G2 overpower Astralis; to face ENCE in IEM Cologne grand final

G2 brought an end to Astralis' seven-map winning streak on Ancient en route to a spot in the IEM Cologne title decider.

G2 are through to the IEM Cologne title decider after moving past Astralis in a two-map series, striking first and ending Astralis' seven-map winning streak on Ancient (16-12) before doubling down and closing out the series following a comfortable win on Inferno (16-9).

The team around Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen now advance to their first Big Event grand final since IEM Katowice in February. The international roster have struggled since their triumph at the Polish spectacle, even crashing out of the BLAST.tv Paris Major outside of the playoffs, but look reinvigorated here in Germany and will undoubtedly look to keep the upward momentum going in their grand final fixture versus ENCE on Sunday at 16:00 .

"We feel very confident right now, we are playing very good CS," Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač began in a post-match interview on stage. "Obviously, I think the group stage performance helped us carry it onto the playoffs as well, [but] we are not stressed, we are not under pressure, we know what we are capable of... we're capable of winning this event."

Astralis, on the other hand, exit IEM Cologne in 3-4th place, but will take solace in the fact that they've posted their best result in over a year in what is just their second outing with Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup and Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr on their books. The Danes notably took the scalps of a number of top teams throughout their surprisingly strong run in Germany, picking up wins over the likes of Natus Vincere and HEROIC to earn their organization their second consecutive top-four finish in the LANXESS.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023
06/08/2023	ENCE 16:00 G2	Match

G2 hit the ground running in their semi-final bout versus the Danes, a splendid 16-kill performance from both Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač paving the way for a lopsided 10-5 scoreline in favor of the international cohort on the Danes' newly-established home map.

Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer did respond with an ace in the second pistol round to inspire a surge of energy for his team, but this uptick in form was only brief. G2 hopped back in the driver's seat once their T-side economy was in check, winning three rounds on the trot to steal Astralis' map pick, 16-12, and send the must-win game to their choice of Inferno.

G2 kept their pressure on the Danes once their Inferno pick got started, a superlative 20-9, 2.30-rated showing from NiKo being the tip of the spear in his team's charge to a comfortable 9-6 scoreline by the interval. Astralis did nab the pistol to start the second half on the right foot, but all it took was an uptick in form from m0NESY for G2 to steal away the momentum and cruise to victory, blameF's men only mustering three rounds on the T-side before G2 stole the map, 16-9, to earn a place in the IEM Cologne grand final.