G2 exact revenge on Vitality; qualify for BLAST Fall Final

The Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen-led side emerged victorious from the more important of their two meetings against Vitality in Copenhagen.

G2 are through to the BLAST Premier Fall Final after securing victory in a rematch versus Vitality in the last chance bracket, narrowly edging out a win in a series that went the distance and required nearly every single round in regulation to resolve.

HooXi in particular showed much better individual form after having dismal performances in the event so far and especially in the team's previous meeting with Vitality, with the Danish captain stating after that loss that there was "no excuse for [his] individual level" and that he would aim to step up in their next matches.

Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov also stood out for the team in their victory, being a consistent star that found critical impact in some of the most crucial moments of the game, helping them take things over the line on Mirage alongside Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage.

Vertigo was the battleground where the rematch kicked off, and G2 were hot out of the gates as Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač and jks combined to recover a 2vs5 post-plant situation and win the first pistol round. Misplaced stacks from Vitality saw two more rounds go the way of G2 before a triple kill from Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut got his team on the board, with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi stepping up alongside him to help Vitality climb to a 6-4 lead. From there though, it all came up G2, NiKo and jks in particular stepping up as their side won five rounds straight to take the lead at halftime.

ZywOo's strong form continued into the second half, giving Vitality the chance to fight back and reclaim the lead, helped by a triple kill and 1vs2 clutch by Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif. Not to be outdone, G2 answered back with six rounds of their own, HooXi in particular standing out during the streak with a pair of multi-kill rounds as he matched the fragging output of the rest of his team en route to claiming match point. Despite Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's best efforts to force overtime, Vitality ended up being halted at the final hurdle as G2 took their map pick over the line, edging out a 16-14 win as they series moved to Dust2.

Vitality bounced back at the onset of their map pick, recovering from a pistol round loss by winning a forcebuy and quickly converting that momentum into a strong spree of rounds. A handful of advantageous situations for G2 faded into memory as they were left staring down a 3-10 deficit, with m0NESY being the one to offer a small beacon of hope as he helped win two final rounds to reduce the gap as the sides swapped over.

Dualies from ZywOo locked down the B bombsite to keep Vitality in control, momentum which they used to extend their lead to 13-5. m0NESY and huNter- combined in an effort to bring the map back, slowly inching their way towards tying the score, but Spinx and Magisk stepped up to deny and grant their side two final rounds to force a Mirage decider.

There, G2 bounced back, initially decimating Vitality's defenses to take a 7-1 lead. It took a massive effort from Vitality at the end of the half to reduce that gap, but they managed to do so thanks to ZywOo, who bailed his team out of a number of key disadvantages as they put up six rounds by the break. A pistol win and the economic control that came with it even allowed Vitality to briefly take the lead at 11-10, but they weren't able to run away with the map as NiKo and jks scored multi-frag rounds for G2, helping them push up to match point before they managed to edge out a win, 16-13, to take the series.