G2 Esports will continue their series of participation in the finals of major CS2 competitions, although they arrived in Dallas with a change, and already at the start of the playoffs, a big derby with the FaZe Clan team awaits them.
Team Liquid duly gave G2 a hard time, taking 24 rounds to end the match on the decisive Nuke map. The duel opened on Dust2, which Liquid picked right after G2 banned Ancient. And on it, we saw the maximum number of rounds in the regular part of the map, and Liquid was the one who managed to win 13-11 and come one step closer to the playoffs.
It looked like they were well on their way to doing just that when they opened Inferno with an 8-2 lead, but Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov's 1-on-2 clutch victory heralded a major turnaround and helped his team cut the deficit to four rounds by the end of the first. half time. Down the stretch, G2 ran over Liquid and took all nine rounds on the CT side for a 13-8 win.
On Nuke, the teams traded blows throughout the match, and although Liquid was the first to reach double-digit rounds, G2 were more adept at the end despite playing the T side in the second half and winning by a score of 13-11.
In the fight for the third slot of Group B, Heroic managed to beat BIG (13-7 Ancient, 13-4 Nuke) 2-0 and secure passage among the top six teams.
Team Spirit and 9z Team secured a direct passage to the semi-finals by winning the first places in groups A and B. 9z Team made another great draw and defeated Vitality without losing a map. They won their Dust2 pick 13-9, and then managed to celebrate on Anubis after overtime with a score of 16-14.
Spirit got revenge on FaZe for their loss at the Major in an exciting match where the Russian team won 13-11 on Anubis and 13-10 on Nuke.
G2 Esports and FaZe Clan play the first quarterfinal match on Friday, May 31 at 8 p.m., followed by Team Vitality and Heroic.
The winner of the G2/FaZe semi-final goes to 9z Team on Saturday, while Spirit will play the better of the Vitality/Heroic match. The grand finale is scheduled for Sunday at 8 p.m.
