G2 Esports take first place in Group B of IEM Sydney 2023

The IEM Sydney 2023 is in full swing, and we already know the 6 teams that will be present in the tournament playoffs. We have to say that these 6 teams have made history, as this is the first major CS2 tournament in history. Moreover, this also means we are very close to knowing the first champion in the Counter-Strike 2 era.

In Group B, where there were few surprises except for eliminating Cloud9 in the Lower Bracket semifinals, we have an intense Grand Final. We are talking about the match between G2 Esports and ENCE, two teams that have been playing very well in recent months and that showed an extraordinary level in this IEM Sydney.

After two maps, G2 Esports took the victory by 2-0 to first place in Group B. In addition to qualifying for the playoffs, G2 skips a round in the next phase, starting from the semifinals, where they await the series winner between BetBoom Team and Complexity.

Let’s see what happened in the Group B Upper Bracket Grand Final at IEM Sydney 2023 between G2 Esports and ENCE.

G2 Esports annihilate ENCE 2-0

There is no doubt that this series had everything to be one of the most intense and exciting of this Group Stage. However, G2 Esports seemed to get the hang of CS2 quickly, and despite controversial statements regarding the state of the game, the AWP and Vertigo managed to pull out a solid 2-0 victory. With this loss, ENCE finishes second in Group B and faces FaZe Clan in the tournament’s Quarterfinals.

Vertigo really do be catching strays at #IEM fr 😳 https://t.co/VSgkQ78tTN pic.twitter.com/ockGj9404r

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 18, 2023

The series was held at Ancient and Vertigo.

Ancient

It all started on Ancient, the G2 Esports map pick, where we witnessed a recital by Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, who finished the map with 106.7 ADR and a 1.57 Rating.

In the first half, G2 Esports was able to step up to take a narrow 7-5 partial victory in their T Side. Undoubtedly, this score does not define anything, but G2 took a lot of confidence from it.

Then, at the change of sides, G2’s defense repelled ENCE’s attacks, and after 10 rounds, they managed to take a 6-4 partial victory to win the map with a score of 13-9.

Cool, calm and collected, @jks_CS wins those with ease! 😎 #IEM pic.twitter.com/0GQJJJLGIRu

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 18, 2023

Vertigo

Next, we moved to Vertigo, ENCE’s map pick and the most hated map by the G2 Esports guys. Alson, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer made G2 Esports’ defense suffer in the first half and led ENCE to a 7-5 partial victory.

However, G2 Esports, against all odds, was able to bring out all its quality in the hands of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač. In addition, the experienced Bosnian player had brilliant stats of 171 ADR and a 2.98 Rating, leading G2 to win 8 out of 9 rounds to take the map victory by 13-8.

Timeskip ⏳ unlocked for @G2CSGO who jumped the queue ahead to Saturday here at #IEM Sydney, after taking down @ENCE 2-0 in the final series on the B Stream!

Ancient 13:9
Vertigo 13:8 pic.twitter.com/djOsBtFEq6

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) October 18, 2023

Header: ESL