Vitality break G2 with Inferno comeback to join Liquid in EPL grand final

1-10-2022 23:00

From down 3-7 on Mirage and 7-15 on Inferno, Vitality beat G2 in two maps to secure their first grand final appearance with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi.

Vitality will take on Liquid in the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 16 after the Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire-led side took down G2 in a show of great resilience in the second semi-final series.

The grand final of the event will be played in a best-of-five on Sunday at 17:00 and will see the victor secure their first title in some time whichever team comes out on top. Vitality have been waiting for their chance to hoist a LAN trophy since the end of 2021, when they won IEM Winter, while Liquid's title drought has lasted for over three years, since IEM Chicago in 2019.

Vitality brought Inferno back from dire straits to close the series in two

To start the second semi-final series, Vitality made light work of G2 on Mirage in spite of the Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen-led squad getting off to a solid lead on the back of forcebuy wars. Up 7-3, G2 looked in control of the map on the Terrorist side, but everything changed once Vitality found an answer to the offense with five consecutive rounds.

Spinx's timely 1v2 clutch in the second pistol round meant the streak would continue in the second half and, spearheaded by the Israeli and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, Vitality maintained their onslaught. Just one round went G2's way in the last 13 as they gave up their pick without much of a fight in the end and headed into Inferno a map behind.

Inferno was where the hard work had to be done. apEX's team looked out of sorts while G2 ran up a commanding lead on the defense with the most unlikely star in HooXi at the helm, providing a quick ace en route to a double-digit half. Three rounds at the end of the half salvaged Vitality's chances somewhat, but G2 resumed their dominance once sides switched and reached match point.

But finding a way to the 16th round proved impossible. With Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif stepping up to join efforts with his star duo, Vitality kept rebutting G2's repeated attacks towards A with ease, and the gap continued to tighten as G2 struggled to find a way through. From down 7-15 apEX & co. came all the way back to overtime, where they picked up where they left off to keep their defensive streak going, eventually completing the comeback at 19-16 to secure their grand final spot.

ESL Pro League Season 16Best of 3

Vitality

Matchpage

1st October 2022

Mirage

Inferno

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut ZywOo	52 - 32	+20	85.2	83.1%	1.42
Emil 'Magisk' Reif Magisk	46 - 32	+14	78.1	78.0%	1.33
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi Spinx	50 - 29	+21	80.2	76.3%	1.30
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire apEX	31 - 39	-8	72.3	67.8%	0.97
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen dupreeh	33 - 42	-9	69.1	66.1%	0.90

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov m0NESY	46 - 41	+5	79.8	67.8%	1.11
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač NiKo	36 - 41	-5	78.6	67.8%	1.03
Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen HooXi	31 - 46	-15	62.1	64.4%	0.86
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač huNter-	32 - 42	-10	59.6	66.1%	0.82
Justin 'jks' Savage jks	29 - 42	-13	49.1	67.8%	0.73

sv_g2choke "1"

2022-10-01 23:00

3 replies

Dont worry, Goat HooXi is saving his true powers for the major

2022-10-01 23:01

2 replies

Yeah, this is not even his final form.

2022-10-02 04:52

1 reply

A suoreme Megazord

2022-10-02 06:05

Easy for hooki

kekw

ez for godpex

katowice

8 replies

jks is the first player with experience on both sides for inferno 15:7 comeback

2022-10-01 23:06

7 replies

lol

2022-10-01 23:11

Lol

2022-10-01 23:41

Goated comment !

2022-10-01 23:54

Legendary stat

2022-10-02 00:12

Against G2, then with G2, in the same year, both in an ESL event.

2022-10-02 04:28

AHAHAAHH

2022-10-02 07:32

grand slam comebacks

2022-10-02 12:40

Kovach brothers moments, they always choking

"gigachad" hooxi exposed by actual gigachad apex.

