G2 defeat ENCE to make semi-finals

ENCE will face FaZe in the IEM Sydney quarter-final on Friday.

G2 have qualified for the IEM Sydney semi-finals with a 2-0 win over ENCE, taking Ancient (13-9) and Vertigo (13-8). The Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen-led squad are now set to face off against the winner of BetBoom vs. Complexity on Saturday, while ENCE will face FaZe in the quarter-final on Friday.

Date	Matches
IEM Sydney 2023
20/10/2023	ENCE 10:30 FaZe	Match
21/10/2023	G2 07:30 Complexity	Match

HooXi joined the broadcast for a quick post-match comment and shared his thoughts on Vertigo, a map he and his team have openly criticized in recent times. "It's always fun to play a new map, really happy with the T side," he said. "It's a shit map, though, and it's a really low level of CS being played overall. Everyone is a bit sloppy because no one had time to practice."

He then moved on to talk about the upcoming playoffs and admitted his team are far from comfortable in the new game. "We maybe overestimated our opponents a bit, because we still don't feel confident. I don't know how we're in the semi-finals, to be honest," he said with a smirk.

The match started on Ancient, where G2 got off to a strong start on their offense before ENCE were able to slowly reel them in to go into the second half two rounds behind. Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha's crisp quad-kill in the pistol round gave ENCE a short-lived lead, but G2 were back to their dominant selves after they got their economy under control. Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov was instrumental on the AWP and found 25 kills, 10 more than his nearest teammate HooXi.

Vertigo was a back-and-forth affair for the first half before a second-round pistol victory for ENCE looked to have finally given them a leg up on the map. That was the exact opposite of what happened, though, as G2 then won a second-round force buy, and the HooXi-led team looked dominant after that. They put together an eight-round streak and have Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's superstar performance to thank for their semi-final spot. The Bosnian rifler put up a 2.98 rating on the T side, and his multi-kills proved crucial for G2's win.