How G2 Esports Won The BLAST Twitch Invitational

The European VALORANT coverage feels a bit monotonous at this point. After the last event, we announced that G2 Esports were the winners – just like the other four times before that. Now, we have the same message to deliver: G2 Esports have won another IGNITION Series tournament, their sixth one in fact. For the first time ever, though, the Grand Finals were close, tense, and hard-fought. 

FPX 2-0 LIQUID

While G2 had already booked their ticket to the Grand Finals, FunPlus Phoenix still had to go up against Team Liquid in the Lower Bracket Final on Sunday. There, they only narrowly scraped by. The rivalry between the two teams had always been somewhat close, but this time around, one round could have changed everything and could have sent a different team to the Grand Finals.

On Ascent and Bind, Team Liquid got a 7-5 lead at halftime. Both times, however, their opponents managed to edge them out in the second half, getting 13-11 wins on the two maps. One additional round win in favor of Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom and his squad could have tilted the match, instead Kirill “ANGE1” Karasiow and his players came out with the narrow match victory and secured their ticket for the Grand Finals. Travis “L1NK” Mendoza played out of his mind with his 45 kills, but Liquid were unable to turn them into round victories. Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky, the top player on the FPX side, only secured 34 kills, but managed to convert those into points for his team.

G2 3-2 FPX

G2 Esports had arrived from the Upper Bracket, resulting in a map advantage for them. So it was already 1-0 in the favor of Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas and his players. On their own pick, Ascent, they quickly got handed a sound beating. On a 13-7 scoreline, FPX tied the map score and ANGE1 in particular gave them something to think about.

But the G2 players took this seriously and answered with a 13-4 on Bind. Here, FunPlus Phoenix stood without a chance and Patryk “paTiTek” Fabrowski took great joy from blasting his opponents off the server. Again, G2 were unable to perform on their own pick, as they lost Haven on a 6-13 scoreline. Heading into the last map with a 2-2 map score, everything was on the table again.

G2 managed to acquire a small 7-5 lead at halftime. On the offense, they struggled massively. This gave FPX a window to strike and they quickly put a 10-7 on the board. This gave Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks the necessary push and G2 managed to get back into the game. With 13-11, they won the last map. One round more and FPX could have made it to overtime. But once again, there was no beating G2 Esports, who have now secured their sixth IGNITION Series trophy. FunPlus Phoenix, as always, have to go home (almost) empty-handed.

Still, this event goes to show that there is a threesome of teams at the top of European VALORANT. Granted, G2 currently have the upper hand. But FPX are edging ever closer, while being closely followed by Liquid themselves. At the next event, we could finally see the big upset take place. Who knows how G2 would have managed themselves without their map advantage in this Grand Finals? Their foundations appear to be crumbling away ever so slowly. FPX and Liquid will try to break out of the slipstream of G2 and take the lead themselves.