Defying all expectations, G2 Esports, who is fielding a stand-in in place of their in-game leader, has defeated FaZe Clan at IEM Dallas. FaZe could only win 10 rounds in the Best of 3 series.
Most fans had already written of G2 Esports since the tournament started. The team’s captain, Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen, is absent due to attending his brother’s wedding. As a result, Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip was called in to substitute, while Nikola “NiKo” Kovač would act as the team’s temporary in-game leader.
On the other side stood FaZe Clan. This team had only missed one S-Tier tournament Grand Final since the start of Counter-Strike: 2, and had already won four trophies. They are in good shape, only losing to Team Spirit in a tight Best of 3 series. However, G2 pulled off the impossible and made a fool out of Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his team.
Map 1 – Dust II
The first map of the series was Dust II. It is surprising that FaZe let this map slip, as G2 had been playing it throughout the tournament, while FaZe has never played this map since it was rotated back into the map pool.
Still, FaZe won the first pistol round and quickly got off to a 4-1 lead. However, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov started displaying a star-level performance on the Terrorist side to salvage the half for his team. FaZe still won the half 7-5, though.
Not having enough reps on the map proved to be lethal for karrigan and company. G2 won the second pistol round, prevented a light buy, and won the first gun round of the second half. FaZe Clan looked entirely lost on the Terrorist side, and was lacking ideas and solutions to crack the G2 defense.
The deadly trio, NiKo, m0NESY, and huNter- acted as an iron wall on the Counter-Terrorist side, denying any entry from FaZe Clan. G2 won eight out of nine rounds on the second half to win Dust II 13-8.
The “Baby GOAT” ended the map with a mind-blowing 24/11 score and a 1.81 rating against the #2 team in the world.
Map 2 – Nuke
The next map wasn’t supposed to be easy for G2. It was played on Nuke, one of FaZe’s most comfortable maps. Additionally, G2 struggled against lower-ranked teams on the power plant, nearly losing to Team Liquid in the Group Stage Final. However, what ensued shocked the world.
G2 was off to a great start, winning the first pistol round. FaZe tried to force buy into the second round without a bomb plant, and got nothing out of it. The individuals from FaZe could barely get any frags, and G2’s economy was overflowing with cash.
FaZe finally won their first round at Round 6, after a well-executed upper bomb site hit. However, they could not find anything else, losing four straight to put themselves at 1-9. Fortunately, FaZe found their second round of the half, but ended the half 2-10, at the brink of elimination.
In the must-win pistol round, G2 Esports out-aimed all the FaZe members and had a dominant 13th round victory. After preventing FaZe from winning the force buy, G2 cruised to a 13-2 victory on their opponent’s map pick, eliminating FaZe Clan from IEM Dallas 2024.
That was the worst off day as a team in a long time, literally no chance. Outplayed, outaimed out everything 😂
GG WP G2 – we are just not good enough at the moment
— karrigan (@karriganCSGO) May 31, 2024
Again, m0NESY was the highest-rated player on the server with a 18/5 score and 2.13 rating. NiKo was closely behind, at 18/4 with a 2.09 rating. In the entire series, the 18-year-old had a 1.94 average rating against one of the best teams in the world.
Winning Faze 2:0. @Stewie sup bitch? 🔥
— IlyaO (@G2m0NESY) May 31, 2024
FaZe will end their season with a 5-6th finish, while G2 will play against 9z in the Semi-Final. Nobody expected G2 to even make it out of the Group Stage, and here they are, securing a top-four finish. How far can they take it?
Header: G2 Esports
