G2 Esports defeated Faze Clan 2:1 yesterday in the lower bracket final to reach the finals of ESL One: Road to Rio 2020. They now face Astralis in the grand grand finals who have looked unbeatable for the most part of the competition.
Here is a recap of how G2 made it into the finals of first qualifying stage of the Rio major.
G2 picked Dust II, Faze selected Mirage and Nuke was left as the deciding map.
Faze were hoping to not commit the same mistakes they did against Astralis on Dust II and play according to their play style. They again started on the CT side and had looked ominous in the early stages. “NiKo” especially was in great form and hitting some wonderful AWP shots. Faze started with a 8-1 lead after which G2 strung 5 rounds together to end the half with a 9-6 scoreline/
Faze were adamant to take Dust II and they managed it successfully after getting help from G2 itself. A “kennyS” misplay for not defusing the bomb was properly punished by Faze who went to secure the map 16-11 where “broky” clutched successfully managed a 1 v 3 clutch. “NiKo” ended the match with 31 kills and was by far the best player on the server.
Mirage was also played the last time these two sides met in the group stages. It was ‘T’ side where both the team managed to win 11 rounds, so it was expected the team with a better CT side would eventually win the map.
G2 learnt from their past mistakes this time as they put a much better co-ordinated CT , helping them win 9 rounds. Having a successful CT side, spurred G2 on as they never let the CT economy to be stable. Faze crumbled because of the economy and lost 11-16. It was “nexa” who top performed with 31 kills.
G2 selected the CT side of Nuke after winning the knife round hoping to replicate their efforts on Mirage. They started off strongly winning 4 rounds only to lose momentum in the middle stages to allow Faze having a competitive half. The first half ended 8-7 in G2’s favor.
Faze were hoping to correct their wrongs from Mirage setting up quick rotations to the lower side however, G2 were easily able to combat that. Accompanied by the fragile CT economy, Faze had little answer to “nexa”‘s excellent mid round calls. Faze lost 16-11 to bow out in third place and end a campaign wherein they lost only two series, but at the most crucial juntcures.
“JACKZ” topped the killing charts with 27 kills to his name ably supported by “nexa” who had 26 kills to his name.
Note:- The Rio major was scheduled to take place in May 2020 but due to the ongoing pandemic the major was shifted to November 2020. The prize pool of first Major will be added to the November Major. ESL on its part have decided to host three qualification rounds in order for teams to remain at their peak. Each qualifying stage will have Regional Major Points(RMR) which will be added to determine the qualification order. Each qualifying stage will have a prize pool of $255,000 divided across the six regions. To read more about this, click here.
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