G2 make ESL Pro League semis over Liquid

NiKo and company now face the daunting task of a red-hot NAVI in the semi-final.

G2 have defeated Liquid in the ESL Pro League S20 quarter-final with a 2-1 scoreline (Inferno 13-3, Mirage 5-13, Nuke 13-3).

Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski's troops will now face off against the red-hot Natus Vincere in the semi-final on Saturday after Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and company beat Spirit earlier today.

"It's not just revenge for the Major, we have lost quite a lot of times against them. In my opinion, they are the best team in the world right now, and it's going to take a good amount of effort to beat them," said Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač about the upcoming match.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
21/09/2024	Natus Vincere 19:30 G2	Match

The match was Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage's first against G2 since his unceremonious removal for Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, but the Australian couldn't exact revenge against his former team. While Liquid put up a dominant performance on Mirage, they were nowhere to be seen on Inferno and Nuke.

"We just played simple. We had really good energy, on the second map we calmed down a bit, and we could have done better," Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov said about the performance. "We had good reads against them, and with Ilya hitting some shots like that, it certainly helps," added NiKo.

An interesting storyline in the series was the map veto, given both teams perma-ban Vertigo. In the end, both teams floated the map in the first ban round before G2 finally got rid of it in favor of a Nuke decider.

The series began on Liquid's pick of Inferno, where m0NESY had a plethora of standout moments. He began the map with a 1v1 clutch against jks and then secured the first gun round with a masterful triple kill, which helped G2 win the first half 9-3.

A flawless four-round streak secured G2's victory on the map, and m0NESY was once again the man of the moment as he collected an aggressive quad-kill in the final round.

G2's pick of Mirage began with a dominant pistol for the Snax-led side, but that was as good as it got for them, as Liquid woke up and took a 7-5 lead at the half, with Snax finishing the T-side with 0 kills. Liquid's reign of terror then continued in the second half as they posted a 6-0 offense, which was enough for a dominant 13-5 win.

Nuke was another one-sided affair, with G2 racing out to an 11-1 CT half, courtesy of m0NESY's 22 kills in the first half. While Liquid's pistol-round victory prolonged the inevitable, G2 won the second-round force buy to secure a statement 13-3 victory and a spot in the EPL semis.