G2 seal final EPL playoff berth over GamerLegion

"The Flash" ended the group stage averaging a 1.47 rating over 11 maps.

G2 have secured the final bracket stage berth at ESL Pro League Season 21 after beating GamerLegion 2-0 (13-11 Inferno, 13-9 Nuke) in the 2-2 pool.

The fifth-highest-ranked team in the world trudged through the group stage in Sweden with a mixed performance, evidently still struggling to fill the vocal gap left by Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's departure.

They looked superb in wins over paiN and SAW, but lost to The MongolZ after giving up an 11-2 lead and struggled against Natus Vincere after making numerous costly mistakes throughout the match.

That type of sloppiness showed again against GamerLegion, where G2 looked like they could be haunted by errors again after losing a 5v2 to kick off the series, but Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye's men couldn't do quite enough to halt an exceptional performance from Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov and great offensive halves by G2 on both Inferno and Nuke.

Clip: G2 fumble a 5v2 to start Inferno

Browse all the best highlights from Stage 2 in our highlights post.

"We fucked a lot," Nikita "⁠HeavyGod⁠" Martynenko said on broadcast after the game when asked about G2's run.

"What, fucked? Fucked up, you mean?" m0NESY asked, laughing.

"Yeah, we fucked up a lot of rounds," the Israeli rifler said with a smile.

m0NESY is back to his best

G2's superstar sniper faltered at IEM Katowice, managing a meager 1.05 rating, but has dominated at ESL Pro League with a 1.47 rating over 11 maps.

Outside of a deflated series against Natus Vincere, where m0NESY had his second-worst map (1.10 rating) and only map in the red (0.83), the Russian phenom was unstoppable.

He tallied a 1.46 rating or higher on eight maps (six above 1.57) and was cutthroat against GamerLegion, finding pivotal multi-kills and impact at swing moments to prevent the game from spiraling out of control.

Clip: m0NESY gets quad kill with hero AK

Believe it or not, it wasn't just the m0NESY show

m0NESY topped the board statistically and his impact against Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson's side was undeniable, but it would be a misnomer to say it was all him.

Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa's entries and trading from Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač and HeavyGod acted as the hammer to the nail for much of the series, allowing m0NESY the space to find impact throughout every stage of the round.

Clip: m0NESY punishes the save

That included a few where m0NESY hunted down and multi-fragged GamerLegion players who were saving rifles, economic damage that ended up providing pivotal impact down the stretch in the 13-11 win on Inferno.

Credit also has to go to Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski for his calling on the T side of Nuke, where a few well-timed pace changes allowed G2 to run away with an 8-4 half — which could have been even more one-sided had they not given up two clutches.

GamerLegion can't overcome sickness

GamerLegion dropped down to the 0-2 pool after losses to The MongolZ and paiN, but recovered by beating TYLOO and SAW to earn one shot at reaching playoffs.

But with two players ill — including Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner wearing a face mask not for tooth-related reasons — and the roster still lacking the experience to close out rounds when it matters most, G2 just proved too tough an opponent to overcome.

"Nuke has let us down all event," a dejected ash admitted in an exit interview on broadcast.

"We were very close on Inferno, it felt like we had the game in our control, it was 10-8, we had a great stack going on, a couple of bonus kills and... (shrugs). We had to win Inferno, we knew it was going to be a tough series, but if we took it there we were very confident on Ancient."