Apex dragged those steelballs all over botxi

2022-10-01 23:22

Any time hooxi loses its to save strats for the next major and cause other teams to underestimate him genius play by hooxi and the g2 staff

2022-10-02 07:21

fxcc G2

2022-10-01 23:02

Nip wouldve won that

2022-10-01 23:03

5 replies

They lost to Vitality in group stage

4 replies

They had no igl (hampus stopped calling since blast groups)

2022-10-01 23:14

Then they woulve lost that?

I mean, I've been a fan of NiP since 2014, but what's this cr*p from him? Even though they're getting a new IGL now, that's so bad. You do what needs to be done till there is someone to do it instead of you. Better Hampus than none..

2022-10-02 02:27

I heard he's been going through some stuff, thats why he took the break before iem cologne

2022-10-02 08:33

Rough loss but overall a great tournament. Can’t be super disappointed.

of course this team is relatively new so top 4 is very decent. But the manner how they lost to Vitality being up 15-7 is just ridiculous considering they basically won convincingly against Na'Vi 16-9 the other day. Nonetheless we move on because we got RMR Group A coming up. Tough day for the G2 fans #G2ARMY

2022-10-01 23:36

Wtf is this copy pasta man

2022-10-02 07:24

Navi has been underwhelming recently. All caused by electronic igling

2022-10-02 11:10

+1 that's right dude. But doesn't deny that G2 are still very decent on Inferno. Cause they were just 1 round away from winning 16-7 against Vita. But because of G2's calls of forcing commitment A site only it costed them the map.

2022-10-02 12:50

yes they're but vitality ct side on inferno is different gravy. Gives Astralis vibes on ct side. Remember the comeback against FaZe as well. Yes and G2 threw as well.

2022-10-02 15:01

2022-10-02 04:49

zywoo goat

LA SPINXNETA

2022-10-01 23:04

Godwoo humble m0nesy on round 30

Actually had a heart attack after monesy killed dupreeh and almost got the flick

2022-10-01 23:30

Spinx Is GOD! Ez Final MVP

Choko and choke2 at best

Name a more Infamous Duo other than Niko and Inferno OT

ZywOo MVP incoming

2022-10-01 23:44

hooxi truly is a gigachad. he saw that there are no top teams (faze, cloud9, navi) in the grand finals. so he decided it is not worth the effort since they won't be against the best. he told his team to stop trying at 15-8 to give vitality the win.

2022-10-02 02:06

not Hooxi's fault

Decent tournament for G2, I hope they keep improving and show some great cs in the future.

6 replies

what is future? another 1800 days? you cant sink this much money into lineup after lineup and still have no trophies to show for it

2022-10-01 23:07

they're top 3 in the world, it's good

2022-10-01 23:38

Although I agree (and thought picking Inferno was tricky since G2 is getting better every time they play it) and seems improving A LOT, 7-15->18-15 shit cannot happens ever, ever.

2022-10-01 23:12

It's first time that happened with this roster, but G2 is G2, it's surprising that they only choked a map of 15 played, they are improving, and it's their second tournament, let's give them some time, they still need to correct details, but are far better now than in first half

2022-10-02 02:17

Well, for now, yes. But first half G2 started better reaching finals in his second event (also choking 15-7 lead on inf), it's a team you cannot bet on

2022-10-02 02:21

You can change players from G2, but not change G2 from G2, unfortunately, they will have their eventual choke And i think kato final was kinda of a honeymoon moment, and i hope this tournament wasn't the same, they look in better form as a team (at least in groups and against navi) And betting on G2 is like playing heads or tails, always a 50/50 (high risk, high reward???)

2022-10-02 02:24

How to profesionally choke the game,tutorial made by g2

losing from 7:3 in first and 15:7 second is sackable...very very poor mentality from G2

I think it’s a Kovach brothers fail, they can’t play in pressure moments always shaking and doing stupid moves

2022-10-01 23:09

Niko on Inferno moment

2022-10-01 23:16

its happening all too often, honestly i think hunter is overrated

2022-10-01 23:18

yea, he always getting ghosted in big matches like today

2022-10-01 23:19

Wtf, carried major final, unfortunatly niko choked

2022-10-01 23:39

???? As far as i remember huNter went silent on map 1 and was good on map 2 while niko was decent on both.

