G2 continue Cologne resurgence with Astralis win

Two dominant showings on Dust2 and Ancient were enough to keep G2 in the tournament.

G2 have eliminated Astralis from IEM Cologne after defeating the Danes in a three-map series (Dust2 13-1, Mirage 9-13, Ancient 13-3).

Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and company will now face off against the winner of The MongolZ vs. paiN for a playoff spot.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2024
13/08/2024	G2 15:45 paiN	Match

Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa, who topped the server in the series, was in a joyous mood in the post-match interview. "I'm doing my best to make it to the stage, so I'm happy and super proud," he said.

"I don't feel any pressure because the boys made me feel comfortable. Anchoring isn't that strange to me, but I still need to get used to it and learn when to go aggressive."

The win continues G2's impressive return to form after their opening loss to SAW. They demolished Spirit on Sunday and were utterly dominant on two of the three maps against Astralis.

G2's stats since SAW loss:

Astralis, who won 2 out of the first 21 rounds in the series, exit IEM Cologne after a couple of lackluster performances. They followed their opening win against 9z by being outclassed on four out of five maps against Natus Vincere and G2 and thus suffered an early elimination.

Their CT sides have been especially woeful, as they averaged a 34.4% win rate in Cologne despite a comfortable opening victory.

"They outclassed us today," said a distraught Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz in the post-match interview. "No excuses, just not good enough. A lot of responsibility is on me in terms of putting the guys in better situations and finding the path we need to take. I don't have the answers right now, but we need to change something in our approach to the game."

The series began with G2 demolishing Astralis on the Dane's pick of Dust2, with NiKo and company even having some fun and getting a couple of knife kills.

Clip: NiKo demolishes Astralis in second-half pistol

Next up was Mirage, where Astralis completed a miraculous turnaround from 1-6 down on the CT side. Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and device in particular had a resurgence on the offense, and the Danes looked like an entirely different team all of a sudden to put together a 9-2 T side and close out a 13-9 victory.

G2 returned to their best on Ancient, however, and pummeled an Astralis side devoid of confidence into the ground in a 13-3 victory to eliminate the Danes from IEM Cologne in 9-12th place.

Clip: m0NESY wins 1v2 after stavn fumble