G2 eliminate hometown heroes ECSTATIC from Copenhagen

G2 will have an opportunity to vie for playoffs thanks to their win over the Danish side.

G2 have emerged victorious in a three-map series over ECSTATIC, seeing Patrick "⁠Patti⁠" Larsen and his troops bow out of PGL Major Copenhagen with a 1-3 record, unable to secure a spot on stage in front of the Danish crowd.

This win over ECSTATIC did not come freely for G2, as the international side dropped the ball on their opponent's pick of Vertigo, allowing the inexperienced Danes to put together a stellar comeback and dragging the series to a decider map. Additionally, the team was saved by a phenomenal performance from young AWPer Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, who stepped up to the plate while Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač were intermittently missing throughout the series.

The all-important series kicked off on G2's map pick of Inferno, where the international side found great success in the latter portion of the first half, with m0NESY and NiKo fueling the team's offense. A partial buy from ECSTATIC nearly caught G2 off-guard, but a 1v3 from the Russian AWPer prevented the Danes from capitalizing any further.

ECSTATIC managed to lay claim to the second pistol round, bringing their deficit to just a single round after converting the subsequent two rounds, but once the economy of G2 stabilized there was little to be done as the international side marched ahead, capping the map off with another clutch from m0NESY.

G2 kept up their momentum on Vertigo, looking to make quick work of this series as they charged ahead to a daunting 8-1 lead on the defense. ECSTATIC rallied in the latter portion of the half, claiming a 4-8 scoreline, but a comeback was still difficult to consider, especially once G2 denied ECSTATIC's conversion of the second-half pistol.

Despite that setback, the Danish side began the slow crawl back into contention, as Jonas "⁠Queenix⁠" Dideriksen and Jason "⁠salazar⁠" Salazar powered ECSTATIC's formidable defense. Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen, who had been shouting down his countrymen for much of the rest of the series, was far quieter as ECSTATIC finally got themselves over the line and locked down their pick 13-11 to force the Anubis decider.

ECSTATIC were no doubt pleased with their start on Anubis, accruing an early four-round lead from their T side pistol round win, but the Danes had little else to be thankful for during the remainder of the first half. m0NESY kicked off the first few round wins for his team on the defense, before eventually finding the support of huNter- and Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković as G2 accrued an impressive ten-round streak.

Although ECSTATIC were able to quell this streak briefly on their own CT side, a round loss to just Glocks from the side of G2 gave the international squad an opportunity to capitalize, with HooXi's troops closing out the map 13-8 not long after ECSTATIC's eco-mishap.