G2 move past VP to earn EPL playoff spot

The European combine will face Complexity for a chance to advance directly to the quarter-finals.

m0NESY averaged a 1.39 series rating

G2 earned a spot in the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 18 after defeating Virtus.pro 2-1 in the upper bracket, winning Mirage 16-6 and Ancient 16-5 on either side of a 10-16 defeat on their own pick of Inferno.

The victory puts G2 through to the upper bracket final of Group D, where they will face Complexity to determine who will skip directly to the quarter-finals of the playoffs. Virtus.pro, meanwhile, have been cast down to the lower bracket and will take on Eternal Fire to avoid heading to the Last Chance stage.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
22/09/2023	Eternal Fire16:00 Virtus.pro	Match
24/09/2023	Complexity16:00 G2	Match

Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen was once again in fine form at the start of the series but dropped off drastically in his individual level on both Inferno and Ancient, with the team instead relying on powerful fragging from Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov across all three maps and the assistance of Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač to close things out on Ancient.

The IEM Cologne champions looked unstoppable when they took to the server on Mirage, a stalwart defense locking Virtus.pro out of bombsites and leading to multiple save situations in the first half. The Russian squad mustered just six rounds to their name before victory was sealed away by HooXi's men, moving things on to Inferno.

A slow start on the CT side left G2 little room to work with on their map pick as they went down 3-8 early on. They still clawed back to bring themselves within one round of Virtus.pro at halftime and briefly put themselves in a position to steal the momentum in the second half, winning a force-buy on round 17 and converting that into a tie game a 9-9, but strong retakes by VP and constant bullying of NiKo in banana quickly locked G2 out from securing a 2-0 victory and forced an Ancient decider.

There, HooXi called a masterclass on the T side. His individual level didn't recover, but it wasn't needed, thanks in part to m0NESY and the rest of G2's riflers ripping Virtus.pro apart for most of the first half. Virtus.pro scraped together three rounds somewhat early into the half, but were left scrambling for the remainder of their defensive effort as G2 led 11-4 at the break before closing things out shortly after the side swap, 16-5.

ESL Pro League Season 18Best of 3 Virtus.proMatchpage 1 2 21st September 2023 G2 6Mirage 16 16Inferno 10 5Ancient 16

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevFL1T	43 - 46	-3	77.5	1.00
Petr 'fame' Bolyshevfame	45 - 43	+2	71.2	1.00
Dzhami 'Jame' AliJame	36 - 37	-1	52.4	0.88
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukovmir	26 - 49	-23	48.3	0.70
David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyann0rb3r7	33 - 54	-21	55.7	0.70

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipovm0NESY	57 - 35	+22	78.9	1.39
Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-	54 - 39	+15	89.9	1.33
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	42 - 33	+9	68.6	1.16
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	45 - 36	+9	76.0	1.14
Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenHooXi	31 - 44	-13	53.8	0.77

Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen Age: 28 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 0.85 Maps played: 957 KPR: 0.57 DPR: 0.68 Eternal Fire #34 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAli 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın Sezgin 'Fabre' Kalaycı Virtus.pro #11 Nikolay 'mir' BityukovEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevDzhami 'Jame' AliDavid 'n0rb3r7' DanielyanPetr 'fame' Bolyshev Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 1626 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 Complexity #25 Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliMichael 'Grim' Wince Tiaan 'T.c' Coertzen Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 26 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 1784 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.66 Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov Age: 18 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 422 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.59 G2 #3 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačJustin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Jan 'Swani' Müller