lmao niko clapped elec hard there

2021-12-05 08:17

you didnt wach them right?

2021-12-05 10:22

Electronic actually better

2021-12-04 23:30

10 replies

9 replies

Nothing against niko. He is one of the best riflers in the world but electronic is cracked. His aim is in my opinion super sharp. He is so dangerous but people oversee him often because of S1mple

2021-12-04 23:33

8 replies

i love electronic too, he was prob the most underrated player in navi for a long time. But he isn't on NiKo's level rn statwise, aimwise and impactwise

2021-12-04 23:37

7 replies

Don't know, when they played at the major final I think electronic dominated niko at those outside battles 1v1. He was super carry on that flipsid3 team already and now he's just way better at everything, if s1 wasn't in the team he definitely would be on par with niko carry wise I think. Either way, both are amazing to watch, agree that they make most of other riflers look like newbies Also both of our flairs checks out

2021-12-04 23:57

2 replies

It was a really nice duel. But tbh g2's tside relied completely on NiKo's outside action. Imo elec doesn't need to be insane like niko is rn because he has s1mple and b1t with him. But electronic has already had massive performances like cologne 2018 and faceit major, he was navi standout player in every important game. Him and NiKo are the best riflers nowadays and it's always fun to see him play each other ibb.co/NnmR9nc I love this photo aswell :D

2021-12-05 00:04

1 reply

Agreed :) Very cool photo for sure, what a nice duo to watch and what a nightmare to face it would be. Maybe one day in some sort of showmatch or whatever

2021-12-05 00:12

Statswise No Aimwise No Impactwise Definitely Yes. If there was no s1mple, electronic would be carrying navi just like niko carries every team he's in.

2021-12-05 00:43

statwise: hltv.org/stats/players/compare/3741/niko.. aimwise electronic has very quick and precise aim but NiKo has probably the best aim in pro scene rn I agree with electronic carrying navi if there was no s1mple but I doubt he would pull 1.35 rating and 1.56 impact rating hltv.org/stats/players/3741/niko?startDa.. You can choose to be ignorant or to face the reality, in this case everyting points to NiKo being better, that doesn't take away the fact that electronic is a insane player and probably the 2nd best rifler in the world

2021-12-05 00:50

I am content with electronic being 2nd best rifler in the world. Peace

2021-12-05 00:51

hltv.org/stats/players/compare/3741/niko.. a small gap for NiKo, but I would say they're equal

2021-12-05 14:55

If G2 wins and NiKo mvp, there is a case for NiKo top 2.

Is NiKo IGLing?

2021-12-04 21:44

Nope, amanek

2021-12-04 22:23

no it's not it's niko lmao don't talk when u don't know

2021-12-04 22:48

Lmao, give me a source at least which proves it.

2021-12-04 23:03

6 replies

You give a source lol. Niko has igled before in his career. We dont know anything about amanek's igl abilities.

2021-12-05 00:46

???? Amanek was igl in LDLC and 3DMAX He was also the igl during shox body jackz kenny and him

2021-12-05 04:39

You're forgetting that amanek spoke french in those teams, not english. Niko has experience igl-ing in english

2021-12-05 06:59

Niko has igld before in mouz, faze and g2 and igld last time nexa was out. amanek has never igld and you've just said amanek because he was the lowest rated player

2021-12-05 03:59

#62

#66

2021-12-05 14:47

No one knows. They probably switch from map to map because their igl can't play this event

Sh0r0 .

2021-12-04 21:45

nice <3

+1 sh1ro can only farm online

2021-12-04 21:52

very very true

Niko is not calling. Amanek istalking all thetime, every tac pause, every freeze time. Yes isaw Nexa tweet its obviously troll, Nexa trolling about Niko igl from when cousins got together.

2021-12-04 21:55

2021-12-04 21:59

Nexa is IGL

2021-12-04 22:14

Yes nexa is igl but he is not playing this event because of visa issues. The question is who is doing it during this event. I think amanek and Niko both

2021-12-04 23:31

2021-12-04 23:06

What a dogshit CT side on inferno from vitality

Lmao

2021-12-05 00:47

Ggwp

Zywoo lost them the third map, Jackz had some insane entries on the T side. G2 doing better than expected

apEX need to grow up and learn to control his emotions, no wonder the young guns can't focus when he's toxic as soon as they lose a single round. embarrassing to watch a 28 year old act like that

11 replies

Yep, it was the same with the last tourney. Screaming at Kyojin each time he made a mistake LUL As if apEX himself didn't do mistakes ... He in fact makes tons of them especially dispensable ones like his stupid solo pushes/hero moves that gives the opponent frequent free 4v5...

2021-12-04 21:53

+1 will be interesting to see if he still acts like that with astralis trio

2021-12-04 21:57

trio? 🙂

2021-12-05 06:15

Zonic also

2021-12-05 12:15

If a player pushes tries to find an opening, ppl say he makes stupid solo pushes. If a player goes last, ppl say he baits. Community is never happy smh. Always something to complain about.

2021-12-05 00:48

If you can't see most if apEX moves are just stupid overly aggressive pushes, that he does solo, usually without any possibility to trader/revenge then I don't know what to say. Same kind of stupid moves fer was doing again and again and again in the end of SK/mibr while getting punished non stop for it as everyone expected it.

2021-12-06 09:27

5 replies

Are you a pro or a coach or an analyst?? No?? Then you CAN'T possibly know the reason behind their pushes. Just because they are failing at it, doesn't mean it's a bad play.

2021-12-06 20:22

You must be a new fag, since anyone with eyes can/could see they were pushing without their mates even knowing most of the times. And the analysts actually underlined it almost every time when they were doing these stupid moves. Even current Vitality coach when he was a commentator on the French scene/csgo channels was constantly questionning apEX stupid moves, and he also has been vocal on itw occasionally (in french) while he was already their coach before apEX took the IGL role ( which calmed him down considerably )

2021-12-09 14:20

New fag??? I am lvl 10 faceit with 4.5k hours in this game stfu

2021-12-11 09:38

Still have the analysis level of a Gold nova ( if true ) Triggered newfag is triggered xD

2021-12-11 12:28

Not triggered. I know I am right. Apex has arguably become one of the best igls in the game in last few years. And even if he tilts, he is a smart player. I am just surprised even his countrymen are unable to recognize that fact. And I am not even a vitality fan but I despise unnecessary hate players get from noobs who think their analysis is top-tier.

2021-12-11 22:31