G2 outlast Astralis to advance to upper bracket semi-final in Cologne

The European combine will play the winner of FaZe vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas for a spot in the Lanxess Arena.

G2 beat Astralis 2-1 (12-16 Ancient, 16-13 Inferno, 16-9 Nuke) to advance to the upper bracket semi-final of Group B in Germany, recovering from a loss on the Danish team's map pick thanks in part to a dazzling ace from Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov that seemingly reinvigorated his team and helped them on the road to recovery on the Nuke decider.

"The thing is, I was not dreaming, but since I played 1.6 that I wanted to make something similar to it, you know? Because in 1.6 you had these fragmovies with Deagles, with people just standing in one position and killing everyone with the Deagle. I wanted to do this just once, and... yeah [laughs]," the young Russian said of getting the highlight clip after the series. "I'm better with a Deagle than NiKo," he added jokingly.

The game wasn't clean-cut by the European troupe, who have struggled in their recent games. Before the tournament break G2 looked to be on shaky ground, with a downturn in results leaving questions as to whether they would make changes to their roster during the off-season. The team opted to keep their roster the same, but didn't hit the ground running upon their return to professional play at the BLAST Fall Groups in Copenhagen, getting sent to the Showdown following losses to Liquid, FaZe, and Natus Vincere.

However, they've bounced back in Cologne, despite not getting off the a flying start in their series against Astralis. The Danes got the better of Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen's side on Ancient, dominating on the CT side, and initially seemed to be running away with the series on Inferno as well. A back-and-forth start to the second half of map two gave G2 the window of opportunity to get back in the running, and it was m0NESY's ace that acted as a complete turning point, with his team earning victory on the map shortly afterward.

From there, momentum was firmly in the hands of G2 as put up a stalwart defense on Nuke, posting an 11-4 lead at halftime before putting to bed a comeback effort from Astralis in the second half thanks to a 1vs2 clutch by Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač.

"It was a good game obviously, we didn't give up after losing the first map. We just showed that we're back," m0NESY said. "It's some good confidence by us, the mentality was good. It's nothing special, just Cologne.

"We talked about giving the extra percent like you said [because we are playing in Cologne]. We said to ourselves just give this extra percent, give everything and we will just close it out because every time, after every series, we were losing 16-14, 16-13, 16-12, and we just didn't have this extra percent. Every time I come to Katowice and Cologne, it's the second time for me, it just feels better."