2022-10-01 23:50

11 rounds lose streak on both maps xD

All they had to do in any of the seven rounds before 30 was rush b. As a devout G2 fan I can say with absolute humility that they deserved that inferno loss.

2022-10-01 23:08

apEX rulez 🙂👍

Hooxi and Monesy were insane on Inferno, too bad Magisk said no

2022-10-01 23:10

Well, that was a comeback if I ever saw one

even gigachad cant carry this Choke2

I need to catch the highlights for this match but it looked like a good one. :D

definitely have to watch, it was crazy!

2022-10-01 23:20

Well, Im not a fan of those teams but thats why I love this game. That was amazing to watch.

2022-10-01 23:13

insane game

2022-10-01 23:15

aleksib was the problem

2022-10-01 23:17

i can imagine how angry the yugoslavs sounded in the lockerroom

No matter what iteration of G2 play they are never gonna stop choking

2022-10-01 23:21

- hooxi - jks + Nexa + Flamez Best option for g2 if they want trophy

2022-10-01 23:28

G0-2 strikes again

2022-10-01 23:29

They were celebrating 10-0 like they won 10 majors now get 0-2ed.

2022-10-02 00:07

Something is really wrong with your strats when during the second half the only person doing something in your team is the AWPer and you won't sacrifice one more round just to buy an AWP for him.

tomorrow will be the big one for Zywoo, sending BOTS from NA to their rightful place. go vita!

2022-10-01 23:33

I am so happy that Vitality pulled the comeback off :) Hope that the win is theirs tomorrow :)

2022-10-01 23:35

Bring back nexa man

Both semis were weird to watch. Some really bad decisions made on all teams by individuals and Igl/Coach. But the first semi was Bad vs Worse, while the second semi saw some really good plays and calls as well. Liquid will have to improve a lot, if they want to take the Final.

2022-10-01 23:42

True, but at the end, the winner wins. Liquid bounced back after that ancient lost and that odd ct side on d2. G2 had more gameplay, but a weaker mentality. That 4 vs 3 showed it all. The spacing was just awful, everyone was doing stupid stuff.

2022-10-02 02:34

zywooo god top1 2022

2022-10-01 23:56

Choke2 Esports

2022-10-02 00:00

Dead game anyways

2022-10-02 00:19

Congratulations,!!!

2022-10-02 00:29

G2 back to usual G2, they keep dissappointing me and all other fans. 15 7 lead and not winning a map is unforgivable.

2022-10-02 00:42

Really poor performance from G2 on the second half of Inferno, wasting rounds, blatantly ignoring common corners and running in blind, same strat nearly every single round, proper silver shit, legitimately seemed like they were unfamiliar with the map.

2022-10-02 01:17

That's why vitality picked it. G2 t's side rely a lot on clutches. They have a good ct sides, but their t sides is not that good. Jks look clueless on t sides, badly used and if niko has a bad day, they have no other plan for banana control.

2022-10-02 02:31

g2 will choke until ppl realize niko (brain, not hand) is the problem

2022-10-02 01:52

11 rounds?? You really lost 11 straight rounds against shitality?? How did you even made to semis??? Unbelievable...

2022-10-02 02:32

I have toáy this again.niko is the problem. Malding monster when thing goes south quickly

2022-10-02 02:39

Broke2

2022-10-02 03:28

goddammit G2

2022-10-02 04:01

monesy wasn't good on mirage this guy will never be even a half s1mple

2022-10-02 04:30

He is barely 18 bro... At that age where was Simple ?

2022-10-02 07:50

already the best with insane moves. maybe not in hltv ranking because his teams & lineup weren't that good but he was already a freaking monste. talented people like s1mple are like Messi Federer goat in their discipline. they have this in their blood

2022-10-02 08:37