G2 crush FaZe to secure IEM Cologne playoff berth

The Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen-led side were in superb form as they trounced FaZe in a two-map series.

G2 are through to the playoffs of IEM Cologne after securing a 2-0 victory over FaZe in the upper bracket of Group B.

The IEM Katowice champions arrived on the server all guns blazing and had HooXi to thank for a dominant Inferno showing to start the series (16-4), while Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov stepped up on Ancient to crush FaZe's hopes (16-12) despite them managing to make the scoreline look closer than it really was.

The victory puts G2 through to the Lanxess Arena, with a match against Vitality determining whether they will start their playoff run from the semi-finals or quarter-finals. FaZe, meanwhile, drop down to the lower bracket and have a tough road to the playoffs ahead as they must first beat the winner of OG vs. Natus Vincere, and then also take down the winner of Astralis vs. MOUZ.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023
01/08/2023	FaZe 12:30 Natus Vincere	Match
01/08/2023	Vitality 16:00 G2	Match

G2 started their IEM Cologne campaign with a 2-1 victory over Astralis, showing much better form than they had the previous week at the BLAST Fall Groups in Copenhagen.

huNter- revealed in an interview on the desk that the team had mostly used that event as a bootcamp in order to be ready for Cologne, which they were treating as the second Major of the year, and they showed that the practice paid off as they cruised past FaZe with all of their individuals performing well.

He also commented that playing against FaZe today felt even better on the server than how G2 felt at the start of the year, when they had looked indomitable and put up a 21-0 map-winning streak.

That was evident on the server as it was HooXi leading the way on the T side of Inferno, with the Danish in-game leader mustering an 18-9 K-D in the first half alone en route to an 11-4 lead at halftime, with his team closing out the map just five rounds later.

Ancient was equally dominant as FaZe only managed a handful of sporadic round wins in the first half and couldn't halt the pairing of m0NESY and huNter- for much of the map. A cosmetic comeback at the dying moments of the map allowed Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's side to make the scoreline look a little more respectable, but G2 never really looked in danger as they cruised to victory.