VP win sets up G2-Falcons elimination clash

1-2-2025 19:13

G2 are now slated to play against their former marquee player for a chance to keep their Katowice run alive.

electroNic's men are continuing their success in Katowice

Virtus.pro have taken down G2 in their opening match of the second stage of IEM Katowice, following up a successful campaign through the Play-in with a 2-0 victory over Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski's men.

This result comes as a huge boon to the new-look Virtus.pro, whose last win over a top-five team was over six months ago. Conversely, G2 now face the grim reality of potential elimination, made even more tense by a matchup against Falcons, featuring their former superstar Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2025
02/02/2025	Falcons 16:00 G2	Match
02/02/2025	Eternal Fire 16:45 Virtus.pro	Match

VP on the rise

"The job is not done," captain Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov shared immediately following his team's win. "We are still happy that we are learning a lot and growing as a team. We started as a shit team here, but we proved for ourselves that we can do some damage here."

Virtus.pro had a straightforward run through their pick of Inferno, briefly getting eclipsed in the second half before rallying for a 13-9 win. A one-sided half on G2's Mirage pick quickly became an overtime game, where the Russians won out 16-14.

"I felt like was under our control the whole game on Inferno at least," added electroNic. "But still, we have to fix some mistakes. There were a lot of mistakes, shit calls by me, and stuff like that. But we are still happy; a win is a win.

"We started calling on the fly, we didn't have that much of a plan on Mirage, or any other map, because we've just been a team for two or three weeks. We're playing a lot of things on the fly."

G2 and NiKo's first clash

m0nesy and TaZ are about to collide with NiKo for the first time since his departure

While VP's new team will be celebrating their resounding success, G2 will now need to prepare for their first match against former teammate NiKo, coming just two events into the 2025 season.

Falcons were sent to the lower bracket after being outclassed by Eternal Fire, putting a damper on NiKo's LAN debut with the team. Now, G2 will either send Falcons packing from their first LAN without a win to their name, or NiKo will see off the team featuring cousin Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač and longtime teammate Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov from one of the year's most important events.

IEM Katowice 2025Best of 3

Matchpage

1st February 2025

Virtus.pro

Inferno

Mirage

G2	K - D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating2.1
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov m0NESY	36 - 31	-0.75%	73.8	82.7%	1.07
Nikita 'HeavyGod' Martynenko HeavyGod	36 - 32	+1.20%	76.2	73.1%	1.05
Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski Snax	30 - 30	+0.44%	58.6	75.0%	0.96
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa malbsMd	29 - 42	-2.94%	74.5	59.6%	0.82
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač huNter-	25 - 37	-4.01%	61.4	75.0%	0.77

Virtus.pro	K - D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating2.1
Kaisar 'ICY' Faiznurov ICY	36 - 24	+2.90%	72.4	73.1%	1.16
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev fame	38 - 29	+3.11%	73.5	78.8%	1.15
Timur 'FL4MUS' Marev FL4MUS	38 - 30	+3.16%	70.3	75.0%	1.14
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev FL1T	35 - 32	+0.04%	76.5	78.8%	1.13
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov electroNic	25 - 41	-3.16%	66.0	63.5%	0.83

Unfortunate but I will support NiKo always

2025-02-01 19:14

1 reply

losing to failcons would be a great wakeup call for G2 to do something about their IGL situation

2025-02-01 21:05

get this bot huNter outta G2 mann smh my headd 💔💔💔

3 replies

if you genuinely think he's the problem here, you are clueless.

2 replies

he is a problem bro, but maybe Snax a bigger problem

2025-02-01 21:07

I mean in fairness hunter RECENTLY has been made a very supportive element of the team resources positions and roles wise. I think hunter was by far the bigger problem than hooxi before hooxi was benched but after we swapped to cs2 from csgo. During that period hunter was easily the biggest problem, even worse than nexa/hooxi. But nowadays. I think he's actually doing pretty well, he's the secondary voice in the team plus isn't setup as a star and he's playing pretty well considering that. Do I think they could do better? Well yeah. But I think bringing saw and or sjuihy into this team would be far more massive than upgrading hunter. Frankly I'd take ash as well. But ash is only proven with bringing up players. Not for bringing already up players to a major win type shit. Saw has some of that top tier experience from his time in ence.

2025-02-01 22:07

Not mentioning icy who was crucial in vp win is crazy

2025-02-01 19:15

4 replies

its more article about falcons - G2 than admire VP for their win because even HLTV is electronic hater. Sad reality.

2025-02-01 19:16

I think it is more about being a "big org sucker". They always put the spotlight on the bigger orgs/more well known teams.

2025-02-01 19:19

Falcons is a smaller org than VP

2025-02-01 19:20

Probably not in the amount of engagement an article about them brings. In general yes, in this very specific aspect? I'd wager no.

2025-02-01 22:10

Falcons and G2 looses = I smile

VP so unlikeable their win is reduced to setting up two more interesting teams lolol

2025-02-01 19:17

g0-2 in ruins lets go virtus

2025-02-01 19:18

Failcons vs Choke2

2025-02-01 19:22

I dunno know TAZ is cheerleader like a snax with shit calls. Need to add siuhy and -hunta as soon as possible

2025-02-01 19:32

Well, VP with flamus and ICY doesnt just look promising, they are actualy playing as a team. And its not like G2 had that bad game, only malbs was strugling.

2025-02-01 19:59