G2 defeat Monte to reach Group B lower bracket final

NiKo denied Monte a way back into the decider map with a massive performance on Anubis.

G2 are alive in their IEM Katowice title defense. They are fighting their way through the Group B lower bracket after a loss to ENCE, and passed their first test against Monte with a 2-1 victory on Nuke (13-4), Vertigo (8-13) and Anubis (13-6), which puts them one step away from the Spodek Arena.

Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač spoke of a preoccupation about G2’s players individual performances were not up to par, particularly his and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač’s, before the series against Monte, but he turned up when most needed and several of his team’s players also had moments of brilliance throughout the series at different times.

"In general, since CS2 came out, we haven’t been there individually," NiKo said on the broadcast before the match. “We struggle way too much individually, and in a period like this in which everyone is very good individually you just can’t allow so many good players on the team to underperform, mostly huNter- and me.

"We are aware of it and I can assure you we’re doing our best to improve, we’re playing a lot of CS and we’re constantly working on it. It’s just not there yet, but with hard work I think the reward always comes."

The reward came, and it started on G2’s Nuke pick, where Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen’s men played a pristine 11-1 T side to all but secure a 1-0 lead even before switching to the CT side. In doing so they put past ghosts behind them on a map in which they had recently struggled, and could cause a headache for teams in future vetos.

Monte struck back on Vertigo after a close first half, with their tournament life on the line, and once on the CT side they gave G2 no quarter, winning out the half without giving up a single gun round.

The map ended on Anubis and G2 once again showed a very confident attacking side and were solvent early on. NiKo turned up the way only one of the best in the world could on the CT side when Monte were fighting to get back into the map on the T side, and put up two triples and a quad-kill in subsequent rounds to crush the Ukrainian-majority squad into submission.

"We didn’t have the best start, but we were in this scenario two years ago with the previous lineup, We had two matches on the last day and we managed to go through,” NiKo had said on the broadcast before beating Monte.

"We still believe we can do it. We have high spirits and we know that the game we played yesterday wasn’t the real G2."

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2024
06/02/2024	HEROIC 19:30 G2	Match

The reinvigorated G2 are now slated to play a rematch against HEROIC, whom they beat 2-1 in their opening series in Poland, in the lower bracket final at 19:30 . The winner will be seeded into the playoffs, the loser will be sent home.