G2 edge past Imperial after three-map thriller

The Brazilian squad struggled to deal with a nuclear Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač performance during their Ancient loss.

G2 came out victorious from their second match at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 against Imperial, defeating Rafael "⁠zakk⁠" Fernandes' men 2-1 thanks to a fantastic performance from NiKo on the first map and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov on the third. The 26-year-old rifler had a relatively quiet first game against Cloud9 on Wednesday, but came back today in top form and crushed the South Americans on their map pick.

Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen and company's win over the Brazilians secured them a spot directly in the semi-finals, allowing them to skip the action on Friday.

Imperial's journey in Washington is not over yet, with the team's surprising win against Vitality enough to see them through to the quarter-final. They will face off against the winner of Complexity vs. Astralis on Friday at 22:45 in the organization's first-ever appearance at a Big Event knockout stage.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023
09/06/2023	Vitality 21:55 FaZe	Match

Imperial's odds did not look great from the very start as G2's permaban is Overpass — the Brazilians' best map over the last three months. Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and company instead brought the series to Ancient and it was a nightmare from start to finish as NiKo rolled back the years and pulled off one of his best CT sides ever. The Bosnian superstar haunted Imperial throughout the first half, hammering down the Ts to claim a 30-4 K-D and an astonishing 3.03 rating while his team cruised to a 12-3 lead.

The situation only marginally improved for Imperial after switching sides as Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass showed better form on the defense, but the deficit was too large to overcome. G2 quickly shut down any hopes of a comeback with a 16-7 score before moving to Inferno.

The Brazilians showed a much better performance on Inferno's CT side as they weathered the storm following G2's pistol round win and came back once the rifles were in play. Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes had a fantastic half, finding several six opening frags during Imperial's offense while his team claimed a 10-5 half. The Europeans showed signs of brittleness with a pair of 4vs2 defeats and few rounds where they never seemed threatening.

G2 started well after the break, but it wasn't long until FalleN's men again took control of the game. Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo recorded a 19-14 K-D and a 1.11 rating while dragging his team over the line. The rifler found several key frags to halt the European's pushes and was the difference maker in Imperial's 16-13 win on Inferno.

The decider on Nuke began with Imperial on the front foot as the Brazilians cruised through the first pistol round before stringing a short streak of wins on their way to a 7-0 lead on the T side. G2 recovered late in the half, but their resurgence was only good enough to salvage a 6-9 scoreline.

The second half was not filled with clean Counter-Strike, however, HooXis' men continued on a good run on the offense, extended by an Imperial mistake during a retake as they confused which bombsite G2 planted the bomb in. Similarly, the Europeans conceded a ninja defuse on A, with chelo sneaking the round victory to claim an 11-12 scoreline. It took some time, but G2 eventually took the map home 16-13 with a B site attack.