IEM Katowice 2025FaZe eliminate G2 from Katowice
Eternal Fire stand between karrigan's troops and the Spodek.
FaZe have defeated G2 in the Group A lower bracket semi-final with a 2-1 scoreline (16-13 Ancient, 10-13 Inferno, 13-8 Nuke) to stay alive at IEM Katowice and send Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski's troops crashing out from the tournament.
"We played a little bit worse than we did yesterday, their game plan was just to disrupt us completely," Finn "karrigan" Andersen said in a post-match interview.
FaZe are now on a collision course with Eternal Fire for a playoff spot, while G2 exit the tournament in the group stage.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Katowice 2025 | ||
| 04/02/2025 |
16:00
|
Match |
The series started on Ancient, where G2 secured overtime from 8-12 down but couldn't get the victory after a couple of missed Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov shots cost them in a 13-16 loss.
Inferno was up next, where G2 once again fought back, this time from 4-8. Their CT side was imperious, however, and they closed out a 13-10 victory after four 1v1 clutches throughout the second half.
Nuke was the decider, and the map delivered in spades. The first half ended 6-6 before G2 won their second pistol of the match to seemingly get the upper hand. FaZe came out on top after the force-buy wars, though, which helped them secure a 13-8 victory, as did David "frozen" Čerňanský's 1.65-rated performance.
"I could see him enjoying playing the game, because previously it was a little bit harder," karrigan said about the Slovak.
FaZe finding their feet with EliGE
FaZe had a rough start to life with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski at BLAST Bounty, where they were eliminated by paiN in the Ro16, but their Katowice performances are looking much better.
They took Vitality to the brink and overcame G2 in a spirited performance and are now one win away from the Spodek.
frozen and Håvard "rain" Nygaard seem to be taking to their new roles like ducks to water and are the team's highest-rated players at the event, with EliGE a close third. Despite that, though, karrigan said the American rifler still needs to learn "to not be the main voice on the CT side."
G2's post-NiKo era off to rough start
On the other side of the server, this is a rough end to the tournament for G2. While the team reached the semi-final of BLAST Bounty, albeit by only facing B8, BIG, and BetBoom with two stand-ins, something is not quite working in the G2 camp.
Losing a vocal player like Nikola "NiKo" Kovač is certainly having it's effect, with Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač taking over CT-side calling according to Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, while Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa and m0NESY are not finding the individual peaks of 2024 as of yet.
"We showed very good CS, but we just couldn't close the rounds. You need to give respect to FaZe because they took the win from us," said a disappointed TaZ in a post-match interview.
"When you lose a leading voice, you need to go on the road, it's not going [to fix itself] just by snapping fingers."
Due to skipping PGL Cluj-Napoca, G2 now have over a month before their next outing at ESL Pro League S21.
 G2 |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 - 49 | -0.14% | 71.0 | 72.6% | 1.08 | |
| 51 - 53 | -2.31% | 81.7 | 71.2% | 1.06 | |
| 52 - 54 | +0.53% | 77.1 | 72.6% | 1.06 | |
| 45 - 53 | +0.05% | 70.6 | 60.3% | 0.88 | |
| 34 - 51 | -1.15% | 61.4 | 65.8% | 0.81 |
 FaZe |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59 - 41 | +0.15% | 90.6 | 75.3% | 1.27 | |
| 57 - 50 | +3.51% | 89.5 | 80.8% | 1.20 | |
| 53 - 48 | -1.35% | 74.4 | 75.3% | 1.09 | |
| 53 - 45 | +0.65% | 69.6 | 72.6% | 1.07 | |
| 38 - 48 | +0.08% | 58.0 | 76.7% | 0.96 |
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
William 'mezii' Merriman
David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado
Alexander 'kakafu' Szymanczyk
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