Vitality eliminate G2 despite last-minute m0NESY arrival

The Russian superstar couldn't prevent G2's tournament exit.

Vitality have eliminated G2 from BLAST Premier Spring Final in a three-map series (Inferno 13-4, Anubis 9-13, Mirage 13-5) and secured a quarter-final spot with the win.

Most of the pre-match talk was centered around Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov's potential arrival, and the 19-year-old got to the venue just minutes before the start. Due to a lack of warmup time, he couldn't provide his usual impact and averaged a 0.88 rating in G2's first match with their full roster in over a month.

"I was saying I will do everything to play the game," the Russian sniper said. "CS is my life and I'm going to do everything to at least play. I didn't play for two days because I was on flights. I got my visa and passport today and insta-flew to London, I was trying to do everything to get here."

This loss could have been G2's last series with this five-man lineup, as recent reports have linked the organization with the signing of Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa.

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Sources: G2 set sights on malbsMd

Vitality have qualified for the quarters with the victory, where they will face off against FaZe on Friday.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
14/06/2024	FaZe 17:00 Vitality	Match

G2 picked Inferno due to having a 11-map win streak on the map and started well by winning the pistol, but it was all downhill from there. They got only two more rounds on the T side to go into their defense four behind and couldn't provide any resistance in the second half. m0NESY, who was impacted by the lack of warmup time and a wrong config, posted a 0.38 rating on G2's map pick.

After a first-map drubbing, G2 started Anubis on fire and ran away to a 9-0 lead on their T side, with Vitality's passive setups not bearing fruit. Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company put together a three-round streak at the end of the half to give themselves a chance, and a second-half pistol victory got them right back into the game.

They went on to reduce the deficit to 9-10 before Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač stepped up with a massive 4k to stop the bleeding, and his highlight revitalized his team that eventually won the map 13-9.

G2 curiously allowed Mirage to go through as the decider and played their first official on the map since February. Their lack of repetition showed as an apEX-powered Vitality ran rings around them and eventually picked up a 13-5 win to secure their spot in the quarter-final.