G2 Esports made a big surprise and with a change in the team managed to defeat the first team in the world according to the HLTV ranking in the fight for survival in Dallas.
Although they arrived in America without a captain, G2 managed to defeat MOUZ in their crucial survival match against MOUZ, who defeated them in their two previous meetings, at IEM Chengdu 2024 and in the ESL Pro League playoffs.
The battle started on Inferno, where Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov stood out once again, and G2 won with a convincing 13-8 on their peak Inferno, demonstrating once again why this is their best map. A quick response from MOUZ on Nuke followed, where G2 failed to play defense well, MOUZ took an 8-4 lead on the T side, and then gave up just one round to the opposition for a 13-5 triumph.
Ancient was the decisive map, where we saw an even first half, and the uncertain struggle continued in the second part of the map. The Kovac brothers had some great plays and brought crucial rounds to their team, and at 10-10 Jake "Stewie2K" Yip makes a heroic play in a 3 on 5 situation and gets three kills, allowing G2 to take perhaps the key round of the match, lead, and then with two more tied rounds came a 13-10 victory.
G2 will play against Team Liquid tonight for the final third slot of Group A in the playoffs. Liquid defeated Falcons 2-1 in the fight for survival even though they suffered a heavy defeat on the first map (6-13 Nuke, 13-11 Ancient, 13-10 Anubis).
In Group B, the favorites Team Spirit and FaZe Clan reached the playoffs.
Spirit overheard Na'Vi once again, this time with a convincing 2-0. They took a 13-4 lead on the Ancient map, and then celebrated on the opponent's Nuke pick 13-8.
FaZe struggled against Virtus, they lost to Mirage 10-13, won on Inferno only after overtime 16-13, and then won 13-11 on Ancient in the last round of the regular part of the map.
Today Na'Vi goes to Heroic and Virtus.pro to BIG, the winners of these matches will meet in the fight for the third playoff slot of Group B.
