G2 has secured its second win of ESL Pro League Season 23, beating NAVI with a 2-1 scoreline. Losing their own map pick followed by dominating performances in back-to-back maps puts G2 a win away from making it to the playoffs.
VETO
- G2 removed Nuke
- Natus Vincere removed Overpass
- G2 picked Dust2
- Natus Vincere picked Mirage
- G2 removed Anubis
- Natus Vincere removed Inferno
- Ancient was left over
Map 1: Dust2; Pick: G2; Winner: NAVI
Starting the map with a clean pistol conversion, NAVI’s hyper-aggressive defence set G2 on the backfoot. Getting into their heads with such aggression, NAVI went on to dominate G2 for 9 rounds in a row before huNter’s side put together two back-to-back rounds before NAVI won the final one to close the half with a 10-2 scoreline. G2 managed to find their footing on the defence by winning the pistol before NAVI took away that momentum with their gun round. Winning a streak of 3 rounds, G2 closed in on NAVI as the scoreboard read 11-7 before NAVI stopped a potential comeback right in its tracks to close out the first map with a 13-7 scoreline. Despite the 7 rounds that G2 took, NAVI were by far the better team, and the scoreboard fails to reflect it. 1.83 IR for b1t on the defence proved instrumental for NAVI as they will now head to their own pick with a map under their belt.
Map 2: Mirage; Pick: NAVI; Winner: G2
G2 hit the board after converting the force buy on their defense and went to get 3 rounds before NAVI got back to the board. G2’s riflers proved their worth in gold as every one of them showed up when the moment called for it. While NAVI threatened to make the half close, G2 won the final 4 rounds in a row to secure a massive lead before switching sides. Switching sides with an 8-4 lead, G2 converted the pistol and almost secured the map off the back of it. NAVI’s first gun round came their way, but that was the only round they managed to get in the second half as G2 won their full buy round and followed up in the next to close out a dominant win and force a 3rd map. The young gun of G2 in MATYS topped the charts with 21 kills to round off a stellar team performance after losing the opening map.
Map 3: Anceint; Pick: Decider; Winner: G2
Bringing the confidence from the 2nd map, G2 converted the pistol and went on to win 4 before NAVI hit the board. SunPayus, with a smooth 1v2 clutch in the B bombsite, put G2 back on the board as they built on it to secure their 7th round before a fumble from G2 with a nade teamkill gave NAVI the room to edge out their second round of the map. G2’s broken economy offered a comeback path for NAVI before G2 converted the round with a fast A hit, shocking NAVI, and winning the final round of the half gave them a 9-3 lead before moving over to the defence. W0nderful started the second half with a stunning 1v3 clutch for NAVI, but his hard work went in vain as G2 converted their force-buy to hit double digits and eventually reached a series point. NAVI did manage to win 3 rounds to close in on G2 before G2’s gamble on the defence paid off and secured their second win of the stage.
NAVI now stands with a 1-1 record, and losing to one of the strongest teams in this Stage 2 isn’t a catastrophe for them, but only time will tell if they can secure the subsequent matches to make it to the playoffs.
