G2 advance to IEM Katowice grand final over Liquid

The European composition extended their undefeated run to 19 maps in a row.

G2 have earned a spot in the grand final of IEM Katowice following a 2-0 victory over Liquid. Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen's men saw to the elimination of the North American side with victories on Anubis (16-10) and Inferno (16-11), setting up a best-of-five title decider against HEROIC on Sunday at 16:00 .

The BLAST World Final champions maintained their unreal run of form in the semi-final and extended their winning streak to 19 maps in a row, making themselves sure-fire favorites to take the title. The team is now tied with the 2021 Natus Vincere roster for the second-longest winstreak on LAN, with both teams only sitting below Ninjas in Pyjamas's unbeatable 87 in a row.

Liquid walk away from the event in Poland with wins over FaZe and Vitality under their belts, a strong bounce back from how their tournament season started with shaky form at the BLAST Spring Groups. "Unfortunately we couldn't get the W, but overall this tournament result was okay for us," Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella said in an interview after the match. "Coming into it after a bad start to the season at BLAST, we made the expectation of trying to get to playoffs and we achieved that, and we just tried to our best from there. Unfortunately we played one of the best teams in the world, if not the best team right now in their current form, but it is what it is."

huNter- stepped up with some heroic plays on Inferno

Triple kills from Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage, and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov helped G2 kick off Liquid's pick of Anubis on the front foot, an early 3-0 lead going their way before the North American side put their first round on the board. jks and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač then combined to recover a 2vs5 disadvantage and maintain G2's lead, but Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski made up for the squandered round with an ace to keep Liquid within touching distance of their opponents. Additional multi-kill rounds from EliGE and Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm allowed Liquid to briefly pull ahead before G2 responded in kind with three rounds of their own, but neither side truly ran away with the lead by the time the half came to an end with Liquid just barely eking ahead, 8-7.

The second half proved to be the polar opposite of the back-and-forth nature that was the opening stage of the map, a pistol round win and single gun round being all Liquid would manage to their name. The pistol won by the North American side was immediately responded to by a force-buy from G2, and from that point the European combine were entirely unyielding, demolishing Liquid's attempts to aggress onto bombsites round after round en route to a 16-10 finish.

Inferno unfolded in much the same fashion as Liquid were offered no space to get into the map from the start. Despite countering G2's pistol win with a force-buy, the North American team fumbled a 5vs2 situation in the subsequent round to an ace from huNter-, and from there G2 seized firm hold of the map. Excellent map control and repeated attacks of the B bombsite allowed G2 to push up to a 8-1 lead before Liquid managed to grab their second round, and though a brief trading of blows toward the end of the half resulted in nitr0's side climbing up to four rounds, a 1vs3 Deagle clutch from NiKo kept G2 in firm control as they moved on the CT side.

A pistol round and subsequent conversion helped G2 extend their lead to 13-4 before Liquid responded with a handful of rounds of their own. Confidence wasn't inspired by many of those wins, however, with one round against an eco requiring nitr0 to clutch a 1vs3 situation, and another resulting in G2 stealing away the victory thanks to a triple kill from jks. Liquid made an effort to recover from that deficit, but G2 made use of their substantial lead to eventually close out the map, 16-11.

IEM Katowice 2023Best of 3

G2

Matchpage

2

0

11th February 2023

Liquid

16

Anubis

10

16

Inferno

11

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-	49 - 34	+15	90.7	71.7%	1.36
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	39 - 35	+4	85.2	71.7%	1.27
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	39 - 35	+4	77.8	77.4%	1.15
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipovm0NESY	37 - 30	+7	67.4	75.5%	1.13
Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenHooXi	23 - 36	-13	53.4	64.2%	0.73

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	37 - 36	+1	76.2	75.5%	1.10
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisYEKINDAR	38 - 41	-3	86.3	67.9%	1.07
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	38 - 40	-2	80.8	62.3%	1.00
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	33 - 34	-1	62.6	69.8%	0.91
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	24 - 37	-13	51.9	73.6%	0